A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century — Al-Ghazali — John Shaqi
A Moslem seeker after God : $b showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century
Al-Ghazali · en
[18] See however Gardner’s Al-Ghazali in the “Islam Series” (pp. 1-3)
where we have this note: “The district of Tus contained four towns,
Radkan, Tabaran, Bazdghur, and Nawqan, (Yaqut gives the spelling as
Nuqan) and more than 1,000 villages.” (See Yaqut, quoting Misʾar bin
Mukhalhil, vol. vi, p. 7. Ibn Khallikan, vol. i, p. 29. Jackson, _From
Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam_, p. 267, 284 _ff._) Of these
four towns, Tabaran was the capital, while Nawqan was the most populous.
It was outside of Nawqan that ʿAli bin Musa ar-Rida and Haroun Ar-Rashid
were buried. Thus, the present Mashad represents the old Nawqan, and must
cover some at least of the site of that city; while the ruins now known
as Tus represent the old city of Tabaran, which, having been the capital
of the district, was commonly called by the name of the district. It was
outside Tabaran that Al-Ghazali and Firdausi were buried. It is a mistake
to regard Tus as having been a metropolis containing four boroughs. That
there ever existed a _city_ of Tus stretching thirty-five miles, from
Mashad to Radkan, is incredible. As-Samʾani, in the _Kitabu’l-Ansab_,
says that Tus contained two towns and over one thousand villages.
[19] “The Glory of the Shiah World,” London, 1910. In this book we have
an interesting picture of Mashad and Tus as they are to-day.
[20] “Kashf al-Mahjub,” pp. 173-174.
[21] “Hayat-ul-Hayawan,” by Damiri.
[22] Referred to in his “Life of Al-Ghazzali.”
[23] _Ibn Khallikan_ (Vol. I, p. 29, Cairo, 1310) leaves little doubt
that Samaʾani spells it with one “z,” _Ghazali_. So also is the spelling
of German Orientalists including Brockelmann. He writes (Vol. I, p.
419) “_So_, als Nisbe zu Gazala, einem kleinen Orte bei Tus, nach dem
ausdrücklichen Zeugnis des Samʾanis, jenes ausgezeichneten Kenners
iranischer Namen, (s. o. p. 330) b. j. Hall, nr. 37; die von Gosche 1,
1, nr. 3 auf Grund später, persischer Quellen verteidigte Schreibung
‘Gazzali’ verdankt offenbar einer Volksetymologie ihr Dasein in Anlehnung
an die nach al Samʾani in Hwarizm gebräuchlichen Nisben, wie al Qassari
für al Qassar. Sujuti den Gosche citiert bestätigt keineswegs seine
auffassung, sondern gibt seine Quelle als Samʾani genau wieder.” Clement
Huart (“History of Arabic Literature,” p. 265) gives the preference
to _Ghazali_; so do the French Orientalists in the _Revue du Monde
Mussulman_, Goldziher in his latest work _Vorlesungen über den Islam_
(1910), and the well-known Dutch Arabist, Snouck Hurgronje. Yet in spite
of all this those who prefer “Ghazzali” may appeal to the highest Moslem
authority, namely, Mohammed the Prophet who is said to have declared to
some one in a dream that this was the correct spelling. (See “Murtadha,”
Vol. I, p. 18.) I have a _fatwa_ from the Sheikhs of Al-Azhar, Cairo,
however, stating that the true spelling is now agreed on by Moslems as
_Ghazali_ with one middle radical.
[24] Macdonald.