Ibn Taymiyya and his Times (Studies in Islamic Philosophy) - Hardcover

Yossef Rapoport

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195478347 ISBN 13: 9780195478341

Publisher: OUP Pakistan, 2010

Synopsis

Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), one of the most controversial thinkers in Islamic religious history, was repeatedly imprisoned during his lifetime. Today, he is revered by the Wahhabi movement and championed by Salafi groups who call for a return to the pristine golden age of the Prophet. His writings have also been used by radical groups, such as al-Qaeda, to justify acts of terrorism and armed struggle. In order to explain this modern influence, this volume offers a fresh perspective on Ibn Taymiyya's life, thought and legacy. The articles in this volume, written by leading authorities in the field, study Ibn Taymiyya's highly original contributions to Islamic theology, law, Qur'anic exegesis and political thought. Contrary to his current image as an anti-rationalist puritan, this volume shows Ibn Taymiyya to be one of the most intellectually rigorous, complex and interesting figures in Islamic intellectual history. This is the first comprehensive academic treatment of Ibn Taymiyya to appear in a Western language in over half a century. It is of major importance to scholars of Islamic intellectual history, as well as to the students of modern Islamic movements and ideologies.

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Review

IT was admired by the people of Damascus. He successfully inspired them to defend their city against Mongols. When he died, population attended his funeral procession in large numbers. IT remained obscure in non-Hambalis until recently. He became mainstream thinker of Sunni Islam in last century when Wahabi finally succeeded to establish a puritan state of Saudi Arabia. --By Farhat Sheikh on 14 February 2014

This is a first-rate book, comprised of first-rate scholars. (It's unfortunate, in this regard, that the book was published by the Lahore branch of OUP; I've found my hardcover version of the book falling apart, and I would also think the Lahore brand could decrease from the deserving prestige of the publication.) The authors give meticulous attention their project, and the bibliography is priceless. This volume is a must-read for anyone working on Ibn Taymiyya in an academic sense, but it should also interest journalists and anyone else who finds themselves thinking about the medieval scholar and his context. Fortunately, this text contributes to an ongoing and increasing trend to locate Ibn Taymiyya as a complex and multifaceted thinker, rather than as a simplistic champion of this or that ideology. Hoover's website on Ibn Taymiyya and Bazzano's forthcoming Religion Compass articles should provide useful complements for the content of chapters in Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, as well as its bibliography. Also Kokoschka and Krawietz' edited volume on Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. --By tofu tortoise on 23 December 2014

About the Author

Yossef Rapoport (PhD, Princeton) has been a Fellow in Arabic at the Oriental Institute, Oxford, and is currently a Lecturer in the Department of History at Queen Mary University of London. He has published on Islamic law, gender, cartography and the economic history of medieval Islam. He is the author of Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and co-editor of The Book of Curiosities: A critical edition (Internet publication, 2007). Shahab Ahmed (PhD, Princeton) is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard University. He has also been Assistant Professor of Classical Arabic Literature at the American University in Cairo, Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows, Visiting Scholar in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, and Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Visiting Scholar in the Islamic Research Institute, Islamabad.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Pakistan
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0195478347
• ISBN 13: 9780195478341
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Yossef Rapoport, Shahab Ahmed