374 Georges Tamer
astoundingly, this mindset represents a pre-modern state of Islamic
thought that somehow, anachronistically, manages to hold power over
the minds of contemporary Muslims. In the end, we must conclude
that calling Ibn Taymiyya a “philosopher” is a case of imputed – not
actual – identity.^183
183 Against the background of claiming for Ibn Taymiyya being a philosopher,
a valiant attempt to present the historical context of his critical attitude
towards philosophy and the negative influence of his views on the status of
the study of philosophy at Saudi universities is provided by the Saudi author
Saʿūd al-Sarḥān in his monograph al-Ḥikma al-maṣlūba. Madkhal ilā maw-
qif Ibn Taymiyya min al-falsafa (Crucified Wisdom. An Introduction to Ibn
Taymiyya’s Attitude from Philosophy), Beirut 2008. He asserts that, based on
Ibn Taymiyya’s views, philosophy is viewed in Saudi Arabia as “disbelief and
error” (kufr wa-ḍalāl). As a consequence, philosophy is still not taught there;
ibid., p. 12. According to the author, Ibn Taymiyya did not study philoso-
phy systematically and for its own purpose, but eclectically in order to obtain
arguments against kalām-theologians, Sufis and Shii scholars. He, thus, instru-
mentalized philosophy for his polemical purposes (pp. 20, 35–36). Although
Ibn Taymiyya predominantly accused philosophers of disbelief (pp. 37–39),
he, in contrast to former critics of philosophy, utilized philosophical terminol-
ogy in order to address philosophers critically “in their language” (p. 76). See
Ibn Taymiyya, Darʾ, edited by Muḥammad Rashād Sālim, vol. 1, p. 43.
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