al-Ghazali website

Main: Biography: Original Source Material

  1. Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi (d. 529/1135) - Entry on Ghazali originally from “History of Nishapur” Ghazali's student. (source:  “Tabaqat al-shaifi'iyya al-kubra ), alternate source: Ibrahim al-Siyrafini's condensation of ʻ Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi's al-siyaq li-t ārīkh Nishapur (History of Nishapur) titled: "al-muntakhab min al-siyaq li-t ārīkh Nishapur " (Selections from the "History of Nishapur") (المنتخب من السياق لتاريخ نيسابور) (PDF)
  2. Eulogy by: al-Abi wardī (Abu l-Muzaffar Muhammad ibn Ahmad) from Abiward in Khorasan (d. 507/1113) quoted by Yaqūt.

  3. Abū Bakr ibn al-ʻArabī (d.543/1143)-(العواصم من القواصم) “al-‘Awasim min al-qawasim” Ghazali's student. (found in some editions: A. Talabi) (PDF)  
  4.   Ibn ‘Asakir (d. 571/1176)

    1. (تبين كذب المفتري فيما نسب للأشعري)Tabyin kadhib al-muftari”; matbaʻt al-tawfiq, Damascus, 1347/1924, pp. 291-306.

    2. Also in “Tārīkh madīnat dimashiq” (pdf)

  5. Ibn Ṭufayl (d. 581/1186), in his famous book Ḥayy bin Yaqẓān.
  6. Ibn al-Jawzi  (d. 597/1201) (المنتطم في تاريخ الملوك والامم) al-Muntaẓam fī tārīkh al-mulūk wa-al-umam, Ḥaydarābād : Maṭbaʻat Dāʾirat al-Maʻārif al-ʻUthmānīyah, 1357- [1938- ] vol. 9. pp. 168-170. (PDF) Also inculded is Beirut, 1992. htm 

  7. Yaqūt al-amwī (d. 626/1229) in his Muʻjam al-buldān (pdf) Dār Ṣādir, Beirut, 1977, v.4, p49-50

  8. Ibn al-Ṣalāh (d. 634/1237) Ṭabaqāt al-fuqahāʾ al-shāfiʿiyya.
  9. Ibn al-ʾAthīr (d. 636/1239) “al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh” vol. 10. p. 173.

  10. Ṣibṭ ibn al-Jawzī  (d. 654/1257) (مرآة الزمان) Mirʾat al-zaman” (PDF

  11. al-Nawawī (d. 676/1277), Mukhtaṣar Ṭabaqāt fuqahāʾ.

  12. Abī al-ʻAbbās Shams al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Bakr ibn Khallikān  (d. 681/1282) - (وفيات الأعيان وانباء ابناء الزمان)  Wafīyāt al-aʻyān wa-anbāʾ abnāʾ al-zamān, taḥqīq Iḥsān ʻAbbās, Dār Ṣādir, Beirut,1971, vol4. 216-219.  The pdf file includes an English translation by: Baron M. de Slane. Beirut, Librairie du Liban, 1970. pp. 621-624 and a bio of his brother from vol. 1 pp. 97-8. (pdf)

  13. Al-Dhahabi (d. 748/1348)

    1. (سير إعلام النبلاء)  - “Siyar aʻlam al-nubalaʾ (pdf) also in html

    2. ( تاريخ الإسلام ) “Tārīkh al-islam” (pdf)

