AL

-
GHAZL OR AL
-
GHAZZL?
ON A LIVELY DEBATE AMONG AYYBID AND
MAMLK HISTORIANS IN DAMASCUS
Frank Griffel
How to spell and pronounce the nisba, the adjective of relation or the
family name of the great Muslim theologian and jurist Ab Hmid
Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazl, who died in 505/1111 in his
birthplace Tabarn in the district of Ts in Khorasan, is a contested
subject among scholars in contemporary Islamic studies. While in Iran,
in past and present, he is widely known as Ghazzl, the Arab world is
probably equally split between those who pronounce his name with a
tashdd, a gemination, of the zy and those who omit the shadda. In the
West there is now a clear tendency to write his name with just one z.
While some Western scholars write al-Ghazzl, both two major works of
reference in this eld of study published during the second half of the
twentieth century, the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam and
the Encyclopaedia Iranica,
1
opted for the spelling with one z. In the past
the matter was much more confusing. Carl Brockelmann in his Geschichte
der arabischen Litteratur of 1898 initially wrote al-Ghazl and defended his
choice by quoting evidence from classical Arabic literature.
2
Yet, in the
Supplement-volumes to this work, published in 1937, and in the second
edition of 1943, Brockelmann writes the name with a double-z.
3
This
change of opinion was prompted by conicting evidence to the one
quoted earlier, taken both from classical Arabic literature and Persian
1
Cf. G. Bwering et al., azl, in EIr, x, pp. 35877.
2
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (= GAL), 2 vols. (Weimar,
18981902), i, p. 419. Brockelmann quotes Ibn Khallikns (d. 681/1282) claim that
Ibn al-Samn (d. 562/1166) in his Kitb al-ansb opted for al-Ghazl. Ibn al-Samn,
writes Brockelmann, was the greatest authority on Arabic family names (ansb). Yet,
Brockelmann disregards Ibn Khallikns balancing conclusion, which is uncommitted to
either spelling; cf. Wafayt al-ayn wa-anb abn al-zamn, ed. I. Abbs, 8 vols. (Beirut,
196877), i, p. 98. Al-Samns Kitb al-ansb was not available to Brockelmann. When
it was rst published in 1912, the fact that the quoted comment is lacking became one
of several reasons for Brockelmann to change his mind.
3
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2 vols. (Leiden,
2
194349), i, 535
and Supplement, 3 vols. (Leiden, 193742), i, p. 744.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 101 12/17/2007 8:53:16 PM
102 frank griffel
poetry, where the meter of some poems dictates the reading Ghazzl.
The amount of confusion about this matter might be illustrated by the
fact that while the rst edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islm, which was
published between 1908 and 1936, writes the scholars name with one
z, the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, which was published in 1953 and
which is just a selection of articles from the former, makes an editorial
change in the very same text published earlier and writes the name
with two z.
4
The subsequent tendency towards a spelling with one z seems to be
a result of William M. Watts argument from the early 1960s: since the
classical Arab sources attest both forms of spelling with equal right, the
one with the more complex explanationmeaning: the one that seems
more farfetchedshould be accepted on an analogy with the principle
of difcilior lectio potius.
5
Watt supposed that while the reasons for the two
spellings of al-Ghazls name are known, the information about which
one is correct is shrouded in history and will probably never become
available to us. Yet, Watt assumed that one of the two explanations,
namely the one that leads to a spelling with two z, is so obvious that it
begs the question why a second one had been put forward. The fact that
there were always Muslim scholars who defended the reading with one
zy, which according to Watt is much more obscure than its alternative,
should lead us to accept this one as initially correct. A brief version of
the argument was included in Watts article on al-Ghazl in the second
edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam and spread widely.
