Allen Tuazon ARABIC 811 Something which Has Settled in His Heart and Crept from It into His

Humors: the Second Crisis of al-Ghazl

Abstract

Many scholars have explored al-Ghazls second crisis of faith, which, according to his autobiography, manifested psychosomatically in a case of what has usually been described as aphasia that is, the inability to speak. A close reading of his own account of the crisis as well as of the reported diagnosis of his physicians, and as a comparison of this diagnosis with medieval Greco-Arabic medical philosophy, can reveal data that through modern medical analysis reveal, conjecturally, that al-Ghazl suffered from an affliction of the thyroid (hypothyroidism), with its rare attendant psychological ramifications. His discussion of the lives of other Muslim luminaries found in the Book of Knowledge reveal, in their style, an attempt to justify his pathology by establishing a common neurotic context shared, according to al-Ghazl, by ash-Shafi, Malik ibn Anas, and Abu Hanifa.

Introduction

This paper contributes to the field of speculation by proposing that al-Ghazls second crisis, detailed in his autobiography al-Munqidh min al-all, was not contrived or merely psychological, but was directly pathological in nature: following a close reading of his physicians diagnosis and an examination of the medieval Greco-Arabic system of medicine, it can be conjectured that al-Ghazl actually suffered from hypothyroidism and what is now referred to as myxedema psychosis, whose symptoms al-Ghazl displays. It is this affliction which, years later, al-Ghazl would hint at and attempt to justify in the Book of Knowledge. To frame this argument, this paper will first briefly describe the speculations and analyses of the crisis written by other scholars; next, the crisis will be examined vis--vis a matching Qurnic episode; thirdly, medieval Greco-Arabic medicine will be discussed in order to distill data from al-Ghazls extremely brief report of diagnosis; and, next, the medical symptoms of hypothyroidism as well as myxedema psychosis will be discussed and compared to al-Ghazls own account. Finally, al-Ghazls retelling of biographical anecdotes of ash-Shafi, Malik ibn Anas, and Abu Hanifa will be reinterpreted given in the context of this new conjecture.

Previous Interpretations of the Second Crisis

Inasmuch as the dramatic and relatively well-documented breakdown of a brilliant mind is a captivating spectacle, al-Ghazls crisis has remained a relatively consistent object of interest to both scholars and the public. The exact nature of al-Ghazls crisis, however, continues to be a topic of dispute, indeed, although al- Ghazl used clear and simple language in describing the reason why he left the Nimiyyah, many scholars challenged his straightforward account.1 In a cynical world, all stories of conversion are natural targets for critique. Nakamura2 documents the skepticism of several scholars, including Abd al-Dim al-Baqar, Carra de Vaux, and R. J. McCarthy according to Nakamura, al-Baqar considered al-Ghazls account to be purely fictional3; McCarthy points out that, given al-Ghazls sanction of deception both in his own autobiography and in book fourteen of the Iy, the historical reliability of all of alGhazls historical accounts must be regarded with some suspicion: the human, intellectual and spiritual value of the Munqidh remains firm, though it cannot of itself alone serve as an historical source.4 Despite this, Nakamura considers the autobiography by and large genuine and reliable,5 and Smith likewise accepts the account implicitly.6 According to Abu-Sway, Umar

Abu-Sway, M. M., Al- Ghazls Spiritual Crisis Reconsidered, Al-Shajarah, vol. 1, no. i, 1996, pp. 77-94, p. 82. 2 Nakamura, K., An Approach to Ghazalis Conversion, Orient XXI (1985), p. 46-59. 3 Nakamura 1985, p. 47. 4 McCarthy, R. J., Freedom and Fulfillment, Boston, Twayne Publishers, 1980, p. xxix. 5 Nakamura 1985, p. 49. 6 Smith, M., Al-Ghazali the Mystic, Lahore, Hijrah International Publishers, 1983.

