Al-Ghazali
Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (born 1058 in Tus, Khorasan province of Persia _modern day Iran_, died 1111, Tus). Persian Muslim theologian and philosopher, known as Algazel to the western medieval world. Al-Ghazali, or al-Ghazzali as he is written sometimes, contributed significantly to the development of a systematic view of Sufism and its integration and acceptance in mainstream Islam. Al-Ghazali was both a Sufi and a scholar of orthodox Islam, belonging to the Shafi school.
Al-Ghazali remains one of the most celebrated scholars in the history of Islamic thought. He lectured at the Nizamiyyah school of Baghdad (the highest ranked academy of the golden era of Islamic civilization) between 1091 and 1096. He was the scholar per excellence in the Islamic world. He had literally hundreds of scholars attending his lectures at the Nizamiyyah. His audience included scholars from other schools of jurisprudence. This position won him prestige, wealth and respect that even princes and viziers could not match.
After some years he distributed his wealth and left Baghdad to begin a spiritual journey that lasted over a decade. He went to Damascus, Jerusalem, Hebron, Madinah, Makkah and back to Baghdad where he stopped briefly. He then left for Tus to spend the next several years in seclusion. He ended his seclusion for a short lecturing period at the Nizamiyyah of Nishapur in 1106. Later he returned to Tus where he remained until his death in December, 1111.
He is also viewed as the key member of the influential Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy and the most important refuter of Mutazilites.
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Theology
Sufism
Philosophy
Fiqh
Logic
Literature
Links
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