Background
He was born in 1149 in Rai near Tehran. Fakhr was the son of a preacher, himself a writer, and was born at Rai (Rei, Rhagae), near Tehran.
He was born in 1149 in Rai near Tehran. Fakhr was the son of a preacher, himself a writer, and was born at Rai (Rei, Rhagae), near Tehran.
He received his earliest training near Tehran. Here and at Maragha, whither he followed his teacher Majd ud-Dln ul-Jill, he studied philosophy and theology.
He was a Shafiite in law and a follower of Ash'arl (q. v. ) in theology, and became renowned as a defender of orthodoxy. During a journey in Khwarizm and Mawara'l-nahr he preached both in Persian and Arabic against the sects of Islam. After this tour he returned to his native city. Ar-Razi wandered a lot around the cities of the Middle East. He served at the court of the Gurid sultans and Khorezmshahs. Ar-Razi founded Madras in Herat and there he spent the last years of his life. but settled later in Herat, where he died on March 29, 1209.
Fakhr ar-Razi was famous for his activity and sharpness in the fight against his ideological opponents and this struggle was a significant part of his activity. He argued with the Mu'tazilites, Hanbalites, Ismailis. Especially often ar-Razi polemicized with carramates, which accused him of apostasy from Islam and possibly related to his death. Ar-Razi also made a commentary on the sofa of the Arab poet-skeptic Abul-Ala al-Maarri.
Fakhr ar-Razi expanded the range of issues on which Abul-Barakat al-Baghdadi criticized the eastern peripatetics and at the same time strove to bring kalam closer to the falsaf. Ar-Razi spoke out against the position that al-Ghazali held towards the falsaf. Attempts to bring together kalam and falsafa caused active opposition from other Islamic theologians, because of which he even gained a reputation as a freethinker. According to some information, by the end of his life, ar-Razi refused from kalama and switched to Sufism.
Fakhr ar-Razi was one of the few Islamic philosophers who recognized the existence of other worlds besides ours. In his opinion, the existence of only one world was incompatible with the omnipotence of the Creator.
