orough rationalist in
theology. He composed commentaries on the logic of Aristotle. In his
great work on the unity of God he has strayed far away from Muslim
dogmas.

Al Farabi, another philosopher patronized by the 'Abbassides, seems to
have denied not only the rigid and formal Islamic view of inspiration,
but any objective revelation at all. He held that intuition was a true
inspiration, and that all who had acquired intuitive knowledge were
real prophets. This is the only revelation he admits. He received his
philosophical training at Baghdad, where for a while he taught; but
finally he went to Damascus, where he died 950 A.D.

Ibn Sina, better known as Avicenna, a man of Persian origin, was a
Philosopher of great note, but of him it is said that in spite of the
concessions he made to the religious ideas of his age, he could not
find favour for his opinions, which ill accord with the principles of
Islam. He was born near Bukhara, in the year 980 A.D. For a while he
taught medicine and philosophy in Ispahan.

Ibn Badja, (Avempace) was one of the most celebrated Muslim
Philosophers of Spain. He was born at Saragossa towards the end of the
eleventh century. He is distinguished for having opposed the mystical
tendencies of the teaching of Al-Ghazzali, and for maintaining that
speculative science alone was capable of leading man to a true
conception of his own proper nature. He was violently attacked by the
orthodox divines who declared that all philosophical teaching was "a
calamity for religion and an affliction to those who were in the good
way."

Al-Ghazzali was born A.D. 1059 in Khorasan. He was a famous Muslim
divine. He adopted scholastic methods. For a while he was President of
the Nizamiah College at Baghdad. He travelled much, and wrote many
books to prove the superiority of Islam over all other religions and
over philosophy. The first result of his wide and extensive study of
the writings of the philosophers, and of the heretics was that he fell
into a state of scepticism with regard to religion and philosophy. From
this he emerged into Sufiism, in {184} which his restless spirit found
satisfaction. On Sufiism, however, he exercised no very notable
influence; but the scepticism which he still retained as regards
philosophy rendered him a very formidable opponent to t