Letter of Ibn Taymiyya to a Crusader in Cyprus

Abstract

Annotated translation of Taqī al-dīn Aḥmad b. Taymiyya’s (d. 1328) Risāla qubru_iyya. In this letter, written to a crusader baron in Cyprus, probably John II of Giblet (d. 1315), the famous Ḥanbali jurist requests that the Muslim captives in his power be well-treated while awaiting ransom. To his humanitarian appeal, Ibn Taymiyya appends a long exposition on religious history with a view to convincing his interlocutor of the supremacy of Islam over the other Religions of the Book.