Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Politi-

cal Thought (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); 

Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 

1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 

1983).

Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad ibn

  See 

i

bn

 a

bd

 

al

-W

ahhab

, m

Uhammad

.

Abduh, Muhammad

 

(1849–1905)  modern 

Islamic modernist thinker

Muhammad Abduh was an Egyptian religious 

scholar, jurist, and leader of a major social reform 

movement in the Muslim world who advocated 

a modernist reinterpretation of i

slam

. Known as 

the “father of Islamic modernism,” he was born in 

1849 to a modest family in the Egyptian delta. His 

early education involved traditional q

Uran

 mem-

orization, although Abduh’s natural inclinations 

tended toward s

UFism

. In 1877, he concluded 

his studies in religion, logic, and 

philosophy

 at 

al

-a

zhar

 University and began teaching there as 

a religious scholar. Simultaneously, he became 

interested in politics, publishing articles on politi-

cal and social reform and joining the Egyptian