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 syria 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 egypt 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 ashari
school 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 ibn al-arabi (d. 1240), earning him
the enmity of leading Sufi shaykhs 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 FatWas (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 ibn kathir (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 mUhammad ibn
abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792) in the Arabian Pen-
insula. His books are today widely read in saUdi
arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, 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 anWar
al-sadat (d. 1981).
See also saint; salaFism; sUFism; Wahhabism.Further reading: George Makdisi, “Ibn Taimiya: A
Sufi of the Qadiriya Order,” American Journal of Arabic
Studies 1 (1974): 118–129; Abd al-Hakim ibn Ibrahim
Matroudi, The Hanbali School of Law and Ibn Taymiyyah:
Conflict or Conciliation (London: Routledge, 2006);
Muhammad Umar Memon, Ibn Taymiya’s Struggle
against Popular Religion (The Hague: Mouton, 1976).Ibn Tumart, Muhammad (ca. 1078–
1130) 12th-century religious reformer, self-
proclaimed mahdi (messianic figure), and founder of
the North African Almohad dynasty
Born in the Anti-Atlas Mountains in southern
morocco, Ibn Tumart left for an extended trip to
the Muslim East in 1106. While there he studied
fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and became con-
vinced that the dominant maliki legal school
of Morocco was leading Muslims astray through
its elaborate rules based upon human reason-
ing. Instead, Ibn Tumart emphasized the original
Islamic sources of the qUran and hadith and
taught a strict doctrine based on the Muslim doc-
trine of tawhid (unity). On his way home in 1117,
Ibn Tumart created a stir in a number of locations
through his preaching and aggressive treatment of
those he considered to be unbelievers.K 340 Ibn Tumart, Muhammad