The Poison of Philosophy 269
Ibn Taymiyya wrote also minor refutations of logic. The main one
that has come down to us is Naqḍ al-manṭiq (The Demolition/Contra-
diction of Logic) and is seemingly also transmitted in only one manu-
script.^64 It was probably written before al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn^65
and constitutes an answer to a request for a formal legal opinion as to
whether it is right or wrong to regard logic as a collective duty (farḍ
kifāya).^66 In content, it resembles the major refutation because of its
concentration on definition and methods of deduction. However, his
argumentation is less lucid and detailed, being instead more polemi-
cal. Besides these two refutations of logic, Ibn Taymiyya wrote several
short treatises or chapters dealing with specific aspects of logic; the
longest one is entitled Fī Ḍabṭ kulliyyāt al-manṭiq wal-khalal fīhi (On
the Formation of Universals in Logic and its Defect).^67
64 See also next footnote. The editors mention no further manuscript and Carl
Brockelmann (Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, Leiden 1898–1949) does
not have it in his list of Ibn Taymiyya’s writings. It was edited twice (see the
footnote after next).
65 In al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn Ibn Taymiyya mentions that he had earlier writ-
ten something against logic when he became aware of its falseness (p. 3); see,
however, below, n. 67. See also Hallaq, who points out his change in position
concerning the intramental character of mathematical principles (Ibn Taymiyya,
p. xxxi); see chapter 10.1. In the present article I shall rely on al-Radd ʿalā
al-manṭiqiyyīn as the main source.
66 The first edition (Cairo 1951) comprises far more than a critique of logic: Ibn
Taymiyya discusses and criticizes many teachings and methods of Muslim theo-
logical, mystical and philosophical schools; only on the last 67 pages (pp. 155–
210), does he come to Aristotelian logic. The part concerning logic is includ-
ed in Majmūʿat al-Fatāwā li-shaykh al-islām Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Taymiyya
al-Ḥarrānī, al-mujallad 9, ed. by ʿAmīr al-Jazzār and Anwār al-Bāz, Mansoura and
Cairo 1421/2001, vol. 5, pp. 7–46, the first part in Majmūʿat al-Fatāwā li-shaykh
al-islām Ibn Taymiyya, al-mujallad 4, ed. by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad b.
Qāsim and Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Cairo s. d. (reprint of the Riyadh edi-
tion 1381–1386/1961–1967), vol. 2, pp. 7–115; see Jon Hoover, who indicates the
pages for Ibn Qāsim’s edition (Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy, p. 241).
67 Ibn Taymiyya, Majmūʿat al-Fatāwā, al-mujallad 9, vol. 5, pp. 137–153 (-170).
Ibn Taymiyya mentions in Naqḍ al-manṭiq that he had already laid down a
summary of Greek logic and some of its errors and misleading concepts (p. 184).
It is unlikely that he meant his extensive wor al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiqiyyīn. The
oldest and most comprehensive biography of Ibn Taymiyya, the one by Abū
ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAbd al-Hādī, mentions that Ibn Taymiyya
wrote two refutations of logic besides al-Radd ʿalā al-manṭiq (according to
al-Nashshār’s foreword to al-Suyūṭī, Ṣawn al-manṭiq, p. zāʾ). Ibn Taymiyya’s
disciple Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya refers only to two works by his master against
logic, a big and a small one (Miftāḥ dār al-saʿāda wa-manshūr wilāyat al-ʿilm
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