Farrkh asserts that al-Ghazl was sick with al-kan or al-ghan, a psychological disease which appears, mostly, among those who have extreme religious orientation, a position which Abu-Sway criticizes.7 Similarly, Watt explains the crisis in the context of al-Ghazls explicit fear of eschatological punishment in Hell, noting that
he himself says he was afraid that he was going to Hell, and he has many criticisms of the corruption of the ulam of his time; so it may well be that he felt that the whole organized legal profession in which he was involved was so corrupt that the only way of leading an upright life, as he conceived it, was to leave the profession completely. 8

Watt also relates the positions of Jabre, who believed that al-Ghazl was utterly cowed by a consuming fear of the Cult of the Old Man of the Mountain (the Isml Assassins) who had slaughtered his patron, Nim al-Mulk, in 10929; and Macdonald, who believes that alGhazls evacuation was motivated by the rapidly shifting contemporary political tides in particular the execution of his uncle, Tutush, by the sultan Barkiyrq.10 Hozien introduces the idea, interestingly, that it was not a spiritual breakthrough but rather an emergency of class identity which brought about al-Ghazls crisis; one such issue is his background; a poor family from a small village whose member suddenly rose to fame and renown in a short time period his sudden move to the city from such a rural area would be an

trans. by Abu-Sway, and found at Abu-Sway 1996, p. 86; he cites Farrkh, U., Trikh al-Fikr al-Arab il Ayym Ibn Khaldn, Beirut, Dar al- Ilm Li al-Malayin, 1972, p. 497. 8 Watt, W. M., al-GHazl, Ab mid Muammad b. Muammad al-s, in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Leiden, Brill, 2011. Brill Online. 9 Watt 2011, ibid. He cites Jabre F., La notion de certitude selon Ghazali, Paris 1958, and in MIDEO, i (1954), pp. 73-102. 10 Watt 2011, ibid. He cites Macdonald, D. B., The Life of al-Ghazzl, in JAOS, xx (1899), pp. 71-132.

additional contributing factor to his leaving [sic].11 Salleh, while putatively setting out to discuss the crisis, fails for the most part to go beyond a basic description: al-Ghazali suffered a serious spiritual crisis which affected both his emotional and physical health to the extent that he was unable to give a lecture at all however, he stated that God saved him: I was answered by Him Who answers the needy man when he calls on Him,12 quoting verse 186 of srah 2: I listen to the prayer of every suppliant when he calls on Me; let them also, with a will, listen to My call, and believe in Me: that they may walk in the right way13 as such, Salleh seems to accept the validity of the crisis by placing it into the context of a spiritual redemption promised by scripture. Finally and most convincingly, Ormsby argues that the crisis takes place within the context of a constant interplay on sickness and health, on falling ill and then convalescing, [which sense] permeates the Munqidh. The importance of this theme is not solely strategical [sic] or rhetorical. It is no accident that while his doctors are able to mutter some learned but ineffectual diagnosis of his condition they are completely unable to treat or cure him .... [this] reflects a long-standing opposition within the Islamic tradition between academic learning and the practical knowledge of use in both the spiritual and the material worlds. This illness, which

11

Hozien, M., Al-Ghazalis Turning Point: on the Writings on His Personal Crisis, 2001, available online at (http://www.ghazali.org/articles/crisis-old.htm). 12 Salleh, K. H., Some Reflections on al-Ghazali [sic] Intellectual Development and Spiritual Crisis, in Islam: Past, Present, and Future (Long, A. H., et al., eds.), University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2004, pp. 412-427, p. 422. 13 trans. Al, A. Y., The Meaning of the Holy Qurn, Amana Productions, 2006. Interestingly, McCarthy (2000) gives the source of this quotation as Q 27:62 or, who listens to the (soul) distressed when it calls on Him, and who relieves its suffering, and makes you inheritors of the earth? (Can there be another) god besides God? (p. 80).

eludes the skills of conventional medicine, is a metaphor for the academic, spiritual torpor alGhazl viewed as a wide-spread epidemic within Islam14; the true medicine of religion not the Greek training of the physicians was the cure. Yet, despite the attractiveness of many of these theories, none of them are conclusive. By examining exactly how al-Ghazl describes his affliction, it may be possible to arrive at a more precise understanding of his exact condition.

