Ibn Taymiyya

Ibn Taymiyya was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist and theologian of the Hanbali school, born in Harran in 1263, whose family fled the Mongol invasion to Damascus in 1269. He issued fatwas declaring the Mongol Ilkhanids unbelievers and calling for jihad against them, fought at the Battle of Marj al-Saffar, and wrote polemics against Shia Islam, Ash'arism and philosophy and against the veneration of saints at their tombs. Accused of anthropomorphism and censured for his rulings, he was imprisoned several times and died in the Citadel of Damascus in 1328. His writings later influenced Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and modern Salafi and militant Islamist movements.