return from the Pilgrimage he journeyed to Damascus and made his abode there for ten years in the minaret of the Congregational Mosque, and composed several works, of which the _Iḥyá_ is said to be one. Then, after visiting Jerusalem and Alexandria, he returned to his home at Ṭús, intent on writing and worship and constant recitation of the Koran and dissemination of knowledge and avoidance of intercourse with men. The Vizier Fakhru ’l-Mulk,[638] son of the Niẓámu ’l-Mulk, came to see him, and urged him by every means in his power to accept a professorship in the Niẓámiyya College at Naysábúr.[639] Ghazzálí consented, but after teaching for a time, resigned the appointment and returned to end his days in his native town." [Sidenote: His principal works.] Besides his _magnum opus_, the already-mentioned _Iḥyá_, in which he expounds theology and the ethics of religion from the standpoint of the moderate Ṣúfí school, Ghazálí wrote a great number of important works, such as the _Munqidh mina ’l-Ḑalál_, or 'Deliverer from Error,' a sort of 'Apologia pro Vitâ Suâ'; the _Kímiyá’u ’l-Sa‘ádat_, or 'Alchemy of Happiness,' which was originally written in Persian; and the _Taháfutu ’l-Falásifa_, or 'Collapse of the Philosophers,' a polemical treatise designed to refute and destroy the doctrines of Moslem philosophy. This work called forth a rejoinder from the celebrated Ibn Rushd (Averroes), who died at Morocco in 1198-1199 A.D. [Sidenote: Shahrastání's 'Book of Religions and Sects.'] Here we may notice two valuable works on the history of religion, both of which are generally known as _Kitábu ’l-Milal wa-’l-Niḥal_,[640] that is to say, 'The Book of Religions and Sects,' by Ibn Ḥazm of Cordova († 1064 A.D.) and Abu ’l-Fatḥ al-Shahrastání († 1153 A.D.). Ibn Ḥazm we shall meet with again in the chapter which deals specially with the history and literature of the Spanish Moslems. Shahrastání, as he is named after his birthplace, belonged to the opposite extremity of the Muḥammadan Empire, being a native of Khurásán, the huge Eastern province bounded by the Oxus. Cureton, who edited the Arabic text of the _Kitábu ’l-Milal wa-’l-Niḥal_ (London, 1842-1846), gives the following outline of its contents:--