Reading Classical Islamic Texts (in Arabic): IBN TAYMIYYA (TH-693)

This high level course offers an in-depth exploration of the theological and spiritual writings of one of the most fascinating—and controversial—thinkers of classical lslam: the Mamlûk mufti and theologian Taqî al-Dîn Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328). Key texts will be read in the original Arabic, translated orally, explained grammatically, commented on ideologically, and discussed, by the students as well as by the professor. A good knowledge of Classical Arabic is highly recommended to maximize the learning in this course. Bibliographical references will be provided. Class will meet: ten weekdays, from Monday June 16th to Friday June 27th, 9 am – 1:30 pm. Course Objectives

1) Students shoul have gained greater confidence in approaching, translating and discussing classical works of Islamic theology in the original Arabic text. 2) They should be able to find their way around in the major works of Ibn Taymiyya and the studies concerning his time, life, thought and influence. 3) They are expected to gain an acquaintenance with several important past and present debates and controversies concerning this author. 4) They should be able to benefit from the methodological approaches adopted in these classes and apply them for their own studies and/or research projects. Course Requirements

1) It is strongly recommended that the student arrive at the first class already able to read Arabic and having a general knowledge about the religion of Islam, Islamic theology and the history of the Middle East since the Crusades and the Mongol invasions. 2) Daily preparations and readings, class participation, final presentation. 3) Attendance in class is required. If you know that you will be unable to attend a class please inform the professor in advance. Missing two classes will result in an automatic lowering of your final grade by 20%. Missing three or more classes will result in automatic failure of the course. The final grade will be based upon the following:

1) Active class participation (60%).

2) The group presentation during Class X (June 22, 40%). Students fluent in Arabic shall join with weaker ones in groups of 2 individuals. Each group will be responsible for the written* & oral presentation, translation, commentary on, and discussion of an original Taymiyyan text during the last two classes. This text should be chosen by the end of class IV in consultation with the professor.

* All written work is to conform to the seminary writing guidelines, which can be found online at: http://www.hartsem.edu/student/forms/researchpaperguide.pdf. The Hartford Seminary Grading Guidelines will be the standard of evaluation for work in the course. IMPORTANT: Plagiarism, the failure to give proper credit for the words and ideas of another person, whether published or unpublished, is strictly prohibited. All written material submitted by students must be their own original work; where the words and ideas of others are used they must be acknowledged. Credit will not be given for work containing plagiarism, and plagiarism can lead to failure of a course. Please see the Hartford Seminary Catalogue for the full plagiarism policy. General references

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ISLAM, INDEX ISLAMICUS… MICHOT, Y., Ibn Taymiyya: Chronology of the Life of an Activist-Theologian, in Muslims under Non-Muslim Rule. Ibn Taymiyya

on fleeing from sin, kinds of emigration, the status of Mardin (domain of peace/war, domain composite), the conditions for challenging power. Texts translated, annotated and presented in relation to six modern readings of the Mardin fatwa. Foreword by J. PISCATORI, Oxford-London: Interface Publications, Dec. 2006, xviii & 190 p. ISBN 978-0-9554545-6-1. Pages 149-169.

—, IBN TAYMIYYA. Against Extremisms. Texts translated, annotated and introduced. With a foreword by Bruce B. LAWRENCE (Beirut–Paris: Albouraq, 1433/2012).

—, Ibn Taymiyya, in G. BOWERING (ed.), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought (Princeton - Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2012), p. 238-241.

—, For a grave in Damascus... Text and photos. Translated by J. QURESHI, 1427/2006. Internet: www.interfacepublications. com/~interfa3/images/pdf/IbnTaymiyya_Tomb.pdf.

—, Un célibataire endurci et sa maman : Ibn Taymiyya (m. 728/1328) et les femmes, in C. CANNUYER (ed.), La femme dans les civilisations orientales (Brussels: Société Belge d’Études Orientales, ‘Acta Orientalia Belgica, 15’, 2001), 165–90.

RAPOPORT, Y. & AHMED, Sh. (eds.), Ibn Taymiyya and his Times (Karachi: Oxford University Press, ‘Studies in Islamic Philosophy, 4’, 2010).

ANJUM, O., Politics, Law and Community in Islamic Thought. The Taymiyyan Moment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

KRAWIETZ, B. & TAMER, G. (eds.), Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law. Debating Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. In collaboration with A. KOKOSCHKA (Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter, ‘Studien zur Geschichte und Kultur des islamischen Orients, 27’, 2013).

BORI, Caterina, A new source for the biography of Ibn Taymiyya, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 67/3, Londres, 2004, p. 321-348.

