Ahmad al-Ghazali

Ahmad al-Ghazali (full name Majd al-Din Abu al-Futuh Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali) was a Persian Sufi preacher and writer, the younger brother of the celebrated theologian and mystic Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. In sectarian terms he belonged to the Sunni mainstream and followed the Shafi'i school of law; his Sufism was a mystical current within that tradition, not a separate sect. He was born around 1061 CE in or near Tus, a town in Khurasan in northeastern Iran; this birth date is a traditional estimate rather than a firmly documented fact. Tasawwuf (Sufism, the mystical current of Islam) drew him early, and tradition names two Sufi masters of Tus, Abu Bakr al-Nassaj and Abu Ali al-Farmadi, among his guides.

When his brother Abu Hamid abandoned his celebrated teaching post and left Baghdad around 488/1095 amid a spiritual crisis, Ahmad is reported to have made his way to Baghdad (according to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, via Hamadan) and to have taken over instruction at the Nizamiyya, the great state-funded college there. Whether he formally held the chair, and for how long, is not pinned down by the sources. He became known above all as a powerful preacher whose sermons drew crowds in Baghdad.

His most lasting work is the Sawanih ("Inspirations"), an early and influential Persian prose meditation on mahabba (love) as the bond between Lover, Beloved, and Love itself; later Persian poets drew on its themes. He also wrote on the contested practice of sama (Sufi listening to music and chanting). His most famous disciple was Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadani, who turned to him for guidance around 516/1122; their surviving letters document the relationship.

He died in Qazwin (Qazvin). Sources give his death-year as either 517/1123 or 520/1126; the matter is unsettled, with the Encyclopaedia Iranica favoring 520/1126.