The Nature of the Second Crisis

Al-Ghazl does not conceal his crisis by any means; it appears explicitly in his autobiography, al-Munqidh min al-all. Here, he describes a cascade of emotions brought about, apparently, by his rising star in Baghdad: at the summit of his career, appointed as a professor at the prestigious madrasa, al-Nimiyy, founded by the Seljuq vizier Nim al-Mulk, al-Ghazl contemplated his achievements and despairs, his context being that the only hope of attaining beatitude in the afterlife lay in piety and restraining [ones] soul from passion.15 Noting this, he concentrates on his circumstances, seeing himself immersed in attachments which had encompassed [him] from all sides I was applying myself to sciences unimportant

14

Ormsby, E. L., The Taste of Truth: the Structure of Experience in al-Ghazalis al-Munqidh min al-Dalal, in Islamic Studies Presented to Charles L. Adams (Hallaq, W., ed.), Brill, Leiden 1991, pp. 133-152, p. 148. 15 McCarthy, R. J., Deliverance from Error: an Annotated Translation of al-Mnqidh min al-all and Other Relevant Works of al-Ghazl, Fons Vita, 2000, p. 78.

and useless in this pilgrimage to the hereafter. Then I reflected on my intention in my public teaching, and I saw that it was not directed purely to God, but rather was instigated and motivated by the quest for fame and widespread prestige.16 This realization staggers al-Ghazl, who thereupon becomes immediately convinced that he is on the brink of a crumbling bank and already on the verge of falling into the Fire17; unceasing18 contemplation ensues, which initiates a fissure in al-Ghazls character: equal parts of him desire to leave his lifestyle and, likewise, to remain in Baghdad he is torn, as, in his own words, he would put one foot forward, and the other backward. In the morning I would have a sincere desire to seek the things of the afterlife; but by evening the hosts of passion would assail it and render it lukewarm.19 This constant push and pull of emotions and resolutions takes, in al-Ghazls autobiography, the literary form of a dialogue; on the one hand there is the herald of faith, declaring to al-Ghazl repeatedly that all the practice in which you are engrossed in eyeservice and fakery; on the other hand, there is Satan, who, in response, taunts al-Ghazl relentlessly: beware, then, of yielding to [this passing state]! For it will quickly vanish. Once you have given in to it and given up your present renown and splendid position

16 17

McCarthy 2000, p. 79. Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid. This indecision is familiar to students of St. Augustine.

free from vexation your soul might again look longingly at all that but it would not be easy to return to it!20 This battle has psychological ramifications for al-Ghazl, who, starting with Rajab of the year 488 (July, 1095 AD), begins to suffer from what has been traditionally described as acute aphasia, that is, a complete psychosomatic inability to speak: God put a lock upon my tongue (aqfala Allahu al lisn) so that I was impeded from public teaching (at utiqal an at-tadrs). I struggled with myself to teach for a single day (ajhidu nafs an adrusa yawman widan), to gratify the hearts (qulb) of the students who were frequenting my lectures, but my tongue would not utter a single word (fa-kna l yanaqu lisn bi-kalimatin [widatin]): I was completely unable to say anything (wa-l astaah al-batta). As a result that impediment of my speech caused a sadness in my heart accompanied by an inability to digest: food and drink become unpalatable to me so that I could neither swallow broth easily nor digest a mouthful of solid food. That led to such a weakening of my powers that the physicians lost hope of treating me.21 It is interesting to note that, for whatever reason, al-Ghazl does not use the word bukm, which conveys the concepts of muteness in the Qurn, to describe his condition: instead, he chooses a unique and very specific image God has put a lock on his tongue22; here, it is

20 21

Ibid. Ibid., p. 79-80. 22 Ibid.

