About the Author

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111), theologian, logician, jurist and mystic, was born and died at the town of Tus in Central Asia, but spent much of his life lecturing at Baghdad, or leading the life of a wandering dervish. Because of his success in revealing the compatibility of the outward forms of religion with the inner experiences of the Sufi tradition, he is commonly regarded as the renewer of the fifth Muslim century, and the most influential thinker of mediaeval Islam.

David Burrell is Theodore M. Hesburgh professor of Philosophy and theology at the University of Notre Dame (USA). Nazih Daher is Chairman of the Department of Asian and African Languages at the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State.