Ihe Alchemy of Happiness. By Mohammed Qhazzali. 

 Translated from the Turkish. By H. A. Homes. 



The remarkable treatise, which I introduce to your 

 notice, is a translation from one of the numerous works of 

 the Arabian Philosopher, Abou Hamid Mohammed ben 

 Mohammed al Ghazzali, who flourished in the eleventh 

 century. He was born about the year A. D. 1056, or 450 

 of the Mohammedan era, at Tous in Khorasan, and he died 

 in the prime of life in his native country about the year 

 1011, or 505 A. H. Although educated by Mohammedan 

 parents, he avows that during a considerable period of his 

 life he was a prey to doubts about the truth, and that at 

 times he was an absolute sceptic. While yet compara- 

 tively young, his learning and genius recommended him 

 to the renowned sovereign Mzam ul Mulk, who gave him 

 a professorship in the college which he had founded at 

 Bagdad. His speculative mind still harassing him with 

 doubts, in his enthusiasm to arrive at a solid foundation 

 for knowledge, he resigned his position, visited Mecca and 

 Jerusalem, and finally returned to Khorasan, where he 

 led a life of both monastic study and devotion, and conse- 

 crated his pen to writing the results of his meditations. 



Mohammedan scholars of the present day still hold him in 

 such high respect, that his name is never mentioned by 

 them without some such distinctive epithet, as the " Scien- 

 tific Imaum," or " Chief witness for Islamism." His rank 

 in the eastern world, as a philosopher and a theologian, had 

 naturally given his name some distinction in our histories 

 of philosophy, and it is enumerated in connection with 

 those of Averroes (Abu Roshd) and Avicenna (Abu Sina) 



