La fetua de Ibn Taymiyya sobre los monjes

Abstract

Presentation and annotated translation of a fatw~ by Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) in which he discusses the licitness of allowing monks to live in Islamic lands without paying the poll-tax. The famous . hanbali jurist bases his answer on Caliph Abu Bakr’s recommendations to Yazid b. Abi Sufyan before sending him off on the conquest of Syria and Palestine. Abu Bakr distinguishes here between individuals who claim to have secluded themselves for God, and whose lives must be spared, and individuals «who have made the crown of their heads like a nest», that is, who wear the tonsure, and do not enjoy the same immunity.