Specifically, did Muslims coin it or non-Muslims?
Is there any evidence, recorded in history, about the first usage of this term?
Tell me more
×
History Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for
historians and history buffs. It's 100% free, no registration required.
|
|
||||
|
|
|
No one "coined" it; it is a romanization of the genitive form of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. The -i suffix is the usual way to transliterate it, just as we have Saudi, Kuwaiti, Omani, and so on. (The more common way in English to create a genitive for a thinker would be to use the Greek-derived -ic or the Latin-derived -an, hence you do see Wahhabic and Wahhabian like Platonic and Aristotelian). Its first use in English is attested in various dictionaries to the first decade of the 19th century. |
|||
|
|
|
As an addendum to Choster's answer, Here is the English usage of "Wahhabi", according to Google's book data: |
|||||||||||||
|
