ABSTRACT
Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyya was born on January 22, 1263 (10 Rabīʿ I 661 ah) and lived in troubled times. The Mongol invasions of the eastern Islamic world beginning in 1220 left in their wake widespread devastation and the destruction of numerous cities. Among them, Baghdad was destroyed in 1258 sweeping away the vestiges of 500 years’ rule of the Sunnī Abbasid Caliphate. Mongol incursions into Syria forced Ibn Taymiyya, aged six, to leave with his family from their home in Harran to Damascus. Syria together with Egypt had, from 1250, come under the control of a military oligarchy of Turks known as the Baḥrī Mamluks. They were of slave origin (mamlūk), converted to Islam and trained in the military arts. Although a Mongol threat remained until the end of the century – Damascus and Jerusalem were briefly occupied in 1300 – Mamluk power checked any decisive Mongol advance further westward. The well-known Muslim historian, Ibn al-Athīr (d. 1233) recorded his thoughts on this catastrophe in the final volume of his universal history. No greater calamity, he says, had befallen the world since God created Adam, not even Nebuchadnezzar’s sacking of Jerusalem and his slaying of the Jews; nor had the great Alexander conquered the world so swiftly. Possibly, he concludes, its like will not be witnessed again until the end of time when the destructive forces of Gog and Magog are unleashed upon the world. In addition to his concern for Mongol matters, Ibn al-Athīr frequently mentions events in Syria, Palestine and Egypt during the Muslims’ long struggle against the Crusader states founded by Christian invaders from northern Europe. While neither Damascus nor Cairo ever passed into Crusader hands the “sacred house,” Jerusalem, fell to them in 1099 and was only recovered by the famous Muslim military leader Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) in 1187. Later, for a brief decade and a half, Jerusalem was again under Crusader control until 1244. It was not until 1291 that the final Frankish stronghold of Acre on the Syrian coast was recovered by Mamluk forces. The Crusader state of Cyprus, however, survived for many decades as a potential base for launching attacks along the Egyptian and Syrian coasts.
