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al-Ghazali

al-Ghazali

1058 CE–1111 CE · Tus

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 1 of 121058Born / Early Study

Tus

What they did here

Al-Ghazali was born in or near Tus (Tabaran-Tus) in Khurasan, traditionally in 450 AH/1058; SEP notes his own letters/autobiography point to c. 1055-1056 and treats 1058/1059 as the later historians' estimate. He received his earliest instruction here. (EI2; SEP s.v. al-Ghazali)

About Tus

Tus is an ancient city of Khurasan in northeastern Iran, near modern Mashhad. The Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid died there in 809, and the imam Ali al-Rida was buried in 818 beside him at nearby Sanabad; the shrine that grew around his tomb gave Mashhad its name. The poet Ferdowsi, born in a village near Tus, died and was buried there, and the theologian al-Ghazali was born in its district and died there in 1111. Other figures associated with the city include Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Shaykh Tusi and Jabir ibn Hayyan. The Mongols sacked Tus in 1220.

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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)