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al-Ghazali

al-Ghazali

1058 CE–1111 CE · Gorgan (Jurjan)

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (Latinized as "Algazel") was one of the most influential thinkers of Sunni Islam. He worked in law, kalam (Islamic scholastic theology), usul al-fiqh (the theory of how law is derived), and tasawwuf (Sufism, the mystical path). He was born in or near Tus in Khurasan (north-eastern Iran); his birth is usually placed at 450 AH/1058, though his own writings suggest a slightly earlier date around 1055-1056, so the year is disputed.

He studied jurisprudence at Jurjan and then, decisively, at Nishapur under al-Juwayni, the leading Shafi'i jurist of the age. He entered the circle of the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk and in 484/1091 was appointed to the prestigious Nizamiyya college in Baghdad, becoming a celebrated public teacher.

In 1095, by his own account in al-Munqidh min al-Dalal ("Deliverance from Error"), he underwent a spiritual crisis, left his post, and adopted a life of withdrawal and devotion, travelling to Damascus and Jerusalem and making the pilgrimage. He later returned home and resumed teaching, including a period at Nishapur from 499/1106, before settling again in Tus, where he died in 505/1111.

His Tahafut al-Falasifa ("The Incoherence of the Philosophers") is a famous critique of the Aristotelian falsafa tradition; the Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din ("Revival of the Religious Sciences") integrates law, theology and Sufism. Sunni tradition honours him as a renewer of religion, while his standing has been debated across schools.

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Did you know?

  • The star professor who walked away from the top post

    In 1091, at about 33, al-Ghazali (1058–1111) was appointed to one of the most prestigious teaching chairs in the Islamic world, at the Nizamiyya college of Baghdad. Roughly four years later a personal crisis left him, by his own account, unable to lecture; he gave up the post, parted with much of his wealth, and spent about a decade wandering and in seclusion before returning to teaching. He described the ordeal in an autobiography, "Deliverance from Error" (al-Munqidh min al-Dalal).

    How we know

    al-Ghazali b. 1058 – d. 1111; appointed Nizamiyya of Baghdad July 1091 (age ~33); left amid a crisis 1095; resumed teaching (Nizamiyya of Nishapur) c. 1106; autobiography al-Munqidh min al-Dalal ("Deliverance from Error").

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Stop 2 of 91073Studied (Fiqh)

Gorgan (Jurjan)

What they did here

As a young man al-Ghazali is reported to have travelled to Jurjan (Gurgan) to study jurisprudence under the Shafi'i jurist Abu Nasr al-Isma'ili. This rests on the biographical (manaqib) tradition reported in reference works; the year is interpolated for ordering. (EI2; biographical tradition — not in SEP)

About Gorgan (Jurjan)

Gorgan, the medieval Jurjan, lies southeast of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and was a major city of the region until its decline after the Mongol invasions. It was a centre of learning whose libraries and circles drew scholars; the philosopher Ibn Sina spent a period there, where he is said to have begun work on the Canon of Medicine.

See other sages who lived in Gorgan (Jurjan)→

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with al-Ghazali’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(27)