The Poison of Philosophy 273
Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350), al-Suyūṭī, and others to justifica-
tions of logic from Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355) and the afore-
mentioned Maghrebian scholars al-Maghīlī and al-Ḥasan al-Yūsī.^84
Al-Zabīdī supports al-Suyūṭī, repeating the latter’s judgments in al-
Qawl al-mushriq fī taḥrīm al-ishtighāl bil-manṭiq, namely that logic
is harmful, reprehensible, of no use to the dogma of God’s unity, and
a cause of great harm to the heart.^85 Al-Zabīdī refers to Ibn Taymiyya
as the last who devoted himself to illuminating “[logic’s] wrongness
and inconsistency,”^86 but cites only one sentence from him, indirectly,
i. e., as transmitted by ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1016/1607): “I do not think that
God – He is mighty and sublime – overlooks (that deed of) al-Maʾmūn.
He certainly will punish him for what he has brought into the [Mus-
lim] community by translating that science from Greek into Arabic.”^87
The history of the impact of Ibn Taymiyya’s refutations of logic still
waits to be written. It remains to be studied whether they were mainly
received via the popularizer al-Suyūṭī, as seems to be the case, judging
from the aforementioned examples, or whether they had a direct influ-
ence or other popularizers.
6. Forerunners of Ibn Taymiyya in Rejecting falsafa
As to the refutation and anathematization of falsafa, Ibn Taymiyya
had far more “concurrence” regarding elaborate rejections.^88 Before he
84 Ibid., pp. 176–184. The whole chapter has been recently scrutinized by El-
Rouayheb, Was there a Revival, especially pp. 2–14. See also below, n. 165. Stefan
Reichmuth thoroughly studied al-Zabīdī’s whole commentary on al-Ghazālī’s
Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (The World of Murtaḍā al-Zabīdī, ch. 5).
85 Al-Zabīdī, Kitāb Itḥāf al-sāda, vol. 1, pp. 180–181. Al-Zabīdī tries to support
this view also with a statement by al-Ghazālī (ibid., pp. 183–184). El-Rouay-
heb has shown, however, that his quotation was taken out of context and thus
neglects the fact that al-Ghazālī considered logic a neutral, harmless science in
regard to religion (Was there a Revival, p. 4). Noticeably, al-Suyūṭī also claims
that al-Ghazālī became hostile to logic at the end of his life (al-Qawl al-mush-
riq, p. 255).
86 Mā aẓunn Allāh ʿazza wa-jalla yaghfulu ʿalā al-Māʾmūn wa-lā budd an
yuʿāqibahu bi-mā adkhala ʿalā al-umma min naql hādhā al-ʿilm min al-yūnāniyya
ilā al-ʿarabiyya, al-Zabīdī, Kitāb Itḥāf al-sāda, vol. 1, p. 176. On al-Qārī see the
article by Claudia Preckel in this volume.
87 Al-Zabīdī, Kitāb Itḥāf al-sāda, vol. 1, p. 176.
88 For a diachronic, though in its generalisation outdated survey of the rejection
of Greek philosophy in general, see Goldziher, Stellung der alten islamischen
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