Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya as Changing Salafi Icons 487
The fact that in at least one trial in Cairo in 1302, he was accused of col-
laborating with the Mongols is never examined carefully.^119 Contem-
porary Salafis like to refer to Ibn Taymiyya’s detention experiences.
The fact that he lived in a time of political turmoil and that he did not
shun from political and military involvement makes him even more
attractive as a role model. However, as mentioned earlier, here again
the Salafis’ perception of Ibn Taymiyya is very selective. Ibn Taymiyya
often supported the political regime in place. In 1300, he was said to
have even participated in an expedition organized by the Mamluks into
the neighboring Kaswrawān mountains to punish the Shiite popula-
tion for having cooperated with the Mongols and Franks.^120 Later that
year he called for jihad against the Mongol invaders and for support of
the Mamluk governor.^121 This reflects his uncontrolled rage, anger, and
hostility against his adversaries.^122 Ibn Taymiyya’s dedication to a cause
also appeals to radical Salafis. He was described as taking pleasure in
nothing but propagating and recording religious learning and acting in
accordance with it. He never married and whenever he had any money
he gave it away.^123
As a contested scholar and personality, Ibn Taymiyya seems to be
much more attractive as a role model to Salafis under intense pres-
sure than Salafis who enjoy the setting of a pluralistic society with
judicial guarantees of their freedom. Citizens who live under an
authoritarian regime experience its unrestricted powers in the form of
arbitrary arrests, torture, and appalling conditions in places of deten-
tion without trial. The use of systematic physical and psychological
torture is widespread among police and security services and often
replaces investigations. This widespread disrespect for human rights is
even reflected in the literary production of the Islamic world. Deten-
tion and torture have been described by the Egyptian Muslim Sister
Zaynab al-Ghazālī^124 for the Egyptian security apparatus and by Hiba
Dabbāgh, a Sunni girl, for the Syrian detention system.^125 While Hiba
Dabbāgh’s account first had to be published anonymously, decades lat-
119 Jackson, Sherman A.: Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial in Damascus, in: Journal of
Semitic Studies 39 (1994), pp. 41–85, here p. 50.
120 Laoust, Henri: La profession de foi d’Ibn Taymiyya, Paris 1986, pp. 15–16.
121 Ibid, p. 15.
122 Little, Did Ibn Taymiyya Have a Screw Loose, p. 109.
123 Ibid, p. 105.
124 Al-Ghazālī, Zaynab: Ayyām min ḥayātī, Cairo 1988.
125 Dabbāgh, Hiba: Khams daqā’iq wa-ḥasab, n. p. n. d.
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