The New International Encyclopædia/Al-Gazali, Abu Hamid Mohammed

AL-GAZALI, äl'gȧ-zä'lė, or AL-GAZEL, äl'gȧ-zĕl', Abu Hamid Mohammed (1058-1111). A celebrated Arabian theologian and philosopher, born at Tun, in the province of Khorassan, in eastern Persia. He became a leader of the school of the Aseharites, or Orthodox, and was for a time professor of theology in the university at Bagdad. Subsequently he assumed the rule of the Sufis (see Sufiism), or Mystics, and thus for the most part continued until his death. His eloquence as a lecturer won for him the title of Zeïn-ed-Dîn, or “Ornament of Religion,” and his Revivification of the Sciences of Religion was so highly esteemed by Mussulmans that the saying arose that if only this work wore preserved the loss of all the rest of Islam would be but slight. He wrote also The Destruction of the Philosophers, in refutation of the ancient philosophic doctrine. He was severely attacked by Averroës (q.v.).