Wahhabism is a puritanical form of Sunni Islam advocated by a Muslim scholar, Muhammad bin Abd al Wahhab, who lived in the Arabian Peninsula during the eighteenth century (1703–91) and called on true believers to purify Islam of any innovations or practices that deviated from the seventh-century teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. In the past decade, Wahhabism, currently often referring to the form of Islam in the Saudi Kingdom, has become one of the most controversial political terms. In the West, Wahhabism has been blamed as the source of global terrorism and the ideological root of the Islamic State. Saudis and followers of the teaching of Ibn Abdel Wahab find the term derogatory and prefer to call themselves Salafis or Muslims. Wahhabism has been mostly associated with Saudi religious propaganda activities fueled by petrodollars across the Muslim World, especially since the 1980s. These transnational activities are often portrayed in Western media as a way of spreading an extreme, rigid version of Islam. Whether Wahhabism is a purified version of Islam, force for good, or the villain of international politics and leading source of global terrorism, no one can deny the impact of the Saudi export of Wahhabism on the Muslim World and beyond. Yet, the study of Saudi religious transnationalism has been scarce, and journalistic and nonexpert analyses are dominating media narratives and often shaping an erroneous understanding of this phenomenon.

Against this backdrop Peter Mandaville’s edited volume, Wahhabism and the World, presents a distinct scholarly attempt to study Saudi religious transnationalism and its drivers, dynamics, evolution, and impact in various regions across the globe. In this edited volume, a group of scholars offer a nuanced, yet complex understanding of the multifaceted dynamics of Saudi religious transnationalism. While existing scholarly work has predominantly focused on the role of Saudi support to militant groups in the context of regional rivalry and conflict, and its link to violence and extremism, this volume takes a much-needed approach to assessing the impact of Saudi transnationalism shaping societal, religious, and cultural landscapes around the world. Part I of the volume examines the historical evolution, structure, and motives of transnational religious activities emanating from the Saudi Kingdom. In the introductory chapter, Mandaville examines the scholarly debate surrounding Saudi export of Wahhabism, clarifying the scope of inquiry of the volume, and the methodological challenges, including availability of data on Saudi religious activities abroad, conceptual fluidity, and difficulties in drawing causal mechanisms to prove that Saudi transnational religious activities shape outcomes abroad. The introduction also presents the structure of Saudi transnational religious activities as an “ecosystem” involving governmental bodies, parastatal organizations, charities, humanitarian organizations, media, labor migration, and pilgrimage. While Saudi state sponsorship of these transnational activities is evident, Mandaville shows that this transnational phenomenon is a complex, multilayered one, including a wide range of actors and entities from state agencies to subnational institutions to networks of individuals. Thus, the image of a centralized decision-making entity driving Saudi religious transnational activities is questioned. The following chapters in Part I trace the history and evolution of Saudi religious transnationalism; explore the concepts of Wahhabism and Salafism; examine the relationship between Wahhabism and other political Islam movements in the region, such as the Muslim Brotherhood; and assess Saudi transnationalism through media, publishing, and parastatal organizations (i.e., the Muslim World League and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth), and humanitarian and relief organizations.

Part II includes nine chapters presenting country case studies of Saudi religious transnationalism in Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, South Asia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the Sahel, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Britain. The country case studies are particularly rich in their analyses and provide an overview of Saudi religious transnationalism over a wide range of world regions. The diversity of cases in turn allows for cross-regional comparisons and provides a comprehensive overview of Saudi religious transnationalism. On this score, first it is evident that Saudi export of Wahhabism lacks central planning and strategy. Several case studies reveal variations in the power and scope of entities and actors involved in religious transnationalism. Even though the state became increasingly able to control the overall direction of flow to align with Saudi domestic and foreign priorities, exporting Wahhabism is diverse in its practices, influence, and dynamics. Second, while Saudi export of Wahhabism is ultimately a function of Saudi foreign policy, transnational propaganda takes different meanings through interactions with actors involved in the process from both sending and receiving contexts. Third, Saudi Wahhabism undergoes local adaptations and is often different than originally intended. In other words, Wahhabism abroad takes on a life of its own. And while Saudi religious export is officially declining globally and will potentially continue to decline following the direction taken by Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, its influence transcends its originally intended scale.

The volume makes several contributions. First, it makes an outstanding addition to existing literature on the role of the Saudi Kingdom in exporting ideas globally. Existing literature examines the role of Islam in shaping Saudi foreign policy and often highlights the intersection between geopolitical interests and the strategy of exporting religious ideals. This volume offers a unique view into the machinery of Saudi religious transnationalism and provides a fresh perspective on one of the most ill-understood foreign policies in the Middle East, showing the complexity and diversity of decision-making processes, thereby challenging one of the most erroneous assumptions about Saudi foreign policy as centrally controlled by the ruling family. Second, the book offers an extensive range of cases and scope, opening the door for cross-regional comparisons. Third, the volume challenges the predominant assumption that Saudi Arabi is unequivocally shaping Global Islam. Instead, various chapters in the book show that the export of ideas, including religion, is the result of interaction between sender and receiver, and the same ideals change meaning from one context to another.

One dimension that is lacking in this volume, which could potentially contribute to future research, is a further in-depth discussion of the phenomenon of Saudi regional transnationalism and its relevance to the wider theoretical discussion in political science and international relations on the export of ideas globally. While using Joseph Nye’s concept of “soft power” in some parts of the volume provides a glimpse into this literature, Saudi religious transnationalism is not exceptional or unique in its essence or dynamics, and states (as well as some nonstate actors) are constantly exporting ideas beyond their borders. As mentioned in the volume, other regional actors, such as Turkey, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates currently adopt similar transnational strategies. Exporting ideas is not a practice confined to religious transnationalism, as history shows how superpowers engaged in exporting ideas during the Cold War, or how Egypt under Nasser exported the ideals of Pan-Arabism. Future research can examine how the practices and dynamics of Saudi religious transnationalism compares to exporting nonreligious ideas globally. But this is a minor quibble. This edited volume is a must read for scholars and students of political science and international relations looking to understand the role of Saudi Arabia in the world free from media biases.