Assassin sect, who were then holding the castle of
Alamut in the mountains. We must also mention
a schoolmate of Al-Ghazali, Al-Harrasi (1058
1110), who studied at Nishapur under the Imam
Al-Haramain, was made his assistant, and then
went to Bagdad, where he taught theology in the
Nizamiyya University for the rest of his life. Nor
must we forget Al-Baghawi, who wrote a famous
commentary on the Koran, and other works of the
ology (1122); Al-Raghib Al-Ispahani, who died
in 1108, and wrote a dictionary of the Koran, ar
ranged in alphabetical order, called Mufradat alfaz
Al-Koran, with quotations from the traditions and
from the poets; he also wrote a treatise on morals,
which Al-Ghazali always carried about with .him
(Kitab ad-dharia), and a commentary on the
Koran. Among the early contemporaries of Al
Ghazali we must not forget to mention Ali bin
Uthman Al-Jullabi Al-Hujwiri, the author of the
oldest Persian treatise on Sufism extant. He was
born in Ghazni, Afghanistan, and died in A.D. 1062,
when Al-Ghazali was fourteen years old. Al
Hujwiri travelled far and wide through the
Mohammedan Empire and his famous work
Kashf al-Mahjub anticipates much of the teaching
of Al-Ghazali, who must have been familiar with
this author. And to complete this already long
list of celebrities, we may mention Al-Maidani of
Nishapur, who died in 1124, having written a
great work on Arabic proverbs; Al-Zamakhshari,
