'Understanding Salafism meets a daunting challenge: tracing a vibrant and influential genealogy of ideas and practice, as protean as it is influential, across twelve centuries. The author, both an insider and outsider to this tradition, lays it out in full, from abstruse but still vital theological debates in medieval Baghdad to the very worldly politics of extremist movements today. This is a one-stop shop for those who want to know what Salafism is, where it came from, and how it's contested.' Jonathan A. C. Brown, author of Misquoting Muhammad

'Yasir Qadhi’s Understanding Salafism is a true gem. Once the leading voice of Salafism in the Anglosphere but having moved on from its sectarian impulses, Qadhi provides an academically robust and comprehensive account of Salafism that displays intimate knowledge of its theology and social networks and profound sensitivity to its historical contingency.' Jon Hoover, author of Ibn Taymiyya