The first translation of this work by Ibn Taymiyya, one of the greatest thinkers of medieval Islam, the book is a critique of Greek logic, which he saw as the source of the erroneous and heretical metaphysics propounded by medieval philosophers, theologians and mystics.
Ibn Taymiyya, one of the greatest and most prolific thinkers of medieval Islam, held Greek logic responsible for the "heretical" metaphysical conclusions reached by Islamic philosophers, theologians, mystics, and others. Unlike Ghazali, who rejected philosophical metaphysics but embraced
logic, Ibn Taymiyya considered the two inextricably connected. He therefore set out to refute philosophical logic, a task which culminated in one of the most devastating attacks ever levelled against the logical system upheld by the early Greeks, the later commentators, and their Muslim followers.
His argument is grounded in an empirical approach that in many respects prefigures the philosophies of the British empiricists. Hallaq's translation, with a substantial introduction and extensive notes, makes available to a wider audience for the first time an important work that will be of interest
to specialists in ancient and medieval philosophy and to historians of logic and empiricist philosophy, as well as to scholars of Islam and Middle Eastern thought.
This work, Professor Hallaq's most recent, is almost unique to modern studies of Ibn Taymiyah and for this readon deserves our attention. Hallaq has proved an enormously capable writer in his field. ... His profound grasp of the discussions in medieval Arabic works on logic is evident here and in that regard it is an important book.