SOURCE: Tibawi, A. L. “Al-Ghazāli's Sojourn in Damascus and Jerusalem.” Islamic Quarterly 9, nos. 1/2 (January/June 1965): 65-77.

In the following essay, Tibawi discusses evidence that al-Ghazālī spent years in Syria under the instruction of scholar Shaikh Nasr and also considers how the Risalah was influenced by al-Ghazālā's residency in Jerusalem.

(1)

The comparatively numerous studies on al-Ghazāli¹ have left an important period of his life as obscure as it has always been. His decision to relinquish the post of chief mudarris at the Nizāmiyyah in Baghdad, his subsequent sojourn in Syria, and his pilgrimage to the Hijaz are, of course, known in general terms, if only from his own very brief autobiographical account in Al-Munqidh min aḍ-Dalāl. But I know of no special study devoted to al-Ghazāli's visit to Syria. Even the fat volume containing the papers read at the ninth...