The Curse of Philosophy 333
tering portrait in the works of contemporary Muslim authors. These
authors depict him as a unique Muslim philosopher who alone knew
how to destroy the house of Greek logic and metaphysics and how to
erect, in its place, a house of genuine Islamic philosophy. According to
this view, Ibn Taymiyya digested the “poison of philosophy” – yet, his
brilliant mind turned the poison into honey. This very honey, extracted
from the hive of his writings, can accordingly nourish a new era of
modern Islamic philosophy. That Ibn Taymiyya himself, no doubt,
would have taken umbrage at this sort of labeling of his work demon-
strates how rich in irony the history of ideas can actually be!
In this study, I will present the main features of Ibn Taymiyya’s
‘philosophical identity’ as they appear in works of contemporary Mus-
lim authors. The first section (1) includes Ibn Taymiyya’s refutation
of Aristotle’s formal logic as presented by three characteristic Muslim
scholars. The second section (2) is dedicated to Ibn Taymiyya as an
Averroist. The third section (3) deals with his renewal of philosophy
in Islam through the establishment of Islamic metaphysics. The fourth
section (4) presents Ibn Taymiyya as an original representative of phil-
osophical nominalism. In the final section (5), I will discuss the present
views with a special focus on the concept of philosophy that emerges
from proclaiming Ibn Taymiyya a philosopher. I will conclude by
reviewing the symptomatic value, for the situation of contemporary
Islamic thought, of celebrating Ibn Taymiyya as a philosopher.^19
gence in the Middle East, New York 1986; Sivan, Emmanuel: Ibn Taymiyya.
Father of the Islamic Revolution; Medieval Theology & Modern Politics, in:
Encounter 60 (1983), pp. 41–50; idem, Radical Islam. Medieval Theology and
Modern Politics, New Haven 1985, pp. 96–107, 124 et passim. Most bluntly of
all, the members of al-Qāʿida and other radical Islamic groups are called Ibn
Taymiyya’s children in Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon: Age of Sacred Ter-
ror, New York 2002, pp. 38–94.
19 In clear difference to the positions presented in this study, Yahya Michot, a
prominent scholar of Ibn Taymiyya, identifies him as a “classical Islam-
ic” thinker, “theologian and mufti” and “a great spiritual master of the via
media, the middle way that is at the heart of traditional Islam” (Ibn Taymiyya
(d. 728/1328). Against Extremisms; Texts translated, annotated and introduced
by Yahya M. Michot, with a foreword by Bruce B. Lawrence, Ozoir-la-Ferrière
2012, pp. xx–xxi). Some of the texts included in the manuscript are posted in
French translation on the website muslimphilosophy.com as “Textes Spirituels
d’Ibn Taymiyya.” I wish to thank Prof. Michot for generously making his man-
uscript available to me prior to its publication.
In the present study, I am not primarily interested in Ibn Taymiyya but rather
in the way contemporary Muslim authors view him as a philosopher, utiliz-
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