HOOVER, J. R., Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism (Leiden–Boston: Brill, ‘Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Stud-ies, 73’, 2007).

MEMON, Muhammad U., Ibn Taymîya’s Struggle against Popular Religion. With an Annotated Transl. of his Kitâb iqtiḍâ’ aṣ-ṣirâṭ al-mustaqîm mukhâlafat aṣḥâb al-jaḥîm, « Religion and Society, 1 » (The Hague - Paris: Mouton, 1976).

Class Schedule

I. Monday June 16. A theologian of the middle way. Introduction to the course. General references: LITTLE, Donald P., Did Ibn Taymiyya Have a Screw Loose ?, in Studia Islamica, XLI, Paris, 1975, p. 93-111. — Reedited in

his History and Historiography of the Mamlûks, VIII, London, Variorum Reprints, 1986. —, The historical and historiographical Significance of the Detention of Ibn Taymiyya, in International Journal of Middle East

Studies, t. IV, Cambridge, 1973, p. 311-327. — Also in his History and Historiography of the Mamlûks, Variorum Reprints, London, 1986, VII.

JACKSON, Sherman A., Ibn Taymiyyah on Trial in Damascus, in Journal of Semitic Studies, XXXIX, 1, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1994, p. 41-85.

MURAD, Hasan Qasim, Ibn Taymiya on trial: a narrative account of his miḥan, in Islamic Studies, Islamabad, The Islamic Research Institute, t. XVIII, 1979, p.1-32.

SWARTZ, Merlin, A seventh-century (A. H.) Sunni creed : The ‘Aqîda Wâsiṭîya of Ibn Taymîya, in Humaniora Islamica. An Annual Publication of Islamic Studies and the Humanities. Ed. by Herbert W. MASON, Ronald L. NETTLER, Merlin

L. SWARTZ, Jacques WAARDENBURG, La Haye - Paris, Mouton, t. I, 1973, p. 91-131. ABRAHAMOV, Binyamin, Ibn Taymiyya on the Agreement of Reason with Tradition, in The Muslim World, v. LXXXII, 3-4,

1992, p. 255-273. MEIER, F., The Cleanest about Predestination. A Bit of Ibn Taymiyya, in his Essays on Islamic Piety and Mysticism. Translated

by J. O’KANE with editorial assistance of B. RADTKE (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 309–34. Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., Ibn Taymiyya: Against Extremisms, Intro., p. xx–xxxii, & Ch. 1, p. 1–

10. Arabic text: IBN TAYMIYYA, Majmû‘ al-fatâwâ, vol. III, p. 369, l. 14 – p. 375, l. 14.

II. Tuesday June 17. The history of Islamic thought

General references: MICHEL, Th. F., Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of Falsafa, in Hamdard Islamicus, Karachi, t. VI/1, 1983, p. 3-14. VON KÜGELGEN, A., The Poison of Philosophy: Ibn Taymiyya’s Struggle for and against Reason, in KRAWIETZ, B. & TAMER,

G. (eds.), Debating, p. 253-328. HOOVER, Jon, Ibn Taymiyya as an Avicennan Theologian, in Theological Review, 27, 2006, p. 34-46. MICHOT, Yahya, Misled and Misleading… Yet Central in their Influence: Ibn Taymiyya’s Views on the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’, in The

Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ and their Rasā’il. An Introduction. Edited by Nader EL-BIZRI. Foreword by Farhad DAFTARY, Oxford, Oxford University Press, in association with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, « Epistles of the Brethren of Purity », 2008, p. 139-179. — On internet: muslimphilosophy.com.

—, A Mamlūk Theologian’s Commentary on Avicenna’s Risāla Aḍḥawiyya : Being a Translation of a Part of the Dar| al-Ta`āruḍ of Ibn Taymiyya, with Introduction, Annotation, and Appendices, in Journal of Islamic Studies, Oxford, Part I, 14/2 (May 2003), 149–203; Part II, 14/3 (Sept. 2003), 309–63.

Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., From al-Ma’mūn to Ibn Sab‘īn, via Avicenna: Ibn Taymiyya’s Historiography of Falsafa, in F. OPWIS & D. REISMAN (eds.), Islamic Philosophy, Science, Culture, and Religion. Studies in Honor of Dimitri Gutas (Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2012), p. 453-475.

Arabic texts: A. Ibn Taymiyya, Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. xi, p. 478–480. B. Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. vii, p. 585–590.

