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/89

 professorial duties, he had discharged those of a preacher. At Nishapur he held gatherings every Friday, at which he preached sermons, and presided over discus sions on various doctrinal points: to these occupa tions he added that of managing the waqfs, or landed property devoted to the support of pious undertakings. For more than thirty years he con tinued in undisputed possession of these various posts. When he died, the mourning was general; the great pulpit of the Mosque from which he had delivered his sermons was broken up, and his pupils, to the number of four hundred and one, des troyed their pens and ink-horns, and gave up their studies for a year." It is certain that Al-Ghazali sat at his feet as a learner, both at Nishapur and Bagdad, and we may imagine that he had a part also in the general mourning at the death of the Imam, the manuscript of whose masterpiece, Nihayat al-Matlab (Finality of Inquiry), is still preserved in Cairo in the Sultania Library.

At Nishapur, Al-Ghazali was one of the favourite pupils of this Imam, and here his studies were of the broadest, embracing theology, dialectics, philosophy and logic. He was a teacher as well as a student, for we are told that he would " read to his fellow students and teach them, until in a short time he became infirm and weak." Under the double task his health failed, but he did not give up his studies. The Imam once said of him, and
 * Huart, "Arabic literature."