FAKHR UD-DIN RAZI (1149-1209), Arabian historian and theologian, was born at Rai (Rei, Rhagae), near Teheran. Here and at Maragha he studied philosophy and theology. He was a Shafi`ite in law and a follower of Ash`ari (q.v.) in theology, and became renowned as a defender of orthodoxy. During a journey in Khwarizm and Mawara'l-nahr he preached both in Persian and Arabic against the sects of Islam. He settled later in Herat, where he died.
His greatest work, the Mafatih ul-Ghaib ("The Keys of Mystery"), an extensive commentary on the Koran appeared at Cairo (8 vols., 1890) . His dogmatic position may be seen from his work Kitab ul Muhassal, which is analysed by Schmolders in his Essai sur les ecoles philosophiques chez les Arabes (Paris, 1842). Extracts from his History of the Dynasties were published by Jourdain in the Fund gruben des Orients (vol. v.), and by D. R. Heinzius (St. Petersburg, 1$28).
See also F. Wiistenfeld, Geschichte der arabischen Arzte, No. 200 (Gottingen, 1840) ; for a list of his works cf. C. Brockelmann's Gesch. der arabischen Literatur, vol. 1 (Weimar, 1898) and M. Schreiner, Zeitschr. der dents. morgenlandischen Gesellsch. vol. 52.