III. Wednesday June 18. Sufism

General references: BELL, J. N., Love Theory in Later Ḥanbalite Islam, « Studies in Islamic Philosophy and Science », Albany, State University of

New York Press, 1979. — Ch. 3 : The Reaction to Ash‘arism : Ibn Taymiyya ; Ch. 4 : Divine Will and Love in the Theology of Ibn Taymiyya ; Ch. 5 : Ibn Taymiyya on Love between God and Man, p. 46-91.

MAKDISI, George, Ibn Taymiyya : A Ṣûfî of the Qâdiriya Order, in American Journal of Arabic Studies, t. I, 1973, p. 118-129. — Reedited in his Religion, Law and Learning in Classical Islam, VII, « Collected Studies Series, CS347 », London, Variorum, 1991.

MICHOT, Yahya, Ibn Taymiyya’s Commentary on the Creed of al-Îallâj, in A. SHIHADEH (ed.), Sufism and Theology, Edimbourg, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 123-136.

HOMERIN, Th. E., Ibn Taimîya’s Al-Ṣûfîyah wa-al-Fuqarâ’, in Arabica, XXXII, Leiden, 1985, p. 219-244. ABU RUMAYSAH, The Diseases of the Hearts and their Cures by Ibn Taymiyyah, compiled by I. b. `A. AL-ḤAAZIMEE.

Translation (Birmingham: Al-Hidaayah Publishing and Distribution, 1418/ 1998). GRIFFEL,  Frank,  Al-Ġazâlî’s Concept of Prophecy: The Introduction of Avicennan Psychology into Aš‘arite Theology, in Arabic

Sciences and Philosophy, 14 (2004), p. 101-144. AFIFI AL-AKITI, M., The Three Properties of Prophethood in Certain Works of Avicenna and al-Ġazâlî, in J. MCGINNIS (ed.,

with the assistance of D. REISMAN), Interpreting Avicenna: Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islam. Proceedings of the Second Conference of the Avicenna Study Group (Leiden - Boston: Brill, “Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies, LVI”, 2004), p. 189-212.

MICHOT, Y., Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). XI. Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī & Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, July 2011, p. 1-5. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65019537/Textes-spirituels-d’Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-serie-XI-Abū-Ḥāmid-al-Ghazālī-Fakhr-al-Dīn-al-Rāzī

Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., An Important Reader of al-Ghazālī : Ibn Taymiyya, in The Muslim World, January 2013, p. 131-160.

Arabic text: IBN TAYMIYYA, Radd al-manṭiqiyyîn. Ed. al-Kutubî (Bombay: 1368/1949), p. 514-523. Trans. Y. MICHOT, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya, N.S. XIV. Au-delà de la mystique d’Avicenne,

October 2012, p. 1-6. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/108760107/Textes-spirituels-d-Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-Serie-XIV-Au-dela-de-la-mystique-d-Avicenne

IV. Thursday June 19. The Mamlûks General references: Mamluk Studies Resources (Chicago: University of Chicago, The Middle East Documentation Center). On the internet:

http://mamluk.uchicago.edu IRWIN, R., The Middle East in the Middle Ages. The Early Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1382) (London - Sydney: Croom Helm,

1986), [xii] & 180 p., ISBN 0-7099-1308-7. AYALON, David, The Mamluk Military Society (Variorum Reprints , 1979), 262 p . —, Notes on the Furûsiyya Exercices and Games in the Mamluk Sultanate, in Uriel HEYD (ed.), Scripta Hierosolymitana, IX:

Studies in Islamic History and Civilization (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1961), p. 31–62. FONS, É., À propos des Mongols. Une lettre d’Ibn Taymiyya au sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn, in Annales

islamologiques, XLIII (Cairo: 2009), p. 31–73. MICHOT, Y., Rashîd al-Dîn et Ibn Taymiyya : regards croisés sur la royauté, in Mohaghegh Nâma. Collected papers presented

to Professor Mehdi Mohaghegh on his 70th birthday and in appreciation of his 50 years academic activities. Supervised by B. KHORRAMSHÂHÎ and J. JAHÂNBAKHSH, 2 vols. (Tehran: Sinânegâr, 2001), vol. 2, p. 111-137. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65101117/Yahya-Michot-Rashīd-al-Dīn-et-Ibn-Taymiyya-regards-croises-sur-la-royaute

—, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). XII. Salafisme vrai et nouveautés mamlūkes, December 2011, p. 1-6. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/76437569/Textes-spirituels-d-Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-serie-XII-Salafisme-vrai-et-nouveautes-mamlūkes

Reading assignment: NICOLLE, David, Know your weapons, know your enemy: a Mamluk training manual (2001), on http://www.ospreypublishing.com/articles/medieval_world/know_your_weapons_ mamluk_training_manual.

