Ghazali's Selbstbiographie by Heinrich FrickReview by: D. B. MacdonaldIsis, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Apr., 1922), p. 508Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/223832 .

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isis. iv. 1922 isis. iv. 1922

greater distance between Straumsfjord and Hop than the author

assumes, if we are to place any confidence in the account regarding the climatic differences of these two places.

In any case Mr. GATHORNE-HARDY'S interesting and well written book will convince the reader that we are dealing here with historical facts. But since we are on historical ground we ought to use the

proper word to designate the nationality of these discoverers. It is

customary to call them Norse, and this associates them in the mind of most people with Norway and Norwegians. So far as we know, they were, however, all natives of Iceland, except ERIC the Red, and his

part in these voyages is inconsequential. They should therefore be called Icelandic. To call them Norse is similar to calling Admiral PEARY an English explorer.

(Ithaca, N. Y.) HALLD6R HERMANNSSON.

Heinrich Frick. - GHAZALI'S Selbstbiographie. Ein Vergleich mit AUGUSTINS Konfessionen. Leipzig: HINRICHS, 1919. iv, 84 S. (Verof- fentlichungen des Forschungs Instituts fur vergleichende Reli-

gionsgeschichte an der Universitat, Leipzig, Nr 3).

This is a very careful and detailed comparison of GnIAZZALi'S Mun-

qidh and AUGUSTINE'S Confessiones considered as records of the

spiritual developments and ( conversions )) of these authors. Dr. FRICK traces the evident agreements, almost verbal, in these experiences not to any borrowing but to a common basis in Neoplatonism. This is certainly right and nine-tenths of his further results will probably hold. But when he constructs the ultimate difference between the two theologians round the conception of personality his footing is less certain and his view would probably be corrected by a wider reading in GHAZZALI and in the other Moslem mystics It is true that their ideas on personality have not been much studied by western scholars; but he might turn, in the first instance, to chapter II, ( The Perfect Man )), in R. A. NICHOLSON'S recent Studies in Islamic Mysticism.

Further, that this little book is noticed here at all is due to the fact that GHAZZALI covered in his writings all the knowledge of his time from physics to metaphysics and that our present rather arbitrary limitations as to what may be called (l science )) do not hold in the slightest in his world. The student there must be ready to look everywhere or he is certain to lose much. Thus the connection of this book with our modern A science ) is through psychology.

(Hartford, Con.) D. B. MACDONALD.

greater distance between Straumsfjord and Hop than the author

assumes, if we are to place any confidence in the account regarding the climatic differences of these two places.

In any case Mr. GATHORNE-HARDY'S interesting and well written book will convince the reader that we are dealing here with historical facts. But since we are on historical ground we ought to use the

proper word to designate the nationality of these discoverers. It is

customary to call them Norse, and this associates them in the mind of most people with Norway and Norwegians. So far as we know, they were, however, all natives of Iceland, except ERIC the Red, and his

part in these voyages is inconsequential. They should therefore be called Icelandic. To call them Norse is similar to calling Admiral PEARY an English explorer.

(Ithaca, N. Y.) HALLD6R HERMANNSSON.

Heinrich Frick. - GHAZALI'S Selbstbiographie. Ein Vergleich mit AUGUSTINS Konfessionen. Leipzig: HINRICHS, 1919. iv, 84 S. (Verof- fentlichungen des Forschungs Instituts fur vergleichende Reli-

gionsgeschichte an der Universitat, Leipzig, Nr 3).

This is a very careful and detailed comparison of GnIAZZALi'S Mun-

qidh and AUGUSTINE'S Confessiones considered as records of the

spiritual developments and ( conversions )) of these authors. Dr. FRICK traces the evident agreements, almost verbal, in these experiences not to any borrowing but to a common basis in Neoplatonism. This is certainly right and nine-tenths of his further results will probably hold. But when he constructs the ultimate difference between the two theologians round the conception of personality his footing is less certain and his view would probably be corrected by a wider reading in GHAZZALI and in the other Moslem mystics It is true that their ideas on personality have not been much studied by western scholars; but he might turn, in the first instance, to chapter II, ( The Perfect Man )), in R. A. NICHOLSON'S recent Studies in Islamic Mysticism.

Further, that this little book is noticed here at all is due to the fact that GHAZZALI covered in his writings all the knowledge of his time from physics to metaphysics and that our present rather arbitrary limitations as to what may be called (l science )) do not hold in the slightest in his world. The student there must be ready to look everywhere or he is certain to lose much. Thus the connection of this book with our modern A science ) is through psychology.

(Hartford, Con.) D. B. MACDONALD.

508 508

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