important to note that al-Ghazl is clearly not the sort of writer who would flippantly have chosen a random phrase, so his choice of this particular phrase must have some meaning. Indeed, this metaphor of a tongue being obstructed or restricted immediately recalls a passage in the Qurn related to Moses who, at the beginning of his ministry, implores God to ease my task for me; and loosen a knot from my tongue so that they may understand what I say (wa-alul uqdatan min lisn yafqah qawl).23 On account of this locking, al-Ghazl is subsequently unable to utter a single word in the original Arabic, l yanaqu lisn bi-kalimatin widatin. Consulting Lane, the entry on n-q notes that naaqa bi means he pronounced it, or articulated it. 24 The phrase could be translated, then, as my tongue could not [clearly] pronounce a single word. As such, it is possible to read al-Ghazls statement in the context of the matching phrase in the Qurn, regarding Moses lack of fluency as indicating not a complete aphasia, but rather an acute and unexpected speech impediment, which though not an absolute silence nevertheless was an obstacle to his duties, which required eloquence and smoothness of speech. His affirmation that l astaah al-batta, translated by McCarthy to I was completely unable to say anything, may, provisionally, mean I was completely unable to do it [whatever it is]; al-Ghazl may be referring here not to being mute, but rather, perhaps, to teaching, in which he struggled with [him]self in order to please his students.
23 24

Q 20: 26-28. Lane, E. W., Arabic-English Lexicon, London, Williams and Norgate, 1863, supplement, p. 3034.

Al-Ghazl reports a series of other symptoms; as noted above, he suffered from what a modern psychologist would call depression i.e., a sadness in my heart. He also reports another symptom: food and drink became unpalatable to me so that I could neither swallow broth easily nor digest a mouthful of solid food.25 Yet, this seems to be somewhat exaggerated; considering the limits of human physiology, in a six-month period one completely unable to eat anything but broth would, at the very least, suffer catastrophic organ damage and demonstrate visible physical symptoms of starvation, none of which are reported by al-Ghazl or his biographers, who note the principally psychic nature of the affliction (al-Ghazl s pupil, Abd al-Ghafr Ibn Isml al-Fris, who was also his biographer, notes that he suspects al-Ghazl suffered from insanity26 [junn], making no mention of physical signs of deterioration). What can be deduced here, then, is what appear to be signs of loss of appetite and an attendant sluggish digestive system and metabolism. On account of these symptoms, al-Ghazl reports, he was much weakened.27 Thus, al-Ghazls report can reveal a constellation of interesting symptoms: he has diminished ability to speak and a reduced skill of declamation; furthermore, he suffers from a mild depression and presents with an alarming loss of appetite and metabolic lethargy. These

25 26

McCarthy 2000, p. 79. Ormsby 1991, p. 145. 27 McCarthy 2000, p. 79.

symptoms conditionally proposed, it is important next to move on to the testimony of alGhazls physicians.

Greco-Arabic Medicine in Medieval Baghdad

Given his condition and status, al-Ghazl was presumably visited by Baghdads most well-regarded physicians. These physicians, he notes, lost hope of treating me28 after their examination. In order to understand precisely what al-Ghazls doctors were trying to explain, however, the Greco-Arabic understanding of anatomy must be examined. It was Islamic civilization that was the direct heir of the Greco-Roman tradition; nearly wiped out in Western Europe, the great works of philosophy by Plato, Aristotle, and others were preserved by Muslim and Arabic-speaking intellectuals, who painstakingly translated the Greek originals into Arabic (from which they would later be translated into Latin for consumption in places like the University of Paris). Among these classics was found a group of medical works by the late antique physician Galen (d. 129 CE), known in Arabic as Jlns. Walzer notes that

as in the case of philosophy and other sciences, Syrian and Arabic medicine follow the late Greek syllabus almost without a gap we have unayn b. Isqs detailed survey of 129 major and minor works by Jlns translated into Syrian and/or Arabic by himself and others there can be no doubt [t]hat Galens medical works in their entirety, his methods and his results, were fully digested and appreciated by all the Arabic physicians and became an integral part of their medical learning.29

28 29

Ibid., p. 80. Walzer, R., Jlns, in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Leiden, Brill, 2011. Brill Online.

