ABSTRACT
Abu¯ H. a¯mid Muh. ammad ibn Muh. ammad al-Ghaza¯lı¯ was one of the most prominent theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunnı¯ Islam. Later Arabic medieval historians say he was born in 1058 or 1059 in Tabaran-Tus (15 miles/25 kilometers north of modern Meshed, northeast Iran), yet notes about his age in his letters and his autobiography indicate that he was born in 1055 or 1056. Al-Ghaza¯lı¯ received his early education in his hometown of Tus together with his brother Ah. mad (d. 1123 or 1126-7) who later became a famous preacher and S. u¯f ı¯ scholar. Muh. ammad went on to study with the influential Ash arite theologian al-Juwaynı¯ (d. 1085) at the Niz. a¯miyya madrasa in nearby Nishapur. This brought him in close contact with the court of the GrandSeljuq sultan Maliksha¯h (r. 1071-92) and his grand-vizier Niz. a¯m al-Mulk (d. 1092). In 1091 Niz. a¯m al-Mulk appointed al-Ghaza¯lı¯ to the prestigious Niz. a¯miyya madrasa in Baghdad. In addition to being a confidante of the Seljuq sultan and his court in Isfahan, he now became closely connected to the caliphal court in Baghdad. He was undoubtedly the most influential intellectual of his time, when in 1095 he suddenly gave up his posts in Baghdad and left the city. Under the influence of S. u¯f ı¯ literature alGhaza¯lı¯ had begun to change his lifestyle two years before his departure. He realized that the high ethical standards of a virtuous religious life are not compatible with being in the service of sultans, viziers, and caliphs. Benefiting from the riches of the military and political elite implies complicity in their corrupt and oppressive rule and will jeopardize one’s prospect of redemption in the afterlife. When al-Ghaza¯lı¯ left Baghdad in 1095 he went to Damascus and Jerusalem and vowed at the tomb of Abraham in Hebron never again to serve the political authorities or teach at statesponsored schools. He continued to teach, however, at small schools (singular za¯wiya) that were financed by private donations. After performing the pilgrimage in 1096, alGhaza¯lı¯ returned via Baghdad to his hometown Tus, where he founded a small private school and a S. u¯f ı¯ convent (kha¯nqa¯h). In 1106, at the beginning of the sixth century in the Muslim calendar, al-Ghaza¯lı¯ broke his vow and returned to teaching at the Niz. a¯miyya madrasa in Nishapur, where he himself had been a student. To his followers he justified this step with the great amount of theological confusion among the general public and the pressure from authorities at the Seljuq court. Al-Ghaza¯lı¯ regarded himself as one of the renewers (singular muh. yı¯) of religion, who, according to a h. adı¯th, will come every new century. He continued to teach at his za¯wiya in Tus where he died in 1111.
