Al-Ghazali's Path to Sufism: the Deliverance from Error (6 sessions)
Wednesdays 12:00-1:30 ET | May 20-June 24
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was the most important theologian of medieval Islam. In 1091, he was appointed to the most important academic position in the Islamic world: leadership of Nizamiyya University in Baghdad. However, after a few years there, he suffered an intellectual and spiritual crisis, abandoning his position and family to wander the land as a mendicant, eventually becoming a Sufi monk. In his remarkable little autobiography, The Deliverance from Error, al-Ghazali explains his strange journey between philosophy, religion, and mysticism. We'll read through this short text together.
Text: Al-Ghazali, Deliverance from Error (English)
Reading load: about 6 pages/week
Seminar Leader: Jeff Johnston is a piano player and database programmer whose postgraduate degree focused on political science in medieval Islam.