6
During the seventh/thirteenth and eighth/fourteenth centuries, a
group of Muslim historians in Ayybid and Mamlk Damascus debated
the spelling of al-Ghazls name andgiven that they did not share
Watts method adopted from Latin textual criticismcame to a different
4
Cf. D.B. Macdonald, al-Ghazl, in Encyclopaedia of Islm, 4 vols. (Leiden, 190836),
ii, pp. 1469. Cf. with idem, article al-Ghazzl, in H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers
(eds.), Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1953), pp. 11114. The Shorter Encyclopae-
dia of Islam takes its cues from the earlier German Handwrterbuch des Islam, ed. A.J.
Wensinck and J.H. Kramers (Leiden, 1941), pp. 14044, where the name is also
written with two z. The same article in the full edition of the Enzyklopaedie des Islm, 4
vols. (Leiden, 190836), ii, pp. 1547 has the name with one z. In an article in JRAS
(1902), pp. 1822, Duncan B. Macdonald discusses the evidence for each alternative
and remains uncommitted.
5
The more difcult reading should be preferred, W.M. Watt, Muslim Intellectual. A
Study of al-Ghazl (Edinburgh, 1963), pp. 1813.
6
W.M. Watt, al-Ghazl, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 11 vols. (Leiden,
2
19542002),
ii, p. 1038b.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 102 12/17/2007 8:53:17 PM
al-ghazl or al-ghazzl? 103
conclusion. They gathered and weighted the evidence pro and against
each of the two versions of the name. In their discussions they also offer
a number of interesting insights into al-Ghazls family background.
The Wool-Spinner versus the Man from Ghazla
In 1889, Wilhelm Ahlwardt published a brief excerpt from a biography
of al-Ghazl by the Egyptian historian of the Shite school of law,
al-Sharqw (d. 1227/1812), where the author discusses al-Ghazls
family name (nisba):
His father used to spin wool and to sell it in his shop. This would require
that al-Ghazzl is with the gemination [of the zy] as it is a reference
to the spinning (al-ghazl ). It is the habit of the people of Khwrazm and
Jurjn to say al-qar and al-khabbz and similar words like these
with a y [at the end] in the meaning of the fuller (al-qar) or the
baker (al-khabbz) and similar. Thus, the people would make a reference
to the spinning and they would say al-ghazzl and mean the spinner
(al-ghazzl ). Yahy al-Nawaw mentions in his book Daqiq al-Rawca
7

that the gemination [of the zy] is well known and has already been
mentioned by Ibn al-Athr.
From al-Ghazl himself it has reached us that he said: I am connected
to Ghazla without geminization, one of the villages of Ts.
8
The question of whether al-Ghazl should be written with a double-
zy or simply with a single depends on whether his father or an ear-
lier relative was a spinner of wool. The Iraqi historian Ibn al-Athr
7
Al-Nawaws Fine Points of the Garden is apparently a supplementary work to his
own legal handbook Rawcat al-tlibn wa-umdat al-muftn. The Daqiq al-Rawca is not
available to us. A similar work of al-Nawaw, the Daqiq al-Minhj (Beirut, 1996) is
extant and offers explanations of ne points in his Minhj al-tlibn. Yet this is not the
book al-Sharqaw refers to. Cf. the same quote from al-Nawaws Daqiq al-Rawca in
al-Murta al-Zabd, It/f al-da al-muttaqn bi-shar/ asrr I/y ulm al-dn, 10 vols.
(Cairo, 1311 [1894]), i, p. 18, l. 1214.
8
W. Ahlwardt, Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Kniglichen Bibliothek zu Berlin. Verze-
ichnis der arabischen Handschriften, 10 vols. (Berlin, 188799), ii, p. 306. The text is taken
from al-Sharqw, al-Tu/fa al-bahiyya f tabaqt al-Shiyya, ms. Berlin, Orientabteilung
der Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Landberg 115, fol. 122b. This book is
yet unedited. On the book and its author see GAL ii, p. 479f, S ii, p. 729; Ahlwardt,
Verzeichnis, ix, p. 449 (no. 10041). A second manuscript at Yale University, Beinecke
Memorial Library, Landberg 459, fol. 54b, has only the rst sentence of this passage
on the profession of al-Ghazls father and not the rest.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 103 12/17/2007 8:53:17 PM
104 frank griffel
(d. 630/1233), who is quoted by al-Sharqw as the earliest authority
for this explanation, was hardly decisive in his judgment. In his book
on common family names (ansb), he writes on al-Ghazzl:
I believe this is a reference to the spinner (al-ghazzl ) according to the
usage of the people of Jurjn and Khwrazm (. . .). The best-known bearer
of this name was Ab Hmid al-Ghazzl. I also heard people saying
that it is with just one zy and that it refers to Ghazla, which is one of
the villages of Ts. This is a well-known dispute.
