[532] _Muhammed Ghazáli_, his full name is _Abú Hamed Muhammed Ebn Muhammed_, surnamed _Hajjet ul islam Zain eddin al Tusí_, born at Tus, n Khorasan, in the year of the Hejira 450 (A. D. 1058-9), the son of a merchant of cotton thread, _ghazal_, whence his surname _ghazáli_; he died in 504 or 505 (A. D. 1110-11). In the latter half of his life, which extended very little beyond the half of a century, he composed more than one hundred works, several of which are thick volumes in folio, such as the most celebrated amongst them entitled _Jhyá al âlum eddín_, “the revival of the sciences, concerning faith;” upon which the judgment was passed, that, were the Islam destroyed with all its works except this, from this alone it could be restored in all its perfection. This great dogmatic, ethic, and philosophic work was nevertheless, during the author’s life, condemned as heretical and consigned to the flames, by the Academy of Cordova, in Spain, the western Baghdad, or seat of Muhammedan learning. This composition of Ghazáli has been abridged by _Abul Faśel Ahmed ben Mussa al Arbeli_, under the title _Ruh al Ihyá_, “the spirit of the book entitled Ihyá.” See _Pocock Spec. Hist. Arab._, p. 371; _Herbelot sub voce Ghazálí_; _Hammer’s Gemäldesaal grosser moslimischer Herrsher, III^{ter} Band, S._ 182, 1837. By the last mentioned author was published a Biography of Ghazáli, as introduction to the text and translation of a treatise of Ghazali, under the title: “_O Kind! die berühmteste ethishe Abhandlung of Ghazáli_,” Vienne, 1838. [533] See page 329. [534] The sects may be distinguished by the names of their founders, and called _Hanefites_, _Asharian_, _Keramían_, _Shafeites_, etc.; or by the nature of their doctrine, and named _Sefatian_, “attributists;” _Matazalah_, “separatists;” _Mashabian_, or _Tasbiah_, “assimilators,” etc.; or by their relation to some established doctrine or community, and then entitled _Rafs_, “heretics;” _Navaseb_, “enemies;” finally, these sorts of distinctions may be mixed. No doubt, these various classifications burden the memory with a great number of names which may create confusion. I am sparing in introducing others than those which are in the text of the Dabistan. According to those distinctions, their number may be diversely stated. We have already seen the principal sects reckoned to be _four_; here above are reckoned _six_; the author of _Sharh-ol Mowakef_ (Pocock, p. 209) enumerates _eight_ principal sects.