Aṯarī

Athari theology took shape among hadith scholars in the late eighth century, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal led the emerging traditionalist movement. The Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, born in Harran in 1263, became a prominent critic of speculative theology in Damascus.

In 1326 Ibn Taymiyya and his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim were imprisoned in the citadel of Damascus. Released after his teacher's death in 1328, Ibn al-Qayyim taught scholars of the Mamluk period until his own death in 1350.