9
A few years after Ibn al-Athr wrote these lines, the dispute was picked
up by a number of Damascene legal scholars of the seventh/thirteenth
century. Their debate was triggered by the interest of Ayybid legal
commentators such as Ibn al-Salh al-Shahrazr (d. 643/1245) and
his student Yahy al-Nawaw, (d. 676/1277) for al-Ghazls works.
Both scholars produced voluminous commentaries either directly on
al-Ghazls books, like Ibn al-Salh on his al-Wast f l-madhhab al-Sh,
10

or indirectly as super-commentaries like al-Nawaws Rawcat al-tlibn
wa-umdat al-muftn.
11
Al-Nawaws work became a very popular hand-
book of Shfite qh and is based on Fat/ al-azz f shar/ al-Wajz by
Abd al-Karm al-R (d. 623/1226) of Qazwn, a book that is itself
a commentary on al-Ghazls al-Wajz f l-qh.
12
Although al-Ghazls
three works on the individual judgments ( fur ) of the Shite tradi-
tion, the very voluminous al-Bast f l-fr, the mid-size excerpt al-Wast
and the short excerpt al-Wajz, may by themselves not have been much
studied by later Shites, these commentaries, particular the one by
al-Nawaw, made sure that al-Ghazls opinions had a lasting impact
on the rulings of the Shite school of law.
The eminent historian al-Dhahab (d. 748/1348), who wrote two
generations after al-Nawaw in Mamlk Damascus, presents the results
of the discussions on al-Ghazls name in his book on the lives of the
9
Ibn al-Athr, al-Lubb f tahdhb al-ansb, ed. H. al-Quds, 3 vols. (Cairo, 135769
[193850]), ii, p. 170.
10
Shar/ mushkil al-Wast, now available in al-Ghazl, al-Wast f l-madhhab wa-bi-
hmishihi: al-Tanqh f shar/ al-Wast li-Mu/y al-Dn ibn Sharaf al-Nawaw, Shar/ mushkil
al-Wast li-Ab Amr Uthmn ibn al-Sal/, Shar/ mushkilt al-Wast li-Muwaffaq al-Dn Hamza
ibn Ysuf al-Hamaw. Talqa mjaza al l-Wast li-Ibrhm ibn Abdallh ibn Ab l-Dam, ed.
A.M. Ibrhm, 4 vols. (Cairo, 1997).
11
Al-Nawaw, Rawcat al-tlibn wa-umdat al-muftn, ed. A.U. al-Brd (Beirut,
1995).
12
Al-R, Fat/ al-azz f shar/ al-wajz, ms. Yale University, Beinecke Memorial
Library, Landberg 639. Cf. GAL i, p. 393 and 424, no. 50, S i, p. 753.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 104 12/17/2007 8:53:17 PM
al-ghazl or al-ghazzl? 105
eminent scholars in Islam. He informs his reader that both al-Nawaw
and Ibn al-Salh showed a keen interest in this question.
13
Both
spellings of al-Ghazls name have arguments in their favor. That
al-Ghazls father was a spinner of wool is reported on the authority
of the historian of Baghdad Ibn al-Najjr (d. 643/1245), whose work
is not fully available to us.
14
Al-Dhahab cites a passage from Abd
al-Ghr al-Friss (d. 529/1134) book on the biographies of the
scholars of Nishapur, a book of which we also do not have a full copy.
Abd al-Ghr is quoted as saying that in the usage of the people of
Ts words like ghazzl, attr, or khabbz refer to the member of the
profession of spinners, perfumer, or bakers.
