Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in Russian Islamology: Soviet and Early Post-Soviet Period

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive picture of the state of research on the thought of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111), the greatest Islamic jurist, theologian and thinker, in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia. The research is important because there is a widespread stereotypical view in the West and Russia that the decline of rationalism in the Muslim world and strengthening of Mysticism is due to al-Ghazali. The first part of the article traces down a number of research projects carried out during the aforementioned period, the dominant research trends and different approaches to al-Ghazali’s thought in general and certain his teachings. The author demonstrates that Soviet and Russian researchers have made a substantial progress in studying the intellectual legacy of al-Ghazali due to forsaking the one-sided approach that prevailed in Marxist Oriental studies during the Soviet era. According to their views, al-Ghazali developed a rationalistic trend of the Islamic Theology (Kalam) and Muslim Peripatetic Philosophy. Studies on al-Ghazali carried out in the late Soviet era and in Post-Soviet Russia will be analyzed in the second part of the paper.