Chapter Two
His Era

After acquainting ourselves with this remarkable figure, and with the noble qualities and virtuous manners with which Allah endowed him, it is fitting for us to consider the age in which he lived. It is well established that a person’s surroundings—the environment in which he lives, and the political and social conditions prevailing in his time—leave their imprint on the formation of his character and direct it toward either good or evil.

The influence may, however, be the very opposite: the abundance of corruption can stir one to serious thought about reform, driving the reformer to identify the roots of evil so that he may uproot them, and to detect the latent seeds of good so that he may nurture them. Such was the interaction between Ibn Taymiyyah and his times (1), a subject we shall address under the following headings:
• the political dimension;
• the social dimension;
• the scholarly dimension.

[The Political Dimension]
The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—lived in the closing decades of the seventh and the opening decades of the eighth century AH. During this period the Muslim world was rife with distressing events, meticulously recorded by historians. Here I shall limit myself to pointing out a few matters that typify the era in which Shaykh al-Islam lived.

The Crusaders commenced their raids on the lands of Greater Syria in 491 AH, as is mentioned