Arabic text: IBN TAYMIYYA, Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. XXVIII, p. 7-8, 13-20. V. Friday June 20. The Mongols

General references: MICHOT, Y., Muslims under Non-Muslim Rule. Ibn Taymiyya on fleeing from sin, kinds of emigration, the status of Mardin

(domain of peace/war, domain composite), the conditions for challenging power. Texts translated, annotated and presented in relation to six modern readings of the Mardin fatwa. Foreword by J. PISCATORI, Oxford-London: Interface Publications, Dec. 2006, xviii & 190 p. – ISBN 978-0-9554545-6-1.

—, IBN TAYMIYYA. Lettre à un roi croisé (al-Risālat al-Qubruṣiyya). Traduction de l’arabe, introduction, notes et lexique (Lou-vain-la-Neuve: Academia – Lyon: Tawhid, ‘ Sagesses musulmanes, 2 ’, 1995).

—, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya. XI-XIII: Mongols et Mamlºks: l’état du monde musulman vers 709/1310, in Le Musulman, n° 24–26, Paris, A.E.I.F., Oct. 1994 - Sept. 1995, p. 26-31, 25-30, 25-30.

BENJAMIN, Daniel - SIMON, Steven, The Age of Sacred Terror, New York, Random House, 2002. — Ch. 2, p. 38-94 : Ibn Taymiyya and His Children.

SIVAN, E., Ibn Taymiyya : Father of the Islamic Revolution. Medieval Theology & Modern Politics, in Encounter, t. LX/v, 1983, p. 41-50.

Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., Ibn Taymiyya’s “New Mardin Fatwa”. Is Genetically Modified Islam (GMI) Carcinogenic?, in The Muslim World, 101/2 (April 2011), 130–81.

Arabic texts: A. Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. XXVIII, p. 240-241. B. MF, vol. XXVIII, p. 520-521. C. MF, vol. XXVIII, p. 530-531. D. MF, vol. XVIII, p. 281-284.

VI. Monday June 23. Christianity

General references: HOOVER, Jon, Ibn Taymiyya, in D. THOMAS & A. MALLETT (eds), Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History.

Volume 4 (1200-1350) (Leiden - Boston: Brill, 2012), p. 824-878. MICHEL, Thomas F., A Muslim Theologian’s Response to Christianity. Ibn Taymiyya’s Al-jawâb al-ṣaḥîḥ. Edited and translated

(Delmar - New York: Caravan Books, “Studies in Islamic philosophy and science”, 1984), ix & 465 p. O’KEEFFE, Benjamin, Mas’alat al-Kanâ’is (The Question of the Churches). Presented and translated, in Islamochristiana

(Dirâsât Islâmiyya Masîḥiyya), 22, Rome, 1996, p. 53-78. ROBERTS, Nancy N., Reopening the Muslim-Christian Dialogue of the 13th-14th Centuries: Critical Reflections on Ibn

Taymiyyah’s Response to Christianity in al-Jawâb al-Ṣaḥîḥ li-man Baddala Dîn al-Masîḥ, in The Muslim World, LXXXVI, n° 3-4, 1996, p. 342-366.

THOMAS, D., Apologetic and Polemic in the Letter from Cyprus and Ibn Taymiyya’s Jawâb al-ṣaḥîḥ li-man baddala dîn al-Maṣîḥ, in Y. RAPOPORT & Sh. AHMED (eds.), Ibn Taymiyya, p. 247-265.

MICHOT, Y., IBN TAYMIYYA. Lettre à un roi croisé (al-Risālat al-Qubruṣiyya). Traduction de l’arabe, introduction, notes et lexi-que (Louvain-la-Neuve: Academia – Lyon: Tawhid, ‘ Sagesses musulmanes, 2 ’, 1995).

—, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). I : Jésus est vivant, July 2009, p. 1–4. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65076270/Textes-spirituels-d’Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-serie-I-Jesus-est-vivant

Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., Between Entertainment and Religion: Ibn Taymiyya’s Views on Superstition, in The Muslim World, 99/1, Hartford, janvier 2009, p. 1-20.