Chief among Galens contributions was his adaptation of Aristotles own anatomical theories to fit a clinical model of medical treatment. This model included both the use of the four humors blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm and the idealization of the brain, the liver, and the heart as the great seats of the human personality: the brain housed memory, the liver housed the basic functions of life; in contrast, the seat of the vital or spiritual faculty is the heart, which spreads life through the entire organism by means of the spirit circulating in the arteries. This classification is relayed by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, a friar who had taught at the University of Paris, who had translated the work of unayn ibn Isq into Latin from the Arabic, entitling the work Hysagoge in medicinam.30 That al-Ghazl is aware of the Aristotelian model of physical medicine and internal anatomy is clear from another work, the Alchemy of Happiness (Kimiya-ye sadat), in which he recounts this model with great faithfulness: the body itself is composed of four diverse elements, water, earth, air and fire there was a need of means to guide in the [senses] occasional use, that is, for the internal senses. These are five, the faculties of perception, reflection, memory, recollection, and imagination. Their home is the brain, and each has a specific function all these are the agents of the heart and subject to its rule.31 Al-Ghazl reports that the heart, in his conception, is the seat of conversation between the invisible world of

30 31

Couliano, J. P., Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (Cook, M., trans.), University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 10. Homes, H., The Alchemy of Happiness, by Mohammed al-Ghazzali the Mohammedan Philoospher, Albany, NY, J. Munsell, 1873, p. 18.

thoughts and the sensual world of images: there is a window in the heart from whence it surveys the world. This is called the invisible world, the world of intelligence, or the spiritual world32 this matches the Greek concept exactly: a cardiac synthesizer, the hegemonic Principal (hgemonikon), receives all the pneumatic currents transmitted to it by the sensory organs and produced by the comprehensible phantasms (phantasia kataleptik) apprehended by the intellect.33 This knowledge is also made clear by his description of his own illness. The diagnosis reported by al-Ghazl -- delivered to him with an apparent air of hopelessness by his physicians -- has been ignored or taken for granted. Indeed, the related statement (this is something which has settled in his heart and crept from it into his humors; there is no way to treat it unless his heart be eased of the anxiety which has visited it34) is mystifying, unscientific, and opaque this is exactly, of course, what everyone in the modern world expects from medieval doctors whose therapy of choice was, for the most part, recourse to astrological configurations.35 For the modern scholar, such a diagnosis represents more comedy than actual science: these physicians, rendered mute in the context of al-Ghazls medical condition and their inability to cure it, presumably concocted a homiletic pastiche of Aristotelian nonsense in order to both mollify their

32 33

Ibid., p. 22-23. Couliano 1987, p. 9. 34 McCarthy 2000, p. 80. 35 cf., for example, Cornell, H. L., The Encyclopedia of Medical Astrology, Astrology Classics, MD, 1933.

patient and preserve their reputations -- or so the contemporary assumption might go. But can this diagnosis yield any actual data? The statement is striking because, generally speaking, an imbalance of the humors was viewed in Greco-Arabic medicine as eminently treatable: for imbalances of bile, purgatives were given to induce vomiting and thus encourage the expulsion of excess yellow- or black-fluid, the so-called melan cholos, which gave a sorrowful and distracted disposition well-known among the ancients and commemorated in the English word melancholy; for imbalances of phlegm, patients were administered diuretics in order to encourage the excess phlegm linked to the element of water to drain from the body. Those with excess blood usually manifesting in fevers, high blood pressure, and headaches would be treated by bloodletting. This is further complicated by the statement that something has settled in his heart there is no way to treat it unless his heart be eased of the anxiety which has visited it. Interestingly, what al-Ghazl is describing as a conflict of rational voices that is, between the herald of faith and Satan, both attempting to persuade him to leave or stay in Baghdad 36 -would normally be viewed as an affliction of the brain, which was the seat of [r]eason, imagination, thought, memory, and sense perception37; his physicians, in contrast, actually describe al-Ghazls affliction as a disease of the heart. As mentioned previously, the heart

