426 Dominik Schlosser
ated are almost lacking. In this respect, Martin Accad’s 2005 essay on
“Muḥammad’s Advent as the Final Criterion for the Authenticity of
the Judeo-Christian Tradition” has to be named as a positive excep-
tion.^11 The same is true for Jon Hoover’s article “The Apologetic and
Pastoral Intentions of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Polemic against Jews
and Christians” (2010)^12 and the entry “Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya” in
Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History written by the
same author.^13
That Western research has thus far paid less attention to the Hidāyat
al-ḥayārā is not because access to it is difficult; Ibn al-Qayyim’s trea-
tise appeared in various editions, and an English translation is avail-
able as well.^14 One reason for this remarkable reticence may be that
the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā is not a high-level philosophical-theological
polemic: in it, Ibn al-Qayyim mostly eschews any argumentation
based on logical proof, being content to polemicize against Christian-
ity and Judaism on a popular level; for example, he does not shy from
castigating. In addition, Ibn al-Qayyim’s polemic sometimes takes on
the character of a sermon, as the Damascene scholar repeatedly turns
directly to the reader and calls on him, for example, to compare the
teachings of Christianity with Muḥammad’s message.^15 Adding to the
Hidāyat al-ḥayārā’s character as a sermon are the questions, liberally
strewn in the text^16 and the frequent direct addresses to the Chris-
tians.^17 That the Hidāyat al-ḥayārā has so far received little attention
has probably to do with the fact that it depends on Ibn Taymiyya’s
(d. 728/1328) much more extensive work al-Jawāb al-ṣaḥīḥ li-man
baddala dīn al-masīḥ (The Correct Answer to the One Who Has
11 Accad, Martin: Muḥammad’s Advent as the Final Criterion for the Authenticity
of the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s Hidāyat al-ḥayārā
fī ajwibat al-Yahūd wa-’l-Naṣārā, in: Barbara Roggema, Marcel Poorthuis, Pim
Valkenberg (eds.): The Three Rings. Textual Studies in the Historical Trialogue
of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Leuven 2005, pp. 217–236.
12 Hoover, The Apologetic and the Pastoral, pp. 476–489.
13 Hoover, Jon: Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in: David Thomas and Alex Mallett
(eds.): Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History, Vol. 4 (1200–
1350), Leiden and Boston 2012, pp. 989–1002, here 996–1002.
14 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziah, Imam Allamah Shamsuddeen ibn abi Bakr: Guidance
to the Uncertain in Reply to the Jews and the Nazarenes, translated by Abdedel-
hay El-Masri, n. p. 1428/2007.
15 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Hidāyat al-ḥayārā, pp. 228, 338, 341, 347, 575.
16 Ibid., pp. 225, 243, 245–246, 252, 338, 415, 445.
17 See, for example, ibid., pp. 497, 529.
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