Shere Ali Khan, assassin of the Viceroy Lord Mayo, photographed in chains prior to his hanging. Although it was never proved, Shere Ali was widely believed to have been put up to it by the Wahhabis in revenge for Lord Mayo’s persecution of their cult (The Andaman Association)
A mullah rallies his mujahedeen at Malakand: a detail from the charge of the 13th (Duke of Connaught’s) Bengal Lancers at Shabkadar, August 1897, a watercolour (now lost) painted by Major Edmond Hobday, who fought in the engagement (National Army Museum)
A scene from the great Frontier uprising of 1897–8: Sikh infantry face a charge from Swati tribesmen at Malakand. A watercolour by Major Edmond Hobday (National Army Museum)
British and Indian troops defend Chakdara Fort against Swati tribesmen in a night attack: a watercolour by Major Edmond Hobday, who was present at the engagement (National Army Museum)
The famous charge of the Gordon Highlanders to retake the Dargai Heights on 20 October 1897 during the Tirah Campaign (Mary Evans Picture Library)
A Pathan tribal lashkar come forward under their khan to make their submissions to a British political officer at the conclusion of the shortlived Third Afghan War of 1919 (Charles Allen)
The ruins of Dariyah, first capital of the al-Saud dynasty, photographed by Harry St John Philby in 1917–18 (Royal Geographical Society)
The Emir of Nejd and Imam of the Ikhwan, Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, with his brothers and sons, photographed by Captain Shakespear when he joined his camp near Thaj in 1911 (Royal Geographical Society)
The former British political officer Harry St John Philby shortly after his supposed conversion to Wahhabi Islam in Mecca in September 1930 (Royal Geographical Society)
British diplomats present Ibn Saud with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in Riyadh in 1935. Behind the King stand the heir-apparent, Prince Saud, and Ibn Saud’s favourite son, Prince Feisal. Photography was forbidden but the assistant consul, Captain de Gaury, made a sketch of the scene in his notebook. His accompanying note explains that the wearing of Arab dress for foreigners was obligatory (Royal Society of Asian Affairs)
The one-eyed Mullah Muhammad Omar appears on a rooftop in Kandahar draped in the cloak of the Prophet in April 1996 before being acclaimed Amir-ul-Momineen of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. A rare photograph taken by the veteran television cameraman Peter Lorimer (Peter Lorimer/Frontline/Getty)
Armed Taliban near Kabul, 1996 (Hurriyet/AP/Empics)
The madrassah of Dar ul-Ulum Deoband in India as it is today. Founded by two Wahhabi survivors of the 1857 uprising, it has become the headquarters of a fundamentalist teaching that now extends to thirty thousand madrassahs worldwide (David Bathgate/Corbis)
Taliban in a classroom at Dar ul-Ulum Deoband madrassah. At the core of Deobandi teaching is the Hadith and Tawhid, the oneness of God (David Bathgate/Corbis)
The emir of Al-Qaeda and his wazir: Osama bin Laden, also known as ‘Al-Shaykh’, with the man widely viewed as his lieutenant but more accurately described as his ideologue, Dr Ayman al-Zawahri. Taken from a video released by Al-Jazeera in October 2001 (AP/Empics)
The Wahhabi–Ahl-i-Hadith–Deobandi axis: leaders of Pakistan’s main Islamist political parties at a rally in Rawalpindi in August 2003. In 2001 they united to form the Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal (MMA) or United Action Front, which today governs the North-West Frontier Province, reintroducing Wahhabi sharia and lending tacit support to the Taliban. In the centre is Shah Ahmed Noorani of JUP, flanked by the burly Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman of JUI(F) and the white-bearded Qazi Hussain Ahmad of JI. Beside the Qazi is Maulana Samiul Haq of JUI(S) (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
Leading Muslim personalities
Names are listed in alphabetical order by the first letter of the abbreviated name
Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud — Son of Muhammad ibn Saud, first titular imam of Wahhabi Arabia (not to be confused with Ibn Saud, below).
Abdul Aziz bin Abdul–Rahman ibn Saud — see Ibn Saud.
Abdullah Ali — Eldest son of Wilayat Ali, assumed leadership of Hindustani Fanatics in 1858 after the death of his uncle Inayat Ali, remained leader until his death in 1901.
Abdullah ibn Saud — Succeeded Faisal ibn Saud as Emir of Nejd in 1865 but driven into exile by Emir of Hail.
Abdullah Azzam — Palestinian ideologue, follower of Syed Qutb, called the ‘Emir of Islamic jihad’, spearheaded Muslim support for mujahedeen in Afghanistan, radical Islamist, assassinated in Peshawar 1989.
Abdul Ghaffur — Sufi saint, first known as ‘Saidu Baba’, but later to achieve great eminence as the Akhund of Swat.
Abdul-Rahman ibn Saud — Exiled father of Abdul Aziz bin Abdur–Rahman ibn Saud (see Ibn Saud).
Abdur Rahman — Amir and Imam of Afghanistan 1880–1901.
Ahmadullah — Maulvi Ahmadullah, eldest son of Elahi Bux and brother of Yahya Ali, led Wahhabis in 1860s until his arrest.
Ahmad Sirhindi — Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi, 16th-century hard-line Naqshbandi Sufi.
Akhund — see Abdul Ghaffur.
Al-Wahhab — Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab of Nejd, founder of Wahhabism, father of aal as-Shaikh clerical dynasty.
Al-Zarqawi — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian follower of radical cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, founded terrorist group Tawhid wal Jihad in Herat in 1999, joined Ansar-i-Islam in Iraq to lead Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Al-Zawahri — Ayman al-Zawahri, Egyptian doctor and radical Islamist, founding ideologue of Al-Qaeda.
Amir Amanullah — Succeeded his father Amir Habibullah as Amir of Afghanistan in 1919, launched Third Afghan War.
Amir Habibullah — Succeeded his father Abdur Rahman as Amir of Afghanistan in 1901.
Amir Khan — Nawab Amir Khan of Tonk, Pathan Pindari mercenary recognised as ruler of Tonk in 1818.
Bin Baz — Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah bin Baz, leading Wahhabi authority in Saudi Arabia until his death in 1989.
Bin Laden — Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden, Saudi-born Yemeni radical Islamist, revered as ‘Al-Shaykh’, nominal leader of Al-Qaeda.
Elahi Bux — Head of one of the three Patna families, father of Ahmadullah and Yahya Ali.
Faisal ibn Saud — Emir of Nejd, 1842-65, great-grandson of Muhammad ibn Saud.
