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ḠAZĀLĪ v. AS A FAQĪH Ḡazālī’s legal education is said to have began at a young age. As a youth, he had already begun to study Shafiʿite law under Shaikh Aḥmad b. Moḥammad Rādkānī, a prominent jurist of his home city, Ṭūs. He later traveled to Jorjān, where he continued…

ḠAZĀLĪ vi. ḠAZĀLĪ AND THEOLOGY When considering the theology of Ḡazālī two related questions immediately arise. The first is his attitude towards Islamic speculative/dialectical theology (kalām). The second is the extent to which he is committed to one of its main schools, the Ashʿarite. Ḡazālī was trained both as a…

ḠAZĀLĪ vii. Ḡazālī and the Bāṭenīs. viii. Impact on Islamic thought. See Supplement.   vii. ḠAZĀLĪ AND THE BĀṬENĪS The Bāṭenīya, or Ismaʿilis, occupied Ḡazālī’s mind throughout his writing career. He devoted more space to refuting them than to any other school of Islamic thought. Even in his autobiographical al-Monqeḏ…

ḠAZĀLĪ, AJD-AL-DĪN Abu’l-Fotūḥ AḤMAD, b. Moḥammad b. Aḥmad, outstanding mystic, writer, and eloquent preacher (b. ca. 453/1061, d. 517/1123 or 520/1126). The younger brother of the celebrated theologian, jurist, and Sufi, Abū Ḥāmed Moḥammad Ḡazālī (q.v.), Aḥmad Ḡazālī was born in Ṭābarān, a village near the city of Ṭūs in…

ḠĀZĀN KHAN, MAḤMŪD (b. 29 Rabīʿ I 670/5 November 1271; d. 11 Šawwāl 703/17 May 1304), the oldest son of Arḡūn Khan and his eventual successor as the seventh Il-khanid ruler of Persia (r. 694-703/1295-1304). Following his father’s accession in 683/1284, he was appointed governor of the eastern provinces, i.e., Khorasan,…

ḠĀZĀN-NĀMA, a verse chronicle of the reign of the Il-khan Ḡāzān Khan (694-703/1295-1304), by Ḵᵛāja Nūr-al-Dīn b. Šams-al-Dīn Moḥammad Aždarī. The work, in the style of Ferdowsī’s Šāh-nāma, was started in 758/1357 (fol. 13r) and completed in 763/1362 (fol. 300r); it was dedicated to the Jalayerid ruler, Oways b. Ḥasan….

ḠAŻĀʾERĪ, nesba of two Imami authors and traditionists. 1. Abū ʿAbd-Allāh Ḥosayn b. ʿObayd-Allāh b. Ebrāhīm, reportedly a leading scholar of his generation (d. mid-Ṣafar 411/June 1020). Little is known of his life. He traveled widely (Ebn Ḥajar, II, p. 364), studying among others with the Baḡdādī scholar Ebn Jeʿābī…

ḠAŻĀʾERĪ RĀZĪ (ḠAŻĀYERĪ RĀZĪ), ABŪ ZAYD MOḤAMMAD, b. ʿAlī, Persian poet of the early 5th/11th century. His nesba identifies him as a native of Ray. His pen-name occurs in the early sources, in verse and prose, both as Ḡażāʾerī and Ḡażārī. Neẓāmī ʿArūżī lists him among the poets of the…

GAŽDAHAM, an Iranian hero of Dež-e Safīd (q.v.), a fortress near the border seperating Iran from Tūrān, during the reigns of the Kayanid kings Nōḏar and Kay Kāvūs (Šāh-nāma, ed. Khaleghi, I, p. 305; II, pp. 130-40). Already an old man in the reign of Kay Kāvūs, Gaždaham was unable…

ḠAZNAVĪ, ABŪ RAJĀʾ, a poet at the court of the Ghaznavid sultan Bahrāmšāh b. Masʿūd III (r. 511-?522/1117-?1157). His dīvān, mentioned by Sadīd-al-Dīn ʿAwfī, has not survived, but a few of his poems are quoted by later anthologists and historians who refer to him under a variety of appellations and…

ḠAZNĪ (or Ḡazna, Ḡaznīn), province and city in southeastern Afghanistan, the latter situated 136 km south of Kabul at an altitude of about 2,200 meters (lat 33°34´ N, long 68°27´ E). i. Historical geography. ii. Monuments and inscriptions.   i. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY The town of Ḡaznī dominates the route which,…