The divorce fatwas and the Damascus citadel imprisonment, 718-721/1318-1321

فتاوى الطلاق وسجن قلعة دمشق، ٧١٨-٧٢١هـ/١٣١٨-١٣٢١م

26 August 1320 CE · 20 Rajab 720 AH – 9 February 1321 CE · 10 Muharram 721 AH

Damascus

In 718/1318 a letter from the sultan forbade Ibn Taymiyya to issue fatwas on repudiation contrary to prevailing Hanbali doctrine: he had denied that three repudiations uttered at once took effect and counted an oath of repudiation a single oath where no repudiation was intended. Two councils presided over by Tankiz in 718 and 719 were followed by a third on 20 Rajab 720/26 August 1320, which found him in breach of the prohibition and condemned him to prison; he spent just over five months in the Damascus citadel, released on 10 Muharram 721/9 February 1321 by decree of al-Malik al-Nasir 1.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Levant & Iraq

In time

131013201330
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era

In space

Damascus

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Overview

In 718/1318 a letter from the sultan forbade Ibn Taymiyya to issue fatwas on repudiation contrary to prevailing Hanbali doctrine: he had denied that three repudiations uttered at once took effect and counted an oath of repudiation a single oath where no repudiation was intended. Two councils presided over by Tankiz in 718 and 719 were followed by a third on 20 Rajab 720/26 August 1320, which found him in breach of the prohibition and condemned him to prison; he spent just over five months in the Damascus citadel, released on 10 Muharram 721/9 February 1321 by decree of al-Malik al-Nasir 1.

Connections

Explore the connections

Had participant
Ibn Taymiyya
Occurred at
Damascus
During the reign of
al-Mustakfi I

People and things also explored

Ibn Kathir attaches himself to Ibn Taymiyya and is tried on his account, about 726-728/1326-1328· Ibn Qayyim attaches himself to Ibn Taymiyya on the latter's return to Damascus, 712/1312-13· The last imprisonment in the Damascus citadel until death, 726-728/1326-1328· Ibn Taymiyya's return to Damascus under Tankiz, 712/1313· Ibn Taymiyya at the victory of Shaqhab, 702/1303· The Wasitiyya councils and the Cairo citadel imprisonment, 705-707/1306-1307· Al-Mizzi takes the shaykhhood of Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyya, Damascus, 718/1318· Al-Mizzi is jailed over Ibn Taymiyya and the Khalq Af'al al-Ibad, 705/1305

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes , vol. 3 p. 985
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The divorce fatwas and the Damascus citadel imprisonment, 718-721/1318-1321”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/ibn-taymiyya-talaq-imprisonment-720/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-09.

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Related

Ibn Kathir attaches himself to Ibn Taymiyya and is tried on his account, about 726-728/1326-1328

Ibn Kathir took knowledge from Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya, became filled with love for him and was tried on his account; Ibn Taymiyya's last trials — the divorce and creed proceedings and his citadel imprisonment in 726 — bore on his students before his death at Damascus in 728.