15
Abd al-Ghr al-Fris
was a well-known authority on al-Ghazls life. He was his earliest
biographer who interviewed the great scholar in person. Yet, he did
not comment specically on al-Ghazls name and al-Dhahabs quote
seems to be a general observation and not made in the context of
explaining al-Ghazls name.
16
Al-Dhahab also brings strong evidence for the second spelling, the
one with one zy. He claims that he saw a text by al-Nawaw where he
reports on the authority of a chain of ve transmitters that a student of
al-Ghazl, namely Tj al-Islm ibn Khams (d. 552/1157) of Mosul,
17

heard him saying:
13
Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal, ed. Sh. al-Arnat, 25 vols. (Beirut, 198188),
xix, p. 343, l. 13. The tarjama on al-Ghazl (ibid., xix, pp. 32246) is slightly different
from to the one in al-Dhahabs Tarkh al-Islm wa-wafayt al-mashhr wal-alm, ed.
U.A. Tadmur (Beirut, 1407/1987), vol. 501520 A.H., pp. 11529.
14
Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal, xix, p. 335, l. 910. Ibn al-Najjrs Dhayl al
tarkh Baghdd is lost. The excerpts of this book by al-Dimy;, al-Mustafd min Dhayl
Tarkh Baghdd, ed. Q. Ab Farah (Haydarabad, 1399/1979), p. 37f, do not mention
this point.
15
Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal, xix, p. 343, l. 89 (Tarkh al-Islm, p. 126,
l. 67). Only one of two parts of Abd al-Ghr al-Friss al-Siyq li-Tarkh Nsbr is
preserved. It is edited as a facsimile in R. Frye, The Histories of Nishapur (London, 1965),
text 2. An excerpt of the whole work exists in al-Srifn (d. 541/1243), al-Muntakhab
min al-Siyq li-Tarkh Nsbr, ed. M.K. al-Mahmd (Qum, 1362 [1983]).
16
Abd al-Ghafr al-Friss tarjama on al-Ghazl is extensively quoted in al-Subk,
Tabaqt al-Shiyya al-kubr, ed. M.M. al-Tanh and A.M. al-Hilw, 10 vols. (Cairo,
196476), vi, p. 204, l. 6p. 214, l. 3 and Ibn Askir, Tabyn kadhib al-muftar f-m
ansaba al-Imm Ab l-Hasan al-Ashar (Damascus, 1347/1928), p. 291, l. 15p. 296,
l. 17. Obviously, these quotations might not be the complete tarjama.
17
Al-Husayn ibn Nasr ibn Khams al-Juhn; al-Subk, Tabaqt, vii, p. 81; GAL S i,
p. 776.
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106 frank griffel
The people call me al-Ghazzl, but I am not al-Ghazzl. I am rather
al-Ghazl, related to a village that is called Ghazla.
18
Another important authority on the life of al-Ghazl was the Khorasa-
nian historian al-Samn (d. 562/1166), who studied with many of the
great scholars students and asked them about his life.
19
Al-Samn is
often quoted as a source for the information that people in Khwarazm
and Jurjn, i.e. in the northern province bordering on Khorasan,
simply add a y to Arab words for professions such as ghazzl, spin-
ner. Yet al-Samns comments on al-Ghazls life are lost and can
only be reconstructed from quotations. One such quotation appears
in al-Murta al-Zabds (d. 1205/1791) commentary on al-Ghazls
I/y ulm al-dn, which was written in the second half of the eighteenth
century in Cairo. Al-Murta al-Zabd says that regarding the village
of Ghazla, al-Samn wrote in one of his works:
I asked the people of Ts about this village and they did not know
anything about it.
20
But the association with this place found new fodder during the Mamlk
period from one of al-Ghazls descendents. The lexicographer
al-Fayym (d. after 770/1368), who was born in Egypt but who was
active in Syria, reports that in the year 710/131011 he met someone
in Baghdad who could credibly trace his lineage to one of al-Ghazls
daughters and who informed him:
The people are wrong when they pronounce the name of our forefather
with a geminization of the zy. The name is just with one zy. It is in
relation to Ghazla, one of the villages of Ts.
