18th Century: (The Origins of Islamic Revivalism — Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Arabia, Shah Wali Allah in India, Fulani Jihads in the West African Savannah…

18th Century: (The Origins of Islamic Revivalism — Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Arabia, Shah Wali Allah in India, Fulani Jihads in the West African Savannah, and the Tradition of Ongoing Reform Within Islam That Predated the European Challenge): The origins of much nineteenth-century revivalism were found in the eighteenth century, and often lay beyond Africa itself. In Arabia, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792) was a puritanical believer in the strict application of Islamic law — allied with Muhammad ibn Saud, the Wahhabi movement preached the restoration of pure Islam. In India, the decline of Mughal power coincided with the emergence of Shah Wali Allah (1703–1762), who founded a powerful revivalist school emphasizing Islamic purity, the centrality of the Quran, and the study of Islamic tradition. Across the West African savannah, the Fulani were beginning to act as the inspiration behind a series of reformist Islamic movements, seizing power via jihad — the most dramatic case being Uthman dan Fodio in what is now northern Nigeria. These movements cannot simply be understood as reactions to European power — there existed a tradition of ongoing reform within Islam prior to the European challenge. Islamic revivalism aimed at the moral rejuvenation of state and society was as old as Islam itself. Nonetheless, the failure of Muslim societies to prevent European encroachment was a powerful factor behind the demands for change from the mid-eighteenth century onward.