Sunnism

Sunnism takes its name from the sunnah, the practice of the Prophet. Law rests on the Quran, the hadith and the consensus of scholars, applied through four schools: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. In creed, most Sunnis follow the Ashari or Maturidi schools of theology.

In 1337 Sunni rulers held most of the Islamic world, from Mamluk Egypt and the Sultanate of Delhi to the Golden Horde. After Selim I conquered Egypt in 1517 and ended the Mamluk-controlled Abbasid caliphate, the Ottoman sultans, now masters of Mecca and Medina, claimed the caliphate and led the Sunni world against Safavid Iran and its Shia state. In 1744 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, drawing on the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, allied himself with Muhammad bin Saud in Najd.