Ahmad al-Ghazali

Majd al-Din Abu al-Futuh Ahmad al-Ghazali (d. 520/1126), brother of the great scholar Imam al-Ghazali, was a preacher and Sufi. Born near Tus, he was formed on the Sufi path in the circles of Abu Bakr al-Nassaj al-Tusi, and for a time taught in his brother's place at the Nizamiyya Madrasa. While his brother emphasized knowledge, gnosis and legal-ethical teaching, Ahmad developed a mysticism centered on love, ecstasy and the manifestation of divine beauty; his Persian treatise Sawanih al-Ushshaq is regarded as one of the first classics of love mysticism and profoundly influenced Persian love literature from Sanai to Rumi. He was the master of Ayn al-Qudat al-Hamadani, and both Aflaki and Sipahsalar trace the Mevlevi chain to him (TDV, 'Mevleviyye'). According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam he died in Qazvin, where his grave lies; as the grave's position could not be verified by two independent numeric sources, no map pin is given.