The Descendants of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in Anatolia

The immigration of intellectuals to Anatolia from those parts of the Islamic world that were exposed to the big invasion of Mongol, whether during this invasion or before it, led to improvement and inveteracy of Islamic culture and civilization which has already started institutionalizing and blossoming in the Anatolia. Meanwhile, establishing that who the people that contributed to this process were, shall facilitate our understandings of the nature of Islamic culture and thoughts which subsequently formed in this region. In this paper, we shall talk about Imam-i Ghazali's descendants who had immigrated to Anatolia and settled in Aksaray. However, before addressing the mentioned issue, an important reference, i.e. al-Walad al-Shafiq, will be examined which is the sole written reference on this topic in the Saljuks era, and its author will also be introduced. Afterwards, the data of this reference which is about Ghazali’s descendants will be examined. Lastly, we will focus on the issue raised by some biographical references indicating that Ghazali has had no son, and will examine the data presented in the mentioned reference, i.e. al-Walad al-Shafiq.