21
What all this tells us is that by the time historians became interested
in al-Ghazls family name, it was simply too late to get conclusive
information about it. None of the two conicting explanations of the
name of al-Ghazl was handed down with enough certainty to settle
18
Al-Dhahab, Siyar alm al-nubal, xix, p. 343, l. 17.
19
On al-Samns works see Rudolf Sellheims article in EI
2
and GAL i, p. 329f,
S i, p. 564f. On his position among the scholars of Khorasan see H. Halm, Die Aus-
breitung der itischen Rechtsschule von den Anfngen bis zum 8./14. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden,
1974), pp. 846.
20
Al-Murta al-Zabd, It/f, i, p. 18, l. 16.
21
Al-Fayym, Mibh al-munr f gharb al-Shar/ al-kabr, ed. A. al-Shannaw (Cairo,
1977), p. 447 (sub gh-z-l). The work is a dictionary of difficult words that appear in
al-Rs commentary to al-Ghazls al-Wajz.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 106 12/17/2007 8:53:18 PM
al-ghazl or al-ghazzl? 107
the matter. The second explanation was reported on a single authority, a
khabar al-w/id, of a student. A clear identication of the village Ghazla
was impossible. That could not trump the equally plausible explanation
via the profession of al-Ghazls father, which seemed to have had
the backing of Abd al-Ghr al-Fris, al-Ghazls most authorita-
tive biographer. The experienced historian al-Safad (d. 766/1363), a
teacher and colleague of those who took sides in this dispute, admitted
that the matter cannot be decided and acknowledged that God knows
best which of the two spellings is right.
22
Almost a century earlier, Ibn
Khallikn (d. 681/1282) had already taken the same position.
23
al-Ghazl the Elder
Yet there is more historical evidence than what al-Dhahab and al-Safad
discuss. This appears in the work of their student Tj al-Dn al-Subk
(d. 771/1370). Another battleground of the dispute about al-Ghazls
nameand thus his family backgroundwas the issue of whether
there existed a prominent scholar by that name in a generation before
the great theologian. Ab Ishq al-Shrz (d. 476/1083) of Baghdad,
who was the most inuential Sh scholar during the middle of the
fth/eleventh century, includes the name al-Ghazl in a list of great
members of his school who had taught in Khorasan and Transoxania.
24

Al-Shrz wrote this at a time when our al-Ghazl was either yet
unborn or still in the early years of his education. The list contains
only scholars who at the time of writing were already deceased and it
does not mention, for instance, Ab l-Mal al-Juwayn (d. 478/1085),
who was the most famous Sh teacher in Nishapur during this time.
25

Rather, the name al-Ghazl is followed by that of Ab Muhammad
al-Juwayn (d. 438/1047),
26
the father of the great theologian, which
suggests that this al-Ghazl lived somewhat around his time or even
earlier.
22
Al-Safad, al-Wf bil-wafayt, ed. H. Ritter et al. (Istanbul, 1931), i, p. 277, l. 15.
23
Ibn Khallikn, Wafayt al-ayn, i, p. 98, l. 16.
24
Al-Shrz, Tabaqt al-fuqah, ed. I. Abbs (Beirut, 1970), p. 133; Halm, Ausbrei-
tung, p. 94.
25
Al-Shirz met Ab l-Mal al-Juwayn when he traveled to Nishapur in a dip-
lomatic mission of the caliph shortly before 480/1087.
26
GAL i, p. 385, S i, p. 667; al-Subk, Tabaqt, v, pp. 7393.
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108 frank griffel
Al-Ghazl the elder is mentioned a second time by the historian of
Nishapur Abd al-Ghr al-Fris. He reports that an elder Ab Hmid
al-Ghazl was a teacher of Ab Al al-Framadh (d. 477/1085),
who taught the younger al-Ghazl in Susm.
