Saudi Primary Education and the Formation of Modern Wahhabism

Abstract

AbstractThe development of modern primary education in Saudi Arabia transformed Wah­habism in subtle yet significant ways. The art of instructing six- and seven-year-old children in the finer points of Wahhābī theology and law, as occurred in the new Saudi primary schools from 1929, may appear as the authentic continuation of a tradition within a modern institutional framework. Yet in point of fact, this foregrounding of theology constituted a departure from traditional Wahhābī pedagogy, and from precolonial Muslim learning conventions more generally. In response to the encroachment of non-Wahhābī personnel and systems of knowledge into their traditional domain, this paper argues, the Najdī ʿulamāʾ reframed modern education as a theological challenge, one similar to the challenge presented by bedouin and other non-Wahhābī Muslims.