GHAZZA'LI, Asir HA.31rD 1110HA3131ED Inv AIDSAD, surnamed ZAINEDDM of the law), one of the most eminent Mohammedan philosophers and divines, an one of the warmest adherents of Sufism (q.v.), b. in 450 tr. (1038 A.D.) at Tus, in Khorassan, the birthplace also of Firdusi, and burial-place of Harlin-al-Rashid. The surname of Ghazzall was given to him, according to some, because his father dealt in ghazal or spun cotton. Left an orphan at an early age, by the advice of his guardian, a Sufi, he went to Djorshan, with the intention of devoting himself to study and science, as a means of support, and became the favorite pupil of Abu Nasr Ismail, an eminent teacher of the time. He afterwards betook himself to Nishapur, where he attended the lectures of the learned Imam of the two sanctuaries (Mecca and Medina) on law, polemics, philosophy, and theology, and remained till the death of his instructor. The grand vizier of Bag dad then appointed him (1091 A.D.) to a professorship at his 1tiisamje (university), which be left four years later, in order to perform the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. On his return, he visited Jerusalem and Damascus, and remained for ten years at the mosque of the latter place, leading a studious and ascetic life. He afterwards visited Cairo, Alexandria, and other places in Africa, everywhere teaching and lecturing on religion and science, and also returned for a short time to Nishapnr; but he finally went back to Tus, his native place, where he died 505 n. (1111 A.D.), having founded a monastery for
Sufis, and a college for the studious.
Of the ninety-nine works written by him (most in Arabic, a few in Persian), the most famous is his /7/jci Olam ad-Din (Restoration of Religious Sciences), a work so remarkable and exhaustive, that it has been said: " If all the books of the Islam were lost, and we had only this one left, we should not miss the others" (17aji Kkalifa11). The academies of the West, however, Cordova, Morocco, Fez, etc., condemned it as con trary to the teachings of the Sunna (q.v.), and had it publicly burned. Next in impor tance stands his great philosophical work Taltafat Al-Fildsaph (The Overturning of the Philosophers), which has survived only in Hebrew translations, and which gave rise to a warmly contested controversy between him and A_verrotfs (Ibn Roshd). We may men tion also his commentary on the ninety-nine names of God, and an ethical treatise, 0 Child! published and translated into German by Hammer-Purgstall. About one-third only of his works are known to have survived, and of these but a very small part have been published.