Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought

A fresh reading of medieval thinker Ibn Taymiyya, offering pathbreaking insight into his lasting relevance in debates on Islam, authority, and religious thought.

Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought: Corpus, Reception, and Legacy explores the work, influence, and lasting impact of one of the most controversial and prolific figures in Islamic intellectual history: Taqī l-Dīn Aḥmad Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). Adopting a clear and rigorous approach, this book traces the key strands of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought and shows how his writings have been interpreted, transformed, challenged, and reappropriated over time. It sheds light on the tensions between tradition and renewal, and between religious authority and critical inquiry. Beyond Taymiyyan thought itself, the book offers a deeper understanding of contemporary debates about Islam by situating them within a long and complex intellectual history. Thus, it will appeal both to readers eager to grasp the complex thought of one of medieval Islam’s most controversial scholars and to those interested in the ongoing relevance of his ideas in modern intellectual and religious debates across the Muslim world. This volume makes a vital contribution to the study of Ibn Taymiyya by engaging closely with his texts, and considering them in their original historical context as well as in the diverse settings in which they have been reread and reappropriated, whether directly or indirectly.

Introduction. Rethinking the Taymiyyan Phenomenon: Contexts, Corpus, and Reception
Mehdi Berriah and Arjan Post

Chapter 1. Jinn-s and Exorcism in Ibn Taymiyya
Mehdi Berriah

Chapter 2. Debates and Controversies Surrounding an Epistle Attributed to Ibn Taymiyya: Qāʿida mukhtaṣara fī qitāl al-kuffār
Farid Bouchiba

Chapter 3. Omniscience, Causality, and Fatalism: Ibn Taymiyya on the Problem of Petitionary Prayers
Safaruk Zaman Chowdhury

Chapter 4. The God of the Philosophers: The Refutation of Thābit b. Qurra’s Talkhīṣ of the Metaphysics in Ibn Taymiyya’s Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wa-l-naql
Adrien Candiard

Chapter 5. Ḥanbalī Theology after Ibn Taymiyya: Positioning Ibn al-Mabrid (d. 909/1503) in the Debate on God’s Attributes
Arjan Post

Chapter 6. Between Ibn Taymiyya and the Mutakallimūn: Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Saffārīnī (d. 1188/1774) on the Attributes of God
Sarah Van Eyken

Chapter 7. The Taymiyyan Turn in Early Twentieth-Century Islamic Reform and the Controversy over Cursing Muʿāwiya
Pieter Coppens

Chapter 8. Ibn Taymiyya between Fact and Fiction in Modern Turkey: A Special Reference to Necip Fazıl Kısakürek’s (1905- 1983) Perception of Ibn Taymiyya
Kadir Gömbeyaz

Chapter 9. From the Shaykh al-Islam to the Intellectual: Reception and Functions of Ibn Taymiyya in Francophone Islamic Literature
Daoud Riffi

About the Editors and Authors

Mehdi Berriah

Mehdi Berriah is a researcher in Islamic Studies and Islamic History at the French Institute for the Near East (Ifpo). His work focuses on Muslim thought, theology, jihad, Ibn Taymiyya, and the intellectual, political, military, and social history of the Islamic world.

Arjan Post

Arjan Post is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at KU Leuven. His fields of interest include Sufism, kalām, theology, and the intellectual history of the Hanbali school, specifically during the Mamluk period.

Pieter Coppens

Kadir Gömbeyaz

Sarah Van Eyken

Farid Bouchiba

Safaruk Chowdhury

Daoud Riffi

Adrien Candiard