The rationale for this paper stems from a pressing need to clarify the intellectual makeup of al-Ghazālī's (Algazel) political advice to the rulers and state men. The Greek and Persian influences on the thought of the renowned Medieval Muslim theologians were clear. It is thus hoped that the conclusions reached here will lead to further investigations of possible traces of Greek and Persian ideas on political ideas of Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī, i.e. on his advice to the rulers and their ministries.
The status of Abū Hāmid al-Ghazālī as a distinguished Muslim theologian in the Middle Ages is unquestionable. His life and work, both religious and literary, show singular dedication to Islamic and philosophical subjects. His political treatise Al-Tibr al-Masbūk fī Naṣīḥat al-Mulūk wa-l-Wuzarā' wa-l-Wulāh, however, points to the unmistakably strong presence of Persian and Greek influences. This political work is living proof that Greek and Persian culture flourished in the Islamic east well into the eleventh century where works by Socrates, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, and others and the wise speeches of the Persian kings and ministries were common knowledge to many of the Muslim scholars of the Eastern Islamic lands.
The influence of Greek and Persian classical authors on the thought of al-Ghazālī is a valuable issue. The majority of Muslim theologians derived their thought from the Islamic sciences, such as the holy Qur'ān, the Prophet's traditions, fiqh (canon law), tafsīr (theology and Quranic exegesis respectively), Arabic language, Arabic poetry, and others. On the other hand, the existence of classical culture in the Islamic society during the Middle Ages is evidence of the civilizational exchange between Greece, Persia and the Islamic world. Of course, it is a well-known fact to the historians, now as then, that Syriacs and Byzantines served as cultural mediators between the Greek and Islamic worlds.