Abū āmid al-Ghazālī

A Sunni Muslim theologian and religious thinker, his Latin name was Algazel. He was born in Tus, Iran, and studied theology and Islamic jurisprudence under Imamul Haramain, a master of Ashari theology, at the seminary in Neyshabur.

He was highly renowned as a scholar from an early age, and was recommended by Nizam al-Mulk, the Seljuk vizier, to become a professor at the Nizamiya School in Baghdad, the highest educational institution in the Sunni world at that time. There, he wrote books criticizing the Shiite sects as a Sunni apologist, and studied Hellenistic philosophy and wrote books criticizing it. As he led a busy life as a teacher, researcher, and apologist, he fell into serious mental distress and developed a kind of aphasia. In 1095, he left his teaching position, renounced everything, and became a traveling Sufi (Islamic mystic), wandering around the Middle East. It was a journey to heal the distress of his soul. Eventually, having mastered the true faith, he returned to his hometown of Tus, where he lived a life of seclusion devoted to writing and meditation, and died there at the age of 52.

Ghazali's thought, which was full of ups and downs in both his real life and his mind, has many different aspects. However, in his later years, he established his own religious thought based on a subjective experience of God. Although it was heavily influenced by Islamic mysticism, he rejected extreme theories such as the idea of ​​the unity of God and man, and developed a method of reaching divine awareness through thorough self-knowledge through detailed analysis of the human mind. Ghazali's thought determined the ideological trends in the Sunni world thereafter. In addition, Ghazali's book "The Self-Contradiction of the Philosopher," a criticism of Hellenistic philosophy, which was written in the process of completing this religious thought, dealt a fatal blow to philosophical research in the Sunni world. He wrote numerous books in Arabic and Persian, but his most famous works include "The Rebirth of Religious Sciences," "The Alchemy of Happiness," "The Self-Contradiction of the Philosopher," and "Salvation from Error."

[Koro Matsumoto April 18, 2018]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イスラム教スンニー派の神学者、宗教思想家。ラテン名アルガゼルAlgazel。イランのトゥースに生まれ、ネイシャーブールの神学校でアシュアリー派神学の巨匠イマームル・ハラマインに師事し、神学、イスラム法学を学ぶ。

　早くから学者としての名声高く、セルジューク朝の宰相ニザーム・アルムルクの推挙により、当時スンニー派世界の最高学府であったバグダードのニザーミーヤ学院の教授となる。ここでスンニー派護教学者としてシーア諸派に対する批判の書を著したり、ヘレニズム哲学を研究、その批判の書を書いたりした。こうして教師、研究者、護教論学者として多忙を極める生活を送るうちに深刻な精神的苦悩に陥り、一種の失語症になる。1095年に教職を去り、いっさいを放棄して遍歴のスーフィー（イスラム神秘家）となり、中東各地を放浪した。それは霊魂の苦悩をいやすための旅であった。やがて真の信仰を体得して故郷のトゥースに帰り、著述と瞑想(めいそう)に専念する隠遁(いんとん)生活に入り、52歳でこの地に没した。

　実生活においても、精神的にも波瀾(はらん)に富む生涯を送ったガザーリーの思想はさまざまな側面をもっている。しかし、晩年に至って、主体的神体験を根拠とした独自の宗教思想を確立している。それはイスラム神秘思想から多くの影響を受けているが、神人合一思想のような極端な説を退け、人間精神の詳細な分析による自己認識の徹底を通し神認識に至る方法を開発している。このガザーリーの思想は、それ以後のスンニー派世界の思想的動向を決定的に規定している。また、このような宗教思想を完成する過程で書かれたヘレニズム哲学批判の書『哲学者の自己矛盾』は、スンニー派世界における哲学研究に致命的な打撃を与えた。著作はアラビア語、ペルシア語によってなされ、おびただしい数に上るが、『宗教諸学の再生』『幸福の錬金術』『哲学者の自己矛盾』『誤謬(ごびゅう)よりの救済』などが有名である。

［松本耿郎　2018年4月18日］

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