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/88

 trade with the East. It was taken and razed to the ground by Mongols in 1221, but a century later Ibn Batuta found the city again flourishing, with four col leges, numerous students, and an export of silk stuffs to India. Nishapur was famous for its fruits and gardens which gave it the epithet of "little Damascus."

We have an interesting portrait of Al-Ghazali’s chief teacher while he was at Nishapur, Abul Ma ali Abdal-Malik Al-Juwaini Imam al-Hara main. He was born at Bushtaniqan, near Nishapur, on the twelfth of February, 1028, and was one of the most learned and celebrated teachers of Mos lem law in his day. " On the death of his father, Abu Muhammed Abdallah ibn Yusuf, who was a teacher in the latter town, he took his place, though barely twenty years of age." But this was a time of literary prodigies due to precocious talent and prodigious power of memory. " To complete his own studies, and to make the sacred pilgrimage, he went to Bagdad and thence to the two holy cities, Mecca and Medina, where he taught for four years; hence his surname, which signifies the teacher of the two holy places/ When he returned to Nishapur, Nizam Al-Mulk founded a school for him, in which he gave courses of lessons till his death, which overtook him on the twentieth of August, 1085, while on a visit to his native village, whither he had gone in the hope of recovering from an illness. Along with his