Al-Ghazali

Al-Ghazali was a Persian Islamic theologian, jurist, philosopher and mystic of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers in the history of Sunni Islam. He held a prestigious teaching post at the Nizamiyya madrasa in Baghdad before undergoing a profound spiritual crisis around 1095 that led him to abandon his position and spend years as a wandering ascetic, an experience that reshaped his intellectual outlook toward mysticism. His major works include "The Incoherence of the Philosophers," a systematic critique of the Hellenistic-influenced rationalist philosophy of thinkers such as Avicenna, and "The Revival of the Religious Sciences," an expansive synthesis of Islamic law, theology and Sufi spiritual practice that argued for integrating rigorous scholarship with genuine inner devotion. His work is credited with helping to bring Sufi mysticism into the mainstream of orthodox Sunni religious thought, reconciling currents that had previously been treated with more suspicion by many jurists, and his influence extended well beyond the Islamic world into medieval Jewish and Christian scholastic philosophy. He died in 1111 in his native city of Tus, in present-day Iran.