Taymiyyan Diplomacy, or ‘What Brings One Close to God’: Revisiting Ibn Taymiyya’s Letter to a Christian Lord in Cyprus

This article challenges the conventional reading of Ibn Taymiyya’s Al-Risāla al-qubrus. iyya as an apologetic work. This interpretation marginalizes the letter’s purpose and overlooks its structural coherence. By re-examining the text in light of its historical context and rhetorical strategy, the article argues that the letter should be understood as a ‘diplomatic-like’ appeal – a carefully crafted request aimed at persuading its recipient to release a group of Muslim captives held in Cyprus. This situates the letter within Ibn Taymiyya’s broader experience in negotiating with the Mongol authorities, highlighting his ‘diplomatic’ undertakings in moments of acute military and political crisis. Shaped by the letter’s dense, cross-confessional language, polemics and persuasion are part of the same intended message. Ibn Taymiyya grounds his request in the dialectical truth of Islam, which is theologically at odds with Christianity but in line with Jesus’s ethical teachings. He crafts his requests as a sincere piece of advice (nas. īh. a), an act of moral concern according to which kindness to captives is both a religious duty and a path to future benefit. The article also offers new insights into the likely identity of the letter’s recipient.