36 37

McCarthy 2000, p. 79. Conrad, L. I., The Arab-Islamic Medical Tradition, in The Western Medical Tradition: 800 BCE to AD 1800 (Conrad, L. I., ed.), Cambridge University Press, 1995.

for the medieval Greco-Arabic physician was the seat where the senses flowed into the intellectual world of the mind. Beyond this, however, Arab-Islamic medicine, like Greek medicine before it, attributed key roles to certain major organs, each of which performed a specific vital function. The heart was the source of the innate heat that sustains life. Body temperature was seen as a product of innate heat, the loss of which must invariably result in death.38 It was the heart that regulated the digestive heat, which, in its slow burning, consumed all foodstuffs and sublimated it into useful nutrition for the body. For the physicians, al-Ghazl had a dysfunction of this natural, internal fire. What al-Ghazl s physicians described, then, was not a common excess of one humor or another but rather a corruption of all humors originating in the heart itself that is, the seat of congress between the physical world, the intellectual world, the outside world, and the inner world of the body. Could this affectation of the heart have something to do with a loss of innate heat, which, being debilitated, caused catastrophic effects among al-Ghazls humors and therefore metabolism? Considering this, it is conjectured that al-Ghazls disease of the heart corresponded to something which could not be treated by normal purgation: that is, al-Ghazl presented with a lowered body temperature, a decrease of the innate heat of the body which, naturally, was viewed as an injury of the cardiac muscle exclusively and which had predictable

38

Ibid.

systemic consequences: the inner fires slaked, ones digestive system slows and ones appetite dwindles, as al-Ghazl himself reports. To conclude, a close examination and a speculative eye on the report of al-Ghazls physicians discloses another symptom: lowered body temperature, which the medieval doctors of Baghdad would have interpreted as a wound in the heart affecting all the humors. Along with the previous symptoms, this new indicator will be considered in the next section.

Symptoms Considered

Al-Ghazl, in the theoretical doctors office of speculation, therefore, presents with the following symptoms: he is weakened, experiencing sluggish, affected speech, poor digestion, a nearly anorectic appetite, and a lowered body temperature indicated by the slaking of the internal fires. It is remarkable to note that this constellation of symptoms directly matches the symptoms of hypothyroidism, that is, the disease caused by a chronic inactivity of the thyroid gland:

Hypothyroidism can present with a variety of physical signs and symptoms, mostly related to slowing of the metabolic process secondary to lack of effects of thyroid hormone. Fatigue, cold intolerance, slow speech enlargement of the tongue and hoarseness can also result from a buildup of matrix glycosaminoglycans in the interstitial spaces [emphasis added]. 39

39

Heinrich, T. W., and Grahm, G., Hypothyroidism Presenting as Psychosis: Myxedema Madness Revisited, J Clin Psychiatry 2003: 5(6), pp. 260-266, p. 261.

This array of symptoms can also include hoarse voice and slow speech,40 matching al-Ghazls depiction of himself as having a tongue suddenly locked by God. Beyond this, low thyroid hormone can also have a number of cardiac manifestations including reduced cardiac output resulting in shortness of breath hypertension can result from increased peripheral resistance patients may also report a decreased metabolic rate. A neurologic examination may show decreased central nervous system function41 this may be what the medieval physicians of Baghdad were referring to as having settled in his heart and thereby malignantly affecting all of al-Ghazls humors. The sadness mentioned by al-Ghazl that is, a mild depression is well-known as a consequence of hypothyroidism; the associations between depression and hypothyroidism are well described.42 Most importantly of all, it must be noted that hypothyroidism has been known to lead to a kind of dementia which can take the form of hallucinations or psychosis. In a case study, the hypothyroid experience of a woman is recorded by doctors:

Ms. A was a 35-year-old woman who came to the emergency room with a 2-week history of manic and psychotic symptoms she was lethargic, difficult to engage, and spoke to the interviewer with her eyes closed. Her speech was not pressured or rapid. Her mood was dysphoric and her affect constricted. Her thought process was disorganized she began sleeping only a few hours per night and eating less. She endorsed having racing thoughts during this period. She became religiously preoccupied, and, in what she and her husband later described as highly uncharacteristic behavior, she began regularly to read the Bible, pray, and attend church she told her husband that she believed that God was the father of their babies and that he had been sending her messages. She later reported that certain words in the Bible jumped out at her as

