Page:A Moslem seeker after God - showing Islam at its best in the life and teaching of al-Ghazali, mystic and theologian of the eleventh century (IA moslemseekeraft00zwem).pdf/70

 the ruined site of Tus we have been examining, with the Rudbar and Rizan Gates, formed part of the borough of Tabaran, an important section of the town in Firdausi’s day, when the city covered a large area comprising several thickly populated centres, as we know from the Oriental geographers of the tenth century, or the period covering the better portion of the poet’s life." It was in Tabaran that Al-Ghazali was buried, and there he must have had his home during the closing years of his life."

Religious disputation must have been the very

1 See however Gardner’s Al-Ghazali in the " Islam Series " (pp. 1-3) where we have this note: " The district of Tus contained four towns, Radkan, Tabaran, Bazdghur, and Nawqan, (Yaqut gives the spelling as Nuqan) and more than 1,000 villages. (See Yaqut, quoting Mis ar bin Muk halhil, vol. vi, p. 7. Ibn Khallikan, vol. i, p. 29. Jackson, From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam, p. 267, 284 ff.) Of these four towns, Tabaran was the capital, while Nawqan was the most populous. It was outside of Nawqan that AH bin Musa ar-Rida and Haroun Ar-Rashid were buried. Thus, the present Mashad represents the old Nawqan, and must cover some at least of the site of that city; while the ruins now known as Tus represent the old city of Tabaran, which, having been the capital of the dis trict, was commonly called by the name of the district. It was outside Tabaran that Al-Ghazali and Firdausi were buried. It is a mistake to regard Tus as having been a metropolis containing four boroughs. That there ever ex isted a city of Tus stretching thirty-five miles, from Mashad to Radkan, is incredible. As-Sam ani, in the Kitabu l-Ansab, says that Tus contained two towns and over one thousand