Appropriation of Ibn Taymiyya
and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
Challenging Expectations of Ingenuity
Alina Kokoschka and Birgit Krawietz
For many centuries, the Damascene Muslim scholar Ibn Qayyim al-
Jawziyya (d. 1350) has been viewed mainly as the devoted pupil of
his teacher Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), academic attention falling, how-
ever grudgingly, primarily to the master himself. Having originated
among Arab contemporaries, this contrasting attribution henceforth
gained wider currency until early Salafi reformers, for their own pur-
poses, “rediscovered” both authors. Their work suddenly precious and
meaningful, Ibn al-Qayyim’s and Ibn Taymiyya’s standing abruptly
increased in the context of the Islamic heritage. Nevertheless, the per-
sistent impression of Ibn al-Qayyim’s submissiveness, even within
Western scholarship from the late 19th century until recently, is all the
more perplexing inasmuch as this period witnessed an astounding surge
both of printed works by Ibn al-Qayyim and of significant Arabic
secondary literature discussing him. Our introduction focuses on the
exaggerated binary perception regarding both these authors, which is a
strangely twisted phenomenon. It can be surmised that there are some
deeper, structural reasons at work for such an attitude of disregard for
Ibn al-Qayyim, on the one hand, and either admiration or demoniza-
tion of Ibn Taymiyya on the other. As such, we also suggest taking
into account the historical development of European ideas of ingenu-
ity and their potential impact. This relativising approach enables us to
then argue in favour of alternative, modified conceptions of scholarly
potential within the framework of Muslim cultures and societies in the
widest sense. Taking Ibn al-Qayyim as a case study, we employ the
concept of appropriation to highlight, analyse and appreciate similarly
important intellectual activities. In fact, this attitude may in itself be
influenced not only by writings in anthropology, art history, literature
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