ABU HAMID MUHAMMAD IBN MUHAMMAD AL-GHAZALI (D.1111 AD), IHYA ULUM AL-DIN ('THE REVIVAL OF THE RELIGIOUS SCIENCES'), PART I, CHAPTERS VIII, IX AND X, PERSIA, 13TH CENTURY AD |

Arabic manuscript on polished paper, 104 leaves plus 2 fly-leaves, 19 lines to the page written in naskh in dark brown ink, titles in black thuluth and or red naskh, markers in red, in brown leather binding, decorated with a central medallion encircling an 8-pointed star, with flap with a similar motif

In overall good condition, the margins are clean, minor stains, the thread of the binding loose, minor restoration to the paper, the binding with minor damages, as viewed.
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Born in 1058 AD in the Iranian province of Khurasan, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (given the honorific title hujjat al-Islam, 'the Proof of Islam') was one of the greatest jurist-theologians of the medieval Islamic period and a prolific author on the religious sciences. The present manuscript represents a part of his greatest and best-known work, Ihya' 'ulum al-din, or 'The Revival of the Religious Sciences', in which he attempted to integrate the major disciplines of Islamic religion - theology and law, ethics and mysticism. It comprises ten books in four quarters; 'ibadat (religious duties); 'adat (social duties); al-muhlikat (the ways to perdition) and al-munjiat (what leads to salvation). The work was banned and burnt during the Almoravid era (first half of the twelfth century) in al-Andalus and the Maghrib, but it returned with renewed prestige under the Almohads. This manuscript is a rare testament to the rehabilitation of al-Ghazali's work by this time. According to Mingana, “This is the work of which it is said that if all other books on the religion of Islam had perished, this loss would not be felt so long as the precious Ihya survived”. Other sections of this work are in the Chester Beatty Library, (see A. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscript, Dublin, 1956, p.45, no.3353; and A. Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1934, pp.88-89, no.73 [223]). See also Brockelmann, GAL, i, 422, Suppl.i, 748.

This manuscript contains the last three chapters from the first section (rubua al-‘ibadat) with the following titles and order:
F.1b: Kitab al-Awrad (chapter X)
F.46b: Kitab Talawat al-Quran (chapter VIII)
F.66a: Kitab al-Adhkar (chapter IX)