40 41

Ibid., p. 260. Ibid., p. 263-264. 42 Stowell, C. P., and Barnhill, J. W., Acute Mania in the Setting of Severe Hypothyroidism, Psychosomatics 46 (2005), pp. 259-261, p. 259.

having special meaning.43

The doctors go on to note that the patient recovered rapidly after receiving medication to regulate thyroid function. Yet, this onset of what appear to be manic, mystically-oriented episodes is interesting to note in the context of al-Ghazls sudden rapprochement with Sufism. It is interesting to note al-Ghazls recording of the debate between himself, the herald of faith (probably Gabriel), and Satan, who appear to him at intervals.44 This dialogue may have been more than a Socratic literary device; they may, perhaps, represent documentation of al-Ghazls personal experiences while in a hypothyroidic trance. Indeed, Abd al-Ghafr Ibn Isml alFris, al-Ghazls pupil and earliest biographer, describes his analysis of his teachers affliction: after reflection and investigation, I become convinced that the matter was other than what had been supposed, and that the man [viz., al-Ghazl] had recovered from insanity (junn).45 In conclusion, it can be seen that the constellation of symptoms described by al-Ghazl and his physicians match a classic description of hypothyroidism and its subsequent mania, often known in the medical literature as myxedema madness.46 This diagnosis would explain his various metabolic dysfunctions, his inability to speak, as well as what a subsequent biographer has hinted at as a kind of insanity.

43 44

Ibid. See above; McCarthy 2000, p. 179. 45 Ormsby 1991, p. 145. 46 Heinrich and Grahm 2003, p. 260.

Conclusion: Neurotic Luminaries in the Book of Knowledge

Though it may never be known what exactly ailed al-Ghazl, it is clear that he was an incisive mind with who made deliberate choices in literary matters. Indeed, though the Munqidh is widely viewed as, in Smiths terms, an apologia pro vita sua, similar apologetic elements can be found in the Book of Knowledge. That al-Ghazl experienced some kind of neurotic episode on account of which he sequestered himself from the public life he had previously sought is hinted at similarly in the Book of Knowledge, one of the many volumes of his Iy. In retelling certain anecdotes about the founders of the great juridical schools, one can detect a slightly apologetic bent, perhaps exonerating himself from experiencing what was well-known to be a brief moment of psychosis or mental illness. For example, al-Ghazl relays a report regarding the conduct of ash-Shfi, who, while with Umar, upon hearing a certain Qurnic verse recited, demonstrated a color change and his whole body tremble[d]; in fact, he was so intensely agitated that he fell into a swoon. On coming to consciousness, he started to repeat47 a pious phrase over and over again. This appears, to the observer, to be a neurotic display of religious piety that, seemingly, is presented in exoneration of al-Ghazls own neurotic displays in Baghdad. Likewise, al-Ghazl retells a tale from the

47

Faris, N. A. (trans.), The Book of Knowledge, New Delhi, Islamic Book Service, 2002, p. 55.

life of Malik ibn Anas, who, after being beaten by the caliph al-Manur, insists that no man who was truthful in relating the hadith and told no lie did not lose his mental faculty or suffered because of old age any infirmity or dotage.48 Similarly, to defend himself of his long seclusion, al-Ghazl notes that abu-Hanifah spent long spells in silence and contemplation and conversed little with men. These are among the clearest signs of inward knowledge and the concern with the weighty matters of religion, because whoever has been blessed with silence and asceticism would receive all knowledge as well.49 In conclusion, though this essay and others like it is essentially speculative, it is interesting to contribute in a limited way to the debate regarding al-Ghazls life. Unlike the straight-up literary construction proposed by previous scholars, it may be noted that al-Ghazls crisis was a medical one, a pathological one, whose symptoms are well-recorded in his autobiography.

48 49

Ibid., p. 61. Ibid., p. 65.