Is Wahabism something new or is it traditional Islam? If not

>>1543198
>Is Wahabism something new or is it traditional Islam?
It's been around for a while, but was never a significant/defining force in Islam until the existence of Saudi Arabia.

>If not what did Islam look like more than 500 years ago?
In short? Much more socially liberal.
It was actually muslim chemists that first developed alcohol distillation to such a level that high-proof drinks could be produced. Rum for example. In fact, even the word alcohol is Arabic in origin. Late 8th/early 9th century poet Abu Nuwas talks in great detail about drunkeness (in a good way).
Backing this up, all manner of drinking carafes and the like have been found with passages from the Qu'ran on them.

>>1543213
>In short? Much more socially liberal
[citation needed]

It was not Wahhabist savagery that made the Golden Age possible

It's a reformation not unlike the Puritan movement

>>1543219
Go check Cambridge History of Islam

Homosexuality, freedom of religion (there were literally arguments between nestorian patriarch and caliph), more relaxed attitude on Alcohol. Post 19th muslims are far more socially conservative than their predecessors

>>1543213
>muslim chemists that first developed alcohol distillation

Nice cherrypicking you have here. Especially since distillation is from far before 1500s, i.e. 500 years ago.

In reality, in early 1500s Islam was well on the road to close itself in its conservative shell.
1. Any fruitful philosophical work is over by then. Al-Ghazali and his virulently anti-intellectual views rule supreme.
2. Enormous victories of 15th the century (especially the capture of Constantinople) gives orthodox Islam a great boost of legitimacy. Muslims now know that God is on their side and that they are on the right path. This creates atmosphere hostile to all dissent and allows the authorities to squash all sects that proliferated in previous centuries.

>>1543238

WtF are you talking about? Do you really believe that the average prole was allowed to debate religion with a Nestorian? Or that he was allowed to be gay? This whole shit was reserved for the uppermost strata.

This is comparable to all those pictures from 1960s Afghanistan which show Westernized women in record shops. In reality, the absolute majority of Afghan population lived still in middle ages.

Actually, it's today that Islam is really at its most liberal. Wahhabism, Salafism and other related movements are violent reaction to ongoing modernization.

>>1543198

Both. Its been around for centuries but the Wahabi guy used to be that overly strict OCD weirdo copying how Mohammed used to take off his shoes and comb his beard.

Then the saudis got into bed with it.

Wahabism is neoreactionary.

>>1543198
It was always present, but never popular, plus it was heavily suppressed in the past ages, especially in the Ottoman Empire.

>>1543198
>Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab (/wəˈhɑːb/; Arabic: محمد بن عبد الوهاب; 1703 – 22 June 1792)

So while the west is going through the French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, separation of Church and State, the middle east and northern Africa had this fellow.

>>1543252
Meh even in general public, alcohol and homosexuality was far more tolerated than now. Hardly a matter of "only upper strata" as many saudi princes drink and have sex with males.

>>1543368
Saudi princes are literally THE uppermost social class in Saudi Arabia.

>>1543230
>the Golden Age
Nice meme