SOURCE: Watt, W. Montgomery. “The World of al-Ghazālī.” In Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali, pp. 7-24. Edinburgh: The Edinburgh University Press, 1963.

In the following excerpt, Watt provides political, religious, and intellectual background to the education of al-Ghazālī.

1 the Political Background

In a sense the background of the life of any individual is the whole previous history of his civilization. For an understanding of al-Ghazālī it will be sufficient to glance briefly at the history of the Islamic empire or caliphate from the death of Muḥammad in 632 to the birth of al-Ghazālī in 1058. In these four centuries four main phases may be distinguished, which may be labelled: conquests; conversion; disintegration; reconstitution. These phases follow one another chronologically, but overlap to some extent.

(1) the Conquests.

As Muḥammad lay on his death-bed in Medina an expedition was being assembled on the outskirts of the...