Birth of Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali was born around 1058 in Tus. A Persian theologian, jurist and mystic born in Tus, al-Ghazali rose to become a professor at the Nizamiyya college in Baghdad, then the leading institution of Sunni learning. In 1095 he went through a spiritual crisis, gave up his post and spent years as a wandering Sufi before returning to teach. His Incoherence of the Philosophers criticized the metaphysics of Avicenna and Greek-influenced philosophers, and his great work, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, joined law, ethics and spiritual practice. His writings helped bring Sufism into mainstream Sunni thought, and he was given the title Proof of Islam. His ideas also reached Latin scholars in medieval Europe.

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