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Ibn Sina and his Influence on the Arabic and Latin World * BY JULES
JANSSENS

Article  in  Journal of Islamic Studies · January 2009

DOI: 10.1093/jis/etn083 · Source: OAI

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 b o ok r e v i e w s 99
requirements laid out by God’s law. Ibn Taymiyya’s activity, like that of a mufti,
is to respond to enquiries concerning what should rightly be said about God (p. 24).
I am unsure how useful this definition is, both for the book under discussion or
for the study of Ibn Taymiyya in general. The term ‘apologetic’ implies a
derivative defense of inherited theology through rational means. As the author
himself so skillfully demonstrates, Ibn Taymiyya is anything but a defender of
inherited theology, and he is constantly devising new ways of talking about God,
even when he ostensibly claims to speak for tradition and for the salaf. While Ibn
Taymiyya does seek to make rational sense of material in revelation, such a
rationalization seems to me characteristic of much medieval theology and does
not really set him apart from other Muslim thinkers. As for the ‘juridical’ label,

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I find it slightly misleading. It does insightfully highlight the connection Ibn
Taymiyya makes between theology and practice. It also seems closely related to
Laoust’s notion of Ibn Taymiyya’s theology as an instrumental effort to portray
God in a way that motivates worship. However, the label ‘juridical’ also seems to
me to imply a limitation of the realm of theology to practical questions about the
correct nature of God without seeking to gain an understanding of God’s nature.
In fact, Hoover is much more enlightening when he sums up the Taymiyyan
theology in the Conclusion as that of a God ‘willing and creating things in the
world for wise purposes from eternity in the best possible way’ (p. 237). Ibn
Taymiyya’s original and rational vision of God is revealed to us through Hoover’s
patient and detailed readings of Ibn Taymiyya’s theodicy. The monograph as a
whole is a remarkable feat of scholarship, especially given the nature of Ibn
Taymiyya’s extensive works and the absence of an agreed chronology. The tone is
always cautious and balanced, and Hoover is never shy of pointing out the
weaknesses in Ibn Taymiyya’s arguments. Yet the author also retains Ibn
Taymiyya’s distinctive use of metaphors and analogies, enlivening the text and
enriching it. The careful bibliography of Ibn Taymiyya’s works at the end of the
volume will surely prove to be a useful reference tool for future research.
The work is probably a touch too heavy and complex to be an introduction
to Ibn Taymiyya’s theology, but it is essential reading for all scholars working
on any aspect of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought, or on questions of free will and
predetermination in Islamic tradition.
Yossef Rapoport
Queen Mary University of London
E-mail: y.rapoport@qmul.ac.uk
doi:10.1093/jis/etn079

Ibn Sina and his Influence on the Arabic and Latin World
By Jules Janssens (Aldershot: Ashgate–Variorum, 2006), xii, 320 pp.
Price £60.00. EAN 978–0860789871.

Like all collected works in the Ashgate–Variorum publications, one does not
expect anything in these books that has not been published before. This is one of
 100 bo o k re vi ews
the very few exceptions in that it has a new chapter published here for the first
time under the appropriate title ‘Ibn Sina and his heritage in the Islamic world
and in the Latin West’. As such it works as an introduction and at the same time
defines the contours of the framework within which this book should be read. It
leads the reader into an exploration of Arabic and Persian texts where one could
detect the influence of Avicenna’s ideas and at the same time widens the
exploration to include mainly scholastic Latin texts where Avicenna’s ideas were
taken just as seriously, sometimes adopted, sometimes critiqued, but negotiated
as serious philosophical ideas upon which new philosophies could be built.
The sixteen remaining pieces in this collection, almost half in French and the
other half in English, all deal with various aspects of Avicennian philosophy and

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trace the passage of that philosophy in the most subtle ways, so subtle as to be
found in places where no one would have expected they had such a wide appeal
both in the East as well as in the West. The eastern legacy is not restricted to
Arabic works, and naturally includes Persian.
The book is concluded with a niggardly index of just two pages, restricted, in
an obsolete French style, to proper names only and no indication of subject
matter. Furthermore the book has no errata, addenda, or after-thoughts about
any of the articles in the collection.
The most interesting part of this book is the collection of articles, IX, X, XI,
which deal with the complex relationship between al-Ghaz:l;’s and Ibn S;n:’s
philosophies. It is in that group of articles that Janssens does the hard work of
peeling one layer after another to show the intimate connection between those
two men, and how heavily indebted al-Ghaz:l; was to his predecessor Ibn S;n:,
thereby managing to raise doubt about the common wisdom that portrays
al-Ghaz:l; as monolithically attacking Avicenna. But more importantly this
group of articles also establishes the iconoclastic tendency of Janssens to swim
against the current and to always come back with the most interesting results.
For readers who do not already know the work of Janssens, this book is a
good start.
George Saliba
Columbia University
E-mail: gsaliba@columbia.edu
doi:10.1093/jis/etn083

Christian Criticisms, Islamic Proofs: Rashid Rida’s Modernist Defense

of Islam
Translation and analysis by Simon A. Wood (Oxford: Oneworld,
2008), 226 pp. Price HB £40.00. EAN 978–1851684618.

Despite growing academic interest in the field of modern Islamic thought, many
works of the most prominent Muslim thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth
century have still not been made available in European languages. Nor have
scholars generally been concerned with detailed analyses of the actual contents of

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