AL-MAZARI AL-DHAKI: AL-GHAZALI'S MAGHRIBI ADVERSARY IN NISHAPUR

Ab mid al-Ghazālī's letters provide a terse and sometimes contradictory description of a controversy that erupted after he returned to teaching in Nishapur in 499/1106. This account refers to an unnamed Maghribi Mliki who played a role in the controversy by denouncing al-Ghaālī to men of the state at the urging of the latter's Nishapuri enemies. This article proposes an identity for the Maghribi: a Sicilian religious scholar named Ab Abd Allh Muammad Ibn Ab al-Faraj al-Mzar, known as al-Dhak (d. 510/1116). An examination of seven of his biographies corroborates some charges against al-Ghazālī mentioned in the letters, gives a year for the controversy, and reveals some of the strategies used by al-Ghazālī's enemies to try to cause his downfall. An appendix considers and dismisses the possibility that a surviving critique of Iy ulm al-dn entitled al-Kashf wa-l-anb an kitb al- Iy was authored by the same al-Mzar. © 2009 The Author.