Arabic text: IBN TAYMIYYA, Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. XIII, p. 102, l. 6 - 109. Trans. Y. MICHOT, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). XV. Revenants et réapparitions de Jésus, February 2013, p. 1-9. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/125531855/Textes-spirituels-d’Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-Serie-XV-Revenants-et-reapparitions-de-Jesus

VII. Tuesday June 24. Shî‘ism General references: AL-JAMIL, T., Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillî: Shi‘i Polemics and the Struggle for Religious Authority in Medieval

Islam, in Y. RAPOPORT & Sh. AHMED (eds.), Ibn Taymiyya, p. 229–246. SCHMIDTKE, S., The Theology of al-‘Allāma al-Ḥillī (d. 726/1325) (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, ‘Islamkundliche

Untersuchungen, 152’, 1991). LAOUST, H., Les fondements de l’imāmat dans le Minhāj d’al-Ḥillī, in Revue des Études Islamiques, 46 (1978), p. 3–55. AMINI, I. (Ayatollah), Al-Imām al-Mahdī, the Just Leader of Humanity. Translated by A. SACHEDINA (North York: Islamic

Education & Information Centre, 1996). MODARRESSI, H., Crisis and Consolidation in the Formative Period of Shi‘ite Islam. Abū Ja‘far ibn Qiba al-Rāzī and His

Contribution to Imāmite Shī‘ite Thought (Princeton: The Darwin Press, 1993). SACHEDINA, A. A., Islamic Messianism. The Idea of Mahdi in Twelver Shi‘ism (Albany: State University of New York Press,

1981). MICHOT, Y., Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). III. Le jour de ‘Āshūrā’, October 2009, p. 1-11. On:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/65075998/Textes-spirituels-d’Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-serie-III-Le-jour-de-‘Āshūrā’ —, Textes spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). XVI. Ghadīr Khumm, November 2013, p. 1-11. On:

http://fr.scribd.com/doc/185290399/Textes-spirituels-d-Ibn-Taymiyya-N-S-XVI-Ghadir-Khumm Reading Assignment: MICHOT, Y., Ibn Taymiyya’s Critique of Shī‘ī Imāmology. Translation of Three

Sections of his Minhāj al-Sunna, in The Muslim World, 104/1-2 (April 2014), 40 p. (Forthcoming). Arabic text: Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. XXVIII, p. 484-494 & p. 499-501. Trans. Y. MICHOT, Textes

spirituels d’Ibn Taymiyya (Nouvelle série). XVII. Les Rāfiḍites, April 2014, p. 1-24. On: http://www.scribd.com/doc/218311559/Les-Rafidites-Textes-spirituels-d’Ibn-Taymiyya-Nouvelle-Serie-XVII

VIII. Wednesday June 25. Noah and the Flood General references: MILSTEIN, R., RÜHRDANZ, K., SCHMITZ, B., Stories of the Prophets. Illustrated Manuscripts of Qiṣas al-Anbiyâ’ (Costa Mesa:

Mazda Publishers, ‘Islamic Art and Architecture Series, 8’, 1999). MICHOT, Y., IBN TAYMIYYA. Les saints du mont Liban. Absence, jihâd et spiritualité, entre la montagne et la cité. Cinq fetwas

traduits de l’arabe, introduits et annotés. Préface de Nader EL-BIZRI (Beirut: Albouraq, ‘Fetwas d’Ibn Taymiyya, 5’, 1428/2007).

Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., Did God Cry after the Flood? Classical Islamic Theology Debates about Noah, his Ark and his Family, 20 p. (Unpublished)

Arabic texts: Minhāj al-Sunna, ii, 500-501, 627-628; iii, 443-444; vii, 393-395; MF, iv, 137; viii, 335-336; xiv, 472-473; xviii, 355, 356, 362; xix, 98; Jawâb, ii, 251; vi, 387; Nubuwwât, 27, 109; Dar’, viii, 429-430.

IX. Thursday June 26. Joseph General references: COOK, M., Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong in Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). ABOU EL FADL, Khaled, Rebellion & Violence in Islamic Law, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001. — P. 271-279,

etc. : Ibn Taymiyya as a revisionist. MICHOT, Y., L’autorité, l’individu et la communauté face à la Sharî‘a : quelques pensées d’Ibn Taymiyya, in Mélanges de

l'Université Saint-Joseph, 64 (Beirut: 2012), p. 261-286. FARRUKH, ‘Umar A., Ibn Taymiyya on Public and Private Law in Islam. Or Public Policy in Islamic Jurisprudence.

Translation (Beirut: Khayats, 1966). QARAḌĀWĪ (AL-), Y., Priorities of the Islamic Movement in the Coming Phase. Revised translation by S. M. HASSAN AL-

BANNA (Swansea: Awakening Publications, 2002). Reading assignment: MICHOT, Y., Ibn Taymiyya: Against Extremisms, Ch. 17-18, p. 244-269. Arabic text: Majmū‘ al-fatāwā, vol. XX, p. 54-61.

X. Friday June 27. Group presentations