In the middle of the 18th century, a religious reform movement arose in al-Dir'iyyah, a small town in Najd, central Arabia. Founded by Shaykh Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, and politically and militarily supported by Muhammad Ibn Sa'ud, the chief of al-Dir'iyyah, this movement, known as the Salafiyya, called for a return to the pure and original teachings of the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. In the later decades of the century, it spread to other parts of Najd, and by the death in 1814 of its third political leader, Sa'ud Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz, it controlled most of Arabia and imposed peace and order on its people for the first time since the early caliphs of Islam.