Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab (1703 – 22 June 1792) is an Arabian Islamic theologian and founder of the Salafi movement, whose pact with Muhammad bin Saud helps to establish the first Saudi state and begins a dynastic alliance and power-sharing arrangement between their families that continues to the present day.

The descendants of Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhab, the Al ash-Sheikh, have historically led the ulama in the Saudi state, dominating the state's clerical institutions.