Injustice, Corruption, and Partisanship in the Eastern Seljuq Lands of the Early Twelfth Century: al-Ghazālī's Persian Letters to Viziers as a Historical Source
This article analyses five historical missives written by the great theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī to three Seljuq viziers, and datable to the years 490/1097 to 504/1110f. The first four of these letters form a progressive series complaining of governmental corruption in Ṭūs during the Seljuq civil...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Der Islam
Year: 2024, Volume: 101, Issue: 1, Pages: 193-225 |
| Further subjects: | B
viziers
B justice (ʿadl) B Seljuqs B Sultan Sanjar B Ṭūs B al-Ghazālī B governmental corruption (ẓulm) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article analyses five historical missives written by the great theologian Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī to three Seljuq viziers, and datable to the years 490/1097 to 504/1110f. The first four of these letters form a progressive series complaining of governmental corruption in Ṭūs during the Seljuq civil war around the turn of the sixth/twelfth century, and thus provide the sole extant eyewitness testimony from Khurāsān during the last five years of the Seljuq civil war period. They also reveal al-Ghazālī's vision of just rule far more concretely than do al-Ghazālī's numerous theoretical writings on the subject. The fifth letter, written after the civil war had ended, explores the problem of intra-Sunni madhhab-based religious partisanship (taʿaṣṣub), and also incidentally reveals important biographical information about al-Ghazālī. All five of these letters constitute unique eyewitness testimony to some of the major political and social problems of the Seljuq period. |
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| ISSN: | 1613-0928 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Der Islam
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/islam-2024-0007 |
