GHAZALI 



GHENT 



Ghats. Reversing station on the incline of the Ghore 

 Ghat, in the Western Ghats of India 



the western side the inhabitants of 

 the narrow coast land, being prac- 

 tically cut off from the interior by 

 the Western Ghats, were left to 

 develop their own civilization. 



Ghazali, ABU HAMID MOHAM- 

 MED EL- ( 1058-1 111). Arabian phil- 

 osopher and theologian, called the 

 proof of Islam. He was born and 

 died near Tus, in Khorasan, where 

 he founded a Sufi monastery. 

 Ghazali combines a firm adherence 

 to orthodox Islam with neo-Plat- 

 onism, and a generally sceptical 

 attitude towards all philosophy. 

 In his Revivification of the Sciences 

 of Religion, he seeks to free Mahom- 

 edanism from a dead and unin- 

 spiring formalism. 



Ghaziabad. Town and sub- 

 division of the United Provinces, 

 India, in the Meerut District. 

 Area, 493 sq. m. Of the total 

 area, about three-quarters is under 

 cultivation, indigo being one of the 

 important crops. Ghaziabad town 

 is on the trunk road from Calcutta 

 to Peshawar, and is an important 

 rly. junction. Pop. about 10,000. 



Ghazipur . Town and district of 

 the United Provinces, India, in 

 the Benares Division. Area, 1,389 

 sq. m. Of the total area, three- 

 quarters is under cultivation ; of 

 the cultivated area, about half is 

 devoted to rice and barley ; other 

 crops are peas, pulses, and sugar- 

 cane. Ghazipur town, founded ac- 

 cording to tradition by a Saiyid 

 chief, Masud, in 1330, contains the 

 tomb of Lord Cornwallis, who died 

 there in 1805. Pop. 40,000. 



Ghazni, GHIZNI OR GHTJZNEE. 

 Town of Afghanistan. It is about 

 80 m. S.W. of Kabul, and is still 

 a place of some commercial im- 

 portance. Though it stands over 

 7,300 ft. above sea level, wheat 

 and barley are grown in the neigh- 

 bourhood. In the 10th and llth 

 centuries it was the great and 

 nourishing capital of the Ghazne- 

 vids, a race of princes who ruled 

 over an empire that included most 

 of Afghanistan and Persia, as well 

 as a large part of India. 



They gave place to the princes 

 of Ghur, one of whose sovereigns 



burned Ghazni, 

 and established 

 himself as head of 

 an empire even 

 larger than that of 

 the Ghaznevids. 

 The ruins of the 

 o 1 d town, which 

 are extensive, lie 

 about 3 m. N.E. 

 of the present 

 town, which is on 

 the caravan route 

 from Persia to 

 India, by the Gomal 

 Pass. An old 

 castle dominates the town. In the 

 Afghan Wars Ghazni was captured 

 by Lord Keane in 1839, but the 

 Afghans retook it in 1842, losing it 

 in the same year, however, again 

 to the British, then under General 

 Nott. Pop. 10,000. 



Gheel. Town of Belgium, in the 

 prov. of Antwerp. It lies about 

 28 m. E. of Antwerp, and has the 

 fine Gothic church of S. Dymphna, 

 a patroness of the feeble-minded. 

 Pop. 14,600. It is chiefly noted 

 for its insane colony, where some 

 2,000 mentally afflicted persons 

 are boarded out among the in- 

 habitants for family treatment, 

 under official supervision. ^. 



The commune is divided into six 

 sections, each under the charge of 

 a physician and an assistant officer. 

 There are also inspectors appointed 

 by the minister of justice, to each 

 of whom a district is assigned, every 

 patient in which they visit once a 

 fortnight. The patients are divided 

 into two classes : private paying 

 patients, living in the charge of 

 persons known as holes, at varying 

 fees, and pauper patients, in the 

 care of nourriciers. 



The advantages of the Gheel 

 system are that a large number of 

 the insane are well provided for 

 altogether outside of asylum ad- 

 ministration ; are placed in a 

 position where their life approaches 

 much more nearly to the life they 

 would have led had they never 

 become insane ; are, to a great ex- 

 tent, restored to a place in the 

 general community ; and are made 

 to share in the interests and occu- 

 pations of the sane. 



Among its disadvantages is the 

 fact that the care of the insane has 

 become what may almost be called 

 the staple industry of the place. 

 In the history of the treat- 

 ment of insanity, Gheel occupies an 

 honourable place. See Insanity. 



Gheluvelt. Village of Belgium, 

 in the prov. of W. Flanders, 4 m. 

 S.E. of Ypres on the Ypres-Menin 

 road. It was the scene of desperate 

 fighting in the Great War, especi- 

 ally in the first battle of Ypres, Oct. 

 24-31, 1914, and no position was 



Ghent arms 



more hotly disputed. The 2nd bat- 

 talion Welch regiment alone lost 17 

 officers and 600 other ranks in 

 killed and wounded here. Captured 

 by the British in Oct., 1917, it was 

 lost in the spring of 1918, and fin- 

 ally taken at the end of Sept., 1918, 

 in the battle for the Belgian coast. 

 Several war memorials are to be 

 erected here, including one to the 

 officers and men of the above bat- 

 talion and one to the Second Divi- 

 sion. See Flanders, Battle of; 

 Ypres, Battles of. 



Ghent (Fr. Gaud). City of Bel- 

 gium, capital of the prov. of E. 

 Flanders. It lies 31 m. N.W. of 

 Brussels, at the 

 meeting of the 

 rivers Lys and 

 Schelde, the arms 

 of which intersect 

 the city in all di- 

 rections. An im- 

 portant rly. cen- 

 tre, with two large 

 stations, it is situ- 

 ated in the midst of flat, well-culti- 

 vated country. Ghent is connected 

 with the S. arm of the estuary of 

 the Schelde at Terneuzen, about 21 

 m. N.N.E., by a ship canal, built 

 1826-27, and deepened 1895-96, 

 and has also -good inland waterway 

 communications. Apart from its 

 administrative importance and its 

 university (founded 1816), Ghent 

 has considerable cotton and linen 

 manufactures, tanneries, breweries, 

 engineering works, and sugar re- 

 fineries ; a busy trade in timber, 

 phosphates, flax, potatoes, cement, 

 etc. ; and many nurseries and hot- 

 houses. Ledeberg, Mont-S. Amand, 

 and Gentbrugge are populous 

 suburbs. Pop. 163,595. 



Its many old buildings in the 

 Flemish style, the narrow, curving 

 lanes, and the countless bridges 

 and waterways make Ghent one of 

 the most picturesque of Belgian 

 cities. Foremost among the historic 

 buildings is the cathedral of S. 

 Bavon, the city's patron saint, 

 founded about 940, which became 

 a cathedral in 1559. The exterior is 

 plain, but the interior is full of 

 beauty. The choir dates from the 

 13th century, the nave and tran- 

 septs from the 16th, and in the 

 cathedral is the famous altar-piece 

 of The Adoration of the Lamb, 

 painted 1420-32 by the Van 

 Eycks ; some panels of the com- 

 plete work were sold in 1816, but 

 were returned to Ghent from 

 Berlin by the treaty of Versailles 

 in 1920. 



The hotel de ville is a large block 

 dating in part from the close of the 

 15th century, with handsome fa- 

 9ades of 16th century Gothic and 

 early 17th century Renaissance 

 styles. A lofty belfry (390 ft.), 