27
A generation later this
information is repeated by al-Samn, who gives the elder al-Ghazls
full name: Ab Hmid Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ghazl.
28
We
hear nothing about this scholar until the seventh/thirteenth century
when Ibn al-Salh writes about the elder al-Ghazl, whom he names
Ab Hmid Ahmad ibn Muhammad. He says, he died in Tabarn,
al-Ghazls hometown, in 435/104344.
29
Ibn al-Salh received his
information from the relatively little known Khorasanian historian
Ab Hafs al-Mu;;awi, who wrote in the middle of the fth/eleventh
century and whose works on this subject are lost.
30
Apparently, Ibn al-Salhs report triggered a debate among the Dama-
scene historians in the generations after him. Did the elder al-Ghazl
really exist or has the great theologians name simply cast a shadow
on the historiography of the Shite school before him? Ibn al-Salh
suggested that the elder al-Ghazl was the theologians paternal uncle.
One of the greatest authorities of Muslim historiography, al-Dhahab,
decided that there was not enough evidence in favor of the elder
al-Ghazls existence. Al-Dhahab was unaware of al-Samns report
and believed that the only testimony he had, namely the appearance of
the name Ab Hmid al-Ghazl in al-Shrzs list, was an anachro-
nism triggered by a scribes mistake in a manuscript.
31
For al-Dhahab,
the uncle of al-Ghazl was no famous scholar. Al-Dhahabs student
al-Subk reports a dispute with his teacher about the existence of
al-Ghazl the elder. Their discussion gives an interesting glimpse into
27
Al-Fal ibn Muhammad al-Farmadh; on him see al-Sarfn, al-Muntakhab min
al-Siyq, p. 629 = Frye, The Histories of Nishapur, text 3, fol. 121b; al-Subk, Tabaqt, v,
pp. 3046; Halm, Ausbreitung, p. 94. Framadh is one of the villages of Ts.
28
Al-Samn, Kitb al-Ansb, 13 vols. (Haydarabad, 13821402/196283), x, p. 125.
29
Al-Isnaw (d. 772/1370), Tabaqt al-Shiyya, ed. A. al-Jabr, 2 vols. (Baghdad,
139091 [197071]), ii, p. 246f, reports this information on the authority of Ibn
al-Salhs lost book Fawid ri/latihi (which might be identical to his al-Muntakhab min
al-Mudhhab, mentioned below in note 32).
30
Regarding al-Mu;;awi see below note 32. A text from the margins of one ms.
of al-Subk, Tabaqt, iv, p. 90, note 1 says that Zhir al-Dn ibn Funduq al-Bayhaq
(565/116970) repeated al-Mu;;awis information on al-Ghazl the elder and thus
provided an additional channel of transmission.
31
Al-Subk, Tabaqt, iv, p. 88, l. 4f.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 108 12/17/2007 8:53:19 PM
al-ghazl or al-ghazzl? 109
the workshop tools of Arab historians. This is how al-Subks exchange
with his teacher is quoted by al-Murta al-Zabd:
[During one of al-Dhahabs teaching sessions] the subject of this man
was brought up and most people were ignorant about him. I asked our
master al-Dhahab about him since I had read about him in the Tabaqt
of the master Ab Ishq al-Shrz where he mentions the preceding
masters. Al-Dhahab said: This is an addition of a copyist and we do not
know people by the name of Ghazl other than Hujjat al-Islm and his
brother. It is most farfetched that there was another [with that name]. I
told him: There is conclusive evidence (dall qti ) that al-Shrz did not
mean Hujjat al-Islm. What is it? he asked. Al-Shrzs statement that
their date of death was unknown to him. That is evidence (dall ) for the
fact that he did not mean Hujjat al-Islm because [these scholars were
already dead when al-Shrz wrote] and he [Hujjat al-Islm] lived after
the death of al-Shrz. Al-Dhahab said: That is correct.
