Ahmad Ghazali

Ahmad Ghazali (Persian: احمد غزالی‎; full name Majd al-Din Abu'l Fotuh Ahmad Ghazali) was a Persian mystic, writer, and eloquent preacher (c. 1061, 1123 or 1126).^[1]

Life

The younger brother of the celebrated theologian, jurist, and Sufi, Abū Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazālī, Aḥmad Ghazali was born in a village near Tous, in Khorasan.

Here he was educated primarily in jurisprudence. He turned to Sufism while still young, becoming the pupil first of Abu Bakr Nassaj Tusi (died 1094) and then of Abu Ali Farmadi (died 1084). He was advanced in Sufism by 1095 and his brother Abū Ḥāmed asked him to teach in his place in the Nezamiya of Baghdad and assume responsibility during his planned absence.

Ahmad Ghazali travelled extensively in the capacities of both Sufi master and a popular preacher. He visited Nishapur, Maragheh, Hamadan and Isfahan. He died in Qazvin and is buried there.

He initiated and trained imminent masters of Sufism including Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani, Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi. The latter was the founder of the Suhrawardi Order and its derivatives such as the Kubrawiya, Mowlawiya and Nematollahi orders.

Works

• Sawaneh, a little book written around 1114 and comprising some 77 short chapters. It was innovative in form, for at a time when Persian Sufi authors used only prose, Ḡazālī had recourse to verse in order to illustrate in metaphorical fashion the themes he expounded more technically in the prose sections of his work.

• Resālat al-ṭayr (or al-ṭoyūr): In this work Ahmad Ghazali employs the metaphor of a bird and its journey. This work set a precedence for the Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur.

Notes

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