The burning of al-Ghazali's books in the Maghrib

Abd al-Qadir al-Aydarus relates in Ta'rif al-Ahya' bi-Fada'il al-Ihya' that when the works of al-Ghazali reached the Maghrib, its sultan Ali ibn Yusuf ordered them burned "because he imagined they contained philosophy", and threatened with death anyone found with them afterwards. ¹ Hajji Khalifa reports that some Maghribis rejected the Ihya' when it first reached them. ²

Al-Aydarus tells the story to show "the greatness of al-Ghazali's books". He quotes Ibn al-Sam'ani on a dream in which someone saw the sun rise in the west, which "trustworthy interpreters" read as an innovation to come; and there arose throughout the Maghrib "the innovation of ordering his books burned". ¹ He then says that when al-Ghazali's works reached the Maghrib, the sultan Ali ibn Yusuf ordered them burned, believing they contained philosophy, and threatened death to anyone found with them. ¹

In al-Aydarus's view, wrongs then appeared in the sultan's realm because of this order, the army rose against him, and from the time of the order and the threat he was "in reversal and misfortune", having been just before. ¹

In the same treatise al-Aydarus relates, from al-Yafi'i, the story of the Maghribi jurist Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Hirzihim, who gathered copies of the Ihya' and meant to burn them in the congregational mosque on a Friday, then gave this up after a dream. ^{3 4}

• The account here is al-Aydarus's later report and has not yet been compared with Maghribi sources contemporary with the event.
• The sultan in the text is "Ali ibn Yusuf", linked to the museum's existing entry for the Almoravid emir.