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).

One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.