About The Book

Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) of Damascus was one of the most prominent and controversial religious scholars of medieval Islam. He called for jihad against the Mongol invaders of Syria, appealed to the foundational sources of Islam for reform, and battled against religious innovation.

Today, he inspires such diverse movements as Global Salafism, Islamic revivalism and modernism, and violent jihadism. This volume synthesizes the latest research, discusses many little-known aspects of Ibn Taymiyya's thought, and highlights the religious utilitarianism that pervades his activism, ethics, and theology.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 EARLY CAREER AND THE MONGOL INVASIONS

The Formative Years
Appearance, Character, and Personal Relationships
Early Engagements with Religious Law
Early Engagements with Theology
The Mongol Invasion of 1299-1300
The Mongol Invasions of 1300-1301 and 1303
Christians in the Wake of the Mongols

2 LATER CAREER AND MAJOR TRIALS

Conflicts with Sufis
The 1306 Damascus Trials over Theology
Imprisonments in Egypt over Theology and Sufism 1306-1310
Final Years in Egypt 1310-1313
Back in Damascus Teaching and Writing
The 1318 Nusayri Revolt
Trials over Divorce Oaths
Final Imprisonment over Grave Visitation 1326-1328

3 THE PRIORITY OF WORSHIP

Worship and the Human Natural Constitution
A Spirituality of Love
Divinity and Lordship
Command and Creation
Sainthood

4 WORSHIP, LAW, AND INNOVATION

Worship and the Law
Worship Rituals: Lawful and Innovated
Spiritual Concert and Annihilation
Benefit and the Law
Innovated Festivals and the Prophet's Birthday
Grave Visitation and Intercession
Ibn Taymiyya and Sufism

5 JURISTIC AUTHORITY AND DERIVING GOD'S LAW

The Sunni Law School System
Back to the Qur'an and the Sunna
Forbidding Chess
Invalidating Triple Divorce

6 UTILITARIAN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ETHICS

Social Ethics
The Caliphate
Public Authority and the Law
Law-Guided Public Policy
Trusts of public office and public wealth
Justice: the limits and rights of God and humans
Jihad

7 GOD AND CREATION

Kalam Theology
Esotericism
Non-cognitivism
Apologetic Interpretativism
God is Sitting Over the Throne
The Timelessly Eternal God of Philosophy and Kalam
God Wills for Wise Purposes and Creates from Eternity

8 GOD AND HUMANITY

Justice, Evil, and the Human Act
God's Protection of Prophets
The Signs of a True Prophet
Christianity: An Object Lesson in Innovated Religion
The Ultimate Destiny of Unbelievers

9 EPILOGUE

Bibliography
Index

About The Author

Jon Hoover is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Nottingham. He specialises in Islamic intellectual history, medieval Islamic theology and philosophy, Christian-Muslim relations, and the thought of Ibn Taymiyya.

He is the author of Ibn Taymiyya's Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism, and numerous articles and book chapters on Ibn Taymiyya's theology and ethics.