Place
Damascus
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. Al-Farabi died here. Al-Ghazali spent years teaching and wandering in this city during his Sufi period.
Thinkers Connected to Damascus
Al-Farabi
The Second Teacher (after Aristotle). He mapped out the perfect city and placed the philosopher at its head.
Al-Ghazali
He held the most prestigious teaching post in the Islamic world, then abandoned it. Philosophy had failed him. Only direct experience of God would do.
Ibn Arabi
The Greatest Master of Sufi metaphysics, who taught that all being is one, and that creation is God seeing himself in a mirror.