worship. He is reported to have been a member
of the Qadiri Order of Sufis. Ibn Taymiyya also
opposed traditionalist approaches to the under-
standing of the
sharia
and favored the use of
ijtihad
(independent legal reasoning) by qualified
jurists.
When the Mongols invaded s
yria
in 1300, he
was among those calling for
Jihad
against them
and ruled that even though they had recently
converted to Islam, they should be considered
unbelievers. He went to e
gypt
to win support
to this cause and became embroiled in religio-
political disputes there. Ibn Taymiyya’s enemies
accused him of
anthropomorphism
, a view that
was objectionable to the teachings of the a
shari
s
chool
of Islamic
theology
, and he was impris-
oned for more than a year in 1306. Upon release,
he condemned popular Sufi practices and the
influence of i
bn
al
-a
rabi
(d. 1240), earning him
the enmity of leading Sufi
shaykh
s in Egypt and
another prison sentence. He was released by the
Egyptian sultan in 1310.
The sultan allowed Ibn Taymiyya to return to
Damascus in 1313, where he worked as a teacher
and jurist. He had supporters among the power-
ful, but his outspokenness and nonconformity
to traditional Sunni doctrine and Sufi ideals and
practices continued to draw the wrath of the reli-
gious and political authorities in Syria and Egypt.
He was arrested and released several more times,
although he was usually allowed to continue
writing
FatWa
s (advisory opinions in matters of
law) and defenses of his ideas while in prison.
Despite the controversy that surrounded him, Ibn
Taymiyya’s influence reached well beyond Hanbali
circles to members of other Sunni legal schools
and Sufi groups. Among his foremost students
were i
bn
k
athir
(d. 1373), a leading medieval his-
torian and Quran commentator, and Ibn Qayyim
al-Jawziya (d. 1350), a prominent Hanbali jurist
and theologian who helped spread his teacher’s
influence after his death in 1328. Ibn Taymiyya
died a prisoner in the citadel of Damascus and was
buried in the city’s Sufi cemetery.
Hanbali influence subsequently declined in
Syria and Egypt, especially after the region fell
under Ottoman control in the 16th century. In the
18th century, Ibn Taymiyya’s teachings influenced
the revivalist movement led by m
Uhammad
ibn
a
bd
al
-W
ahhab
(d. 1792) in the Arabian Pen-
insula. His books are today widely read in s
aUdi
a
rabia
, Egypt, Syria, J
ordan
, South Asia, and
Southeast Asia. In addition to inspiring religious
revivalists and reformers, some of his rulings
have also been used to justify acts of violence
committed by followers of radical Islamic groups.
One of these was the Jihad Group responsible for
the assassination of Egyptian president a
nWar
al
-s
adat
(d. 1981).
See also
saint
; s
alaFism
; s
UFism
; W
ahhabism
.
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