Malise Ruthven worked as an editor with the BBC Arabic Service and World Service in London before teaching Islamic studies and comparative religion at universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of several books on Islamic affairs as well as fundamentalism and religion in America. In 2004, London's Prospect Magazine ranked Ruthven among the 100 top public intellectuals in the UK. His blog on the New York Review of Books, Revolution by Latrine, won an award from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2011. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, Independent, The Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.

Ruthven's unblushing polemic treats Jamal Khashoggi's gruesome murder in Istanbul and its cover-up as representative of the Saudi kingdom's recent policies rather than, as their defenders claim, a regrettable aberration

• Map1. Murder in Istanbul2. The Wahhabi Mission3. Ibn Saud Founder of a Kingdom4. Petroleum and Patriarchy5. Managing the Ulama and Mismanaging the Hajj6. Conflicting Currents7. A Sectarian Outreach8. Arms and Benefits9. Family Values10. Terraforming ArabiaEpilogueAcknowledgementsNotesIndex

Malise Ruthven worked as an editor with the BBC Arabic Service and World Service in London before teaching Islamic studies and comparative religion at universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of several books on Islamic affairs as well as fundamentalism and religion in America. In 2004, London's Prospect Magazine ranked Ruthven among the 100 top public intellectuals in the UK. His blog on the New York Review of Books, Revolution by Latrine, won an award from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2011. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, Independent, The Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.

Ruthven's unblushing polemic treats Jamal Khashoggi's gruesome murder in Istanbul and its cover-up as representative of the Saudi kingdom's recent policies rather than, as their defenders claim, a regrettable aberration

• Map1. Murder in Istanbul2. The Wahhabi Mission3. Ibn Saud Founder of a Kingdom4. Petroleum and Patriarchy5. Managing the Ulama and Mismanaging the Hajj6. Conflicting Currents7. A Sectarian Outreach8. Arms and Benefits9. Family Values10. Terraforming ArabiaEpilogueAcknowledgementsNotesIndex

Malise Ruthven worked as an editor with the BBC Arabic Service and World Service in London before teaching Islamic studies and comparative religion at universities on both sides of the Atlantic. He is the author of several books on Islamic affairs as well as fundamentalism and religion in America. In 2004, London's Prospect Magazine ranked Ruthven among the 100 top public intellectuals in the UK. His blog on the New York Review of Books, Revolution by Latrine, won an award from the Overseas Press Club of America in 2011. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, Independent, The Financial Times, New York Review of Books, and the London Review of Books.

Ruthven's unblushing polemic treats Jamal Khashoggi's gruesome murder in Istanbul and its cover-up as representative of the Saudi kingdom's recent policies rather than, as their defenders claim, a regrettable aberration

• Map1. Murder in Istanbul2. The Wahhabi Mission3. Ibn Saud Founder of a Kingdom4. Petroleum and Patriarchy5. Managing the Ulama and Mismanaging the Hajj6. Conflicting Currents7. A Sectarian Outreach8. Arms and Benefits9. Family Values10. Terraforming ArabiaEpilogueAcknowledgementsNotesIndex