I mentioned this exchange to my father [the historian Taq l-Dn
al-Subk] but he tended to agree with al-Dhahab on this matter until I
found [a passage] in al-Samns Kitb al-ansb where he writes about the
ascetic Ab Al al-Framadh and mentions that he studied with Ab
Hmid al-Ghazl the elder. Then I read in the book of al-Mu;;awi
32

about the teachers of Ab Al al-Framadh and found he mentions
this Ab Hmid who is described as someone who preceded Ab Al.
There it said that [this al-Ghazl ] had a son by the name of Ahmad
and his kunya was [also] Ab Hmid. He surpassed his father in knowl-
edge. I understood that he was a relative of Hujjat al-Islm, he was the
paternal uncle of his father or the brother of his grandfather. [Finally],
Jaml al-Dn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Jaml told me that such
a grave is well-known in the graveyard of Ts and that they call him
al-Ghazl the elder and believe God will respond to prayers issued at
this grave.
33
Al-Subk found the evidence in al-Samn and Ibn al-Salhs source
al-Mu;;awi only after he had his discussion with al-Dhahab. Subsequently
32
In his Tabaqt, iv, p. 89, l. 1415, al-Subk claries that this is the history of
Sh scholars al-Mudhhab f dhikr shuykh al-madhhab by Ab Hafs Umar ibn Al ibn
Muhammad al- Mu;;awi (d. c. 440/1048) of Nishapur which he read in the abbre-
viation of Ibn al-Salh, al-Muntakhab min al-Mudhhab. Both works are lost and neither
al-Mu;;awi nor Ibn al-Salahs abbreviation are mentioned in GAL. On this author and
Ibn al-Salhs abbreviation cf. the editors introduction to al-Mu;;awi, Darj al-ghurar
wa-darj al-durar, ed. Kh. al-A;iyya (Beirut, 1406/1986), pp. 58.
33
Al-Murta al-Zabd, It/f, i, p. 18. ult.p. 19, l. 9. In his Tabaqt al-Shiyya
al-kubr, iv, pp. 8790, al-Subk offers a more detailed discussions of all the motives
and arguments in this dispute. Al-Murta al-Zabds text seems to come from one
of al-Subks own abbreviations of that book, the Tabaqt al-Shiyya al-wust or the
Tabaqt al-Shiyya al-ughr, which are both not edited.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 109 12/17/2007 8:53:19 PM
110 frank griffel
al-Subk came to a different conclusion than his teacher. He decided
that the elder al-Ghazl did, in fact, exist.
Al-Subk leaves open how this judgment is to be reconciled with his
verdict, put down at a different place in his dictionary, that al-Ghazls
father was a spinner of wool.
34
If the name al-Ghazl or al-Ghazzl
was inherited through the generations, it does not convey any informa-
tion about the great scholars immediate family and their occupation.
The information given by al-Shrz, al-Mu;;awi, Abd al-Ghr
al-Fris and al-Samn paints a relatively consistent picture of an
elder al-Ghazl.
35
He was a Shite jurist of Ts, who taught two
or three generations before al-Ghazl during the second quarter of
the fth/eleventh century and who died in 435/104344 about fteen
years before the great theologian was born. Although there is a dis-
pute about his full name, both reported versions make him a member
of al-Ghazls family. He might have been, for instance, a cousin of
al-Ghazls paternal grandfather or his brother. There was an educa-
tional connection between the two al-Ghazls as the elder was a teacher
of two of the youngers instructors. The faqh Ahmad al-Rdhakn and
the Su Ab Al al-Framadh, who were both among the students
of al-Ghazl the elder, were also teachers of the great theologian.
36

Fame in scholarship and the high social stature that comes with it was
probably not unknown in al-Ghazls family.
Like many other Muslim historians before him, al-Sharqaw, who
wrote in the nineteenth century, assumed that al-Ghazl had a humble
family background. Al-Sharqaw implies that because al-Ghazl may
have felt ashamed of the profession of his father, a poor spinner of
wool, he chose to associate himself to a village by the name of Ghazla.