    3. al-ʻ Abar fi khabr man ghabr Beirut: 1985, Dar al-kutub al-ʿilmyah

  14. Al-Yafiʻi (d. 768/1367) - (مرآة الجنان وعبرة اليقظان) Mirʾat al-Jinan (PDF) also in html
  15. - and also: al-Yafi, Mirat al-Jinan, Beirut, Dar al-kutub al-ʿilmya, vol.3 pp136-146 (pdf).
  16. Abū al-Fidāʾ, Ismāʿīl b. ʿAlī b. Maḥmūd (d. 732/1331), al-Mukhtaṣar fī akhār al-bashar. (pdf) vol. 2, p.237.
  17. Ibn al-Wardī, ʿUmar b. al-Muẓaffar (d. 750/1349), Tārīkh Ibn al-Wardī. (pdf) vol. 2 p. 21
  18. Subkī, (طبقات الشافعية الكبرى) Taj al-din ibn al-Subki (d. 771/1370) “Ṭabaqat al-shāfiʿiya al-kubra” vol. 6. pp. 191-389. A biography of al-Subki is online. (link) (in PDF complete)
  19. This is the most important biographical entry on Ghazālī.
  20. Ibn Kathīr (d. 774/1373) “al-Bidāya wal-nihāya” (link to the whole book, article only in PDF) ed. Abdullah al-Turki; Giza: 1998, dar Hajr, 16:213-215.

  21. al-Wasṭī, ( الطبقات العلية للواسطي ) Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Wasti (d. 776/1374) "al-tabaqat al-ʻulya fi manaqib al-shafiʻiya" pdf . From A.A. al-ʿAsam's al-falisuf al-Ghazali. Beirut: dar al-Andlus, 1981 2nd ed. with addendum, pp. 153-194. 

  22. Ibn al-Mulaqqan (d. 790/1388) “al-ʻAqd al-mudhahab fi tabaqat hamlat al-madhab” (PDF

  23. Taqi al-din ibn Qadi Shahbah (d. 851/1447) “Tabaqat al-Shafiʻiya” (PDF)

  24. Ibn Taghrībirdī (d. 874/1470), al-nujum al-zahira' vol. 5, p. 203.
  25. Rawdat al-janat, pp. 180-185.

  26. al-ʻaini (d. 855/1451) "ʻaqd al-juman"

  27. al-Jami (d. 898/1492) "Nafakhat al-uns"

  28. Tash Kubari Zadah (d. 962/1365) “Miftah al-saʻadah wa misbah al-siyadah” (PDF

  29. Ṣalāḥ al-dīn Al-ṢafadI (d. 964/1367) “al-Wafi fi l-wafiyat”, vol. 1, pp. 247-277

  30. Abū Bakr b. Hidāyat Allāh al-Ḥusaynī (d. 1014/1605 or 6), Ṭabaqāt al-shāfiʿiyya. Also known as Ṭabaqāt Ibn Hidāyat Allāh. pp. 69-71.

  31. Lubab, vol. 2. p. 170.

  32. al-Minawi (d. 1031/1621) al-Kawākib al-durriyya fī tarājim al-sāda al-ṣūfiyya
  33. al-ʻaydrawis baʻ Alwī (d. 1038/1628) in his Taʿrīf al-aḥyāʾ bi-faḍāʾil al-Iḥyāʾ (PDF) Printed on the Margins of Zabidi's Ithaf.

  34. Ibn al-ʻImad al-hanbali (d.1089/1679) - “Shadharat al-dhahab fi akhbar man dhahab Beirut: 1989, Dar ibn Kathir; 6:18-22.

  35. al-Ghazali: From the commentary on Ihya' (Ithaf al-sadah al-mutaqin bi sharh ihya' ʻulum al-din) by Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1791): (Introduction pp. 1-55). Important work on his life and authenticity of his works.

  36. al-‘Uthman, ‘Abdelkarim. Sirat al-Ghazali wa-Aqwal al-Mutaqaddimin fihi [The Life of al-Ghazali and the Remarks of the Ancients concerning him ]. (Damascus: Dar al-Fikr, n.d.) A compilation of important biographical original source material presented at the Ghazali millenary 900 years since his birth held in Damascus, 1961. (PDF) To keep the volume size down the complier took the liberity of excising the repeated material in individual biography. Note that all the above biographical material is not included in this book.

 The above are a complete list of biographies as far as I know of the Arabic sources. Whereas the rest are secondary biographical sources on al-Ghazali. A listing of Ghazali's main teachers with whom he learned.

 

 

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