Marginalized medieval scholars become central references for later revolutionary movements.

Evidence

The followers of Muhammad Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab considered the ideas of the Hanbali theologian Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328 CE) highly attractive and made him their central classical scholarly reference. However, for centuries Ibn Taymiyya’s thoughts were mostly ignored by those who constituted the scholarly mainstream; who would accuse the Wahhabis for overemphasizing the scholarly works of Ibn Taymiyya. It was only during the 19th century that Ibn Taymiyya came to exercise prominent scholarly influence over Muslim youth and by the 20th century he would be a major reference for Islamic revolutionaries. — Wikipedia contributors, Wahhabism, 181

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the Black Marxism pathway where a marginal, heterodox intellectual lineage later becomes the animating canon of a mass political movement.
• SEED: Angle: ‘The rehabilitation of the ignored scholar’ — how a defunct theological corpus gets exhumed and weaponized centuries later, and what conditions make that possible.