Islam in Saudi Arabia - Softcover

"[Commins] has produced a succinct and insightful survey of puritanical Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia. He covers history, doctrinal issues, the symbiosis of the ruling family with the Wahhabi clergy, and everyday Islamic practice in the realms of education, moral standards, law, charity, and gender." * Foreign Affairs * "This book makes a valuable contribution to understanding the interplay among culture (religion), politics, and society in Saudi Arabia. Commins (history, Dickinson College) accounts for the rise of modern Wahhabi religious doctrine and its interplay with other religious and political currents in the Arabian Peninsula." * Choice * "Islam in Saudi Arabia provides a learned and in-depth view of the role that religion plays in the Kingdom's politics and social dynamics. This very readable book is based on a close reading of primary sources and extensive fieldwork, as well as an intimate knowledge of Saudi society. Commins superbly explains Wahhabism's influence on domestic and international polices, and how this particular interpretation of Islam-through the government, scholars, and religious activists-affects the status of women and religious minorities. This is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the influence that religion has on this opaque society and how it is deployed by different actors for achieving their respective goals." -- Bernard Haykel, Princeton University, coeditor of Saudi Arabia in Transition "An eye-opening account, clearly written, subtly argued." -- James L. Gelvin, UCLA, author of The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know and The Modern Middle East: A History "There is a need for a book like Islam in Saudi Arabia. Unlike a good deal of recent academic and journalistic writing on Saudi Arabia that tends to treat the country in a kind of exceptionalist framework or as a so-called enigma, David Commins underscores that-just like any other country-there are transparent and standard means of analyzing aspects of Saudi society." * Canadian Journal of History *

"Royal power, oil, and puritanical Islam are primary elements in Saudi Arabia's rise to global influence. Oil is the reason for Western interest in the kingdom and the foundation for commercial, diplomatic, and strategic relations. Were it not for oil, the government of Saudi Arabia would lack the resources to construct a modern economy and infrastructure, and to thrust the kingdom into regional prominence. Were it not for oil, Saudi Arabia would not be able to fund institutions that spread its religious doctrine to Muslim and non-Muslim countries. That doctrine, commonly known as Wahhabism, is a puritanical form of Islam that is distinctive in a number of ways, most visibly for how it makes public observance of religious norms a matter of government enforcement rather than individual disposition and social conformity, as it is in other Muslim countries."-from the IntroductionSaudi Arabia is often portrayed as a country where religious rules dictate every detail of daily life: where women may not drive; where unrelated men and women may not interact; where women veil their faces; and where banks, restaurants, and cafes have dual facilities: one for families, another for men. Yet everyday life in the kingdom does not entirely conform to dogma. David Commins challenges the stereotype of Saudi Arabia as a country immune to change by highlighting the ways that urbanization, education, consumerism, global communications, and technological innovation have exerted pressure against rules issued by the religious establishment.Commins places the Wahhabi movement in the wider context of Islamic history, showing how state-appointed clerics built on dynastic backing to fashion a model society of Sharia observance and moral virtue. Beneath a surface appearance of obedience to Islamic authority, however, he detects reflections of Arabia's heritage of diversity (where Shi'ite and Sufi tendencies predating the Saudi era survive in the face of discrimination) and the effects of its exposure to Western mores.