The Poison of Philosophy 265
4. Ibn Taymiyya’s Writings Against Logic
In his refutations of logic, Ibn Taymiyya refers to previous opponents
of logic in a rather general way by pointing to the fact that “the Muslim
religious scholars and the leaders of religion” slandered and forbade
Greek logic.^44 He mentions only a few by name, mainly the theologian
Ḥasan b. Mūsā al-Nawbakhtī (d. between 300/912 and 310/922),^45 the
grammarian Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī (d. 368/979),^46 and Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ.^47
For Ibn Taymiyya, logic (manṭiq) is not the propaedeutics of phi-
losophy and as such a harmless and useful instrument, but in fact
the core of philosophy. When he speaks of “logic” or “Greek logic”
(manṭiq al-yunān), he has in mind Aristotelian logic.^48 He considers
it the source of many other evils, leading astray theologians and Sufis
and contaminating areas of knowledge that had initially been untainted
by that human invention, that “conventional balance (established by)
one individual”.^49 In fact, since Aristotle’s death, Aristotelian logic had
turned into “Peripatetic” logic with the many additions and amend-
ments that were introduced to the original Aristotelian texts by their
various commentators, not least in Arabic. In Darʾ taʿāruḍ al-ʿaql wal-
naql which Ibn Taymiyya composed in the same period as his main
refutation of logic, he refers extensively to Ibn Sīnā’s logical work
44 Ibn Taymiyya, Naqḍ al-manṭiq, p. 156 (ʿulamāʾ al-muslimīn wa-aʾimmat al-dīn).
45 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Radd, pp. 331, 337–339; al-Suyūṭī, Jahd al-qarīḥa, pp. 325–
236; Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya, pp. 154–155, xlii–xliii.
46 Ibn Taymiyya, al-Radd, p. 178; al-Suyūṭi, Jahd al-qarīḥa, p. 276; Hallaq, Ibn
Taymiyya, pp. 100, xlii–xliii. For the famous debate on logic between the gram-
marian Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī and the logician Abū Bishr Mattā (d. 328/940), see
Endress, Gerhard: Grammatik und Logik. Arabische Philologie und griechische
Philosophie im Widerstreit, in: Burkhard Mojsisch (ed.): Sprachphilosophie in
Antike und Mittelalter, Amsterdam 1986, pp. 163–299.
47 Ibn Taymiyya, Naqḍ al-manṭiq, p. 156. He does not explicitly refer to Ibn
al-Ṣalāḥ’s fatwa, but instead to the rumours about the latter’s militant attitude
towards the theologian and jurist Abū al-Ḥasan al-Āmidī (d. 631/1233).
48 Most explicit is his statement “Greek logic was formulated by Aristotle three
hundred years before Christ.” Hallaq, Ibn Taymiyya, p. 162; al-Suyūṭī, Jahd
al-qarīḥa, p. 333; Ibn Taymiyya, al-Radd, pp. 26, 373; similar is a statement in:
Ibn Taymiyya, Naqḍ al-manṭiq, p. 185.
49 “Rational knowledges are known by the instruments of understanding bestowed
by God to man; they do not rely on a conventional balance (established by) one
individual” (fa-inna al-ʿulūm al-ʿaqliyya tuʿlamu bi-mā faṭara allāh ʿalayhi banī
Ādam min asbāb al-idrāk, lā taqifu ʿalā mīzān waḍʿī li-shakhṣ muʿayyan; Ibn
Taymiyya, al-Radd, p. 26).
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