37

Such dissociation from his father would also explain the lack of infor-
34
Al-Subk, Tabaqt, vi, p. 193, l. 10.
35
In addition, al-Isnaw, Tabaqt, ii, p. 246 claims that the elder al-Ghazl is men-
tioned by Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Abbd (d. 458/1066) of Herat in his Tabaqt
al-fuqah al-Shiyya. Das Klassenbuch der Gelehrten iten. ed. G. Vitestam (Leiden,
1964). Al-Abbd would be a contemporary of the elder al-Ghazl. In Vitestams
criticial edition of this book, however, al-Ghazl does not appear.
36
Al-Subk, Tabaqt, iv, p. 91, v, p. 305, l. 6. On al-Rdhakn see al-Subk, Tabaqt,
v, p. 204, l. 9; al-Sarfn, al-Muntakhab min al-Siyq, p. 83 = Frye, Histories, text 3, fol.
20a. I am currently preparing a more detailed study of al-Ghazls teachers and the
evidence about his family. This will be part of a forthcoming monograph on the great
theologian.
37
GAL S i, p. 744 translates this motive into Western literature: Die Aussprache mit
[einem] z sollte die Erinnerung an die wenig vornehme Herkunft verwischen (. . .).
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 110 12/17/2007 8:53:20 PM
al-ghazl or al-ghazzl? 111
mation on him, as al-Ghazl apparently avoided to write about him
or his profession in his autobiography al-Munqidh min al-call.
38
This
explanation, which appears in many biographies of al-Ghazl, has
many problems and the lack of conclusive evidence for the profession
of al-Ghazls father is not the least of it. It is, in fact, unclear why
al-Ghazl would be ashamed of his fathers profession as a craftsman.
Diligent and honest work is one of the backbones of al-Ghazls ethics
for the un-educated people (al-awmm). Equally, he often stresses the
transparency of the Seljuq society that allows those who are able to
become members of the intellectual elite. Curiosity and doubt are the
main vehicles to reach the level of the educated elite (khaw). A poor
and uneducated family background would tally well with al-Ghazls
grand narrative in the Munqidh min al-call, where such a fact is, how-
ever, not mentioned.
39
Conclusion
Al-Ghazl or al-Ghazzl was most probably a nisba that was used by
members of this family from Tabarn in Ts for at least three or four
generations before our scholar. If that is the case, there is no reason to
assume that our scholars father had anything to do with the spinning
of wool. Maybe an earlier member of the family had. It is impossible
to determine what the nisba initially referred to. Maybe our al-Ghazl
himself did not know its origin. There seems to be some indication
that the family itself preferred al-Ghazl while the double-z seems
an attempt of philologists to make sense out of a name whose origin is
shrouded in mystery. The most talented Arab historians of this period
Ibn Khallikn, al-Dhahab, and al-Safadunderstood that the matter
could not be settled and remained uncommitted: Allhu alam.
Watts application of the difficilior lectio potius-principle includes a
commitment towards one explanation, namely the one that he did not
adopt. Watt assumed that the explanation via the word ghazzl is more
plausible than the one via the village Ghazla, which should make us
adopt the latter. Yet, in light of the discussions of the Muslim histo-
rians, I remain unconvinced that any of the two alternatives is more
38
Al-Ghazl, al-Munqidh min al-call/Erreur et deliverance, ed. and trans. F. Jabre
(Beirut,
3
1969).
39
Cf. Watt, Muslim Intellectual, p. 182.
AKASOY_f8_101-112.indd 111 12/17/2007 8:53:20 PM
112 frank griffel
likely than its opposite. Still, like Watt, I would argue that we should
use al-Ghazl with one z.
Adapting the spelling al-Ghazl should not be viewed as an indica-
tion that one accepts the explanation via a place called Ghazla any
more than the one that associates it to the occupation of a wool-spinner.
As long as there is no more conclusive evidence about the names origin
this is simply a case for Ockhams razor: given that both spellings are
equally possible, we should remain uncommitted and use the spelling
that saves effort, ink, and paper: al-Ghazl.
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