Philosopher
Nasir al-Din Tusi
1201–1274
Also known as Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī, al-Tusi
The most famous scholar of his century in the Islamic world, author of some 165 works from astronomy to ethics, who served Ismaili and then Mongol rulers and founded a centre of learning at Maragha.
Nasir al-Din Tusi was born in Tus in 1201 into a Twelver Shi’i family, lost his father young, and travelled widely to study, in Nishapur and Mosul among other places. In his twenties he joined the court of the Ismaili governor of Quhistan, became an Ismaili, and around 1236 moved to Alamut, the seat of the Nizari Ismaili imam and its great library, rising to the rank of chief missionary.
When the Mongols destroyed Ismaili power, he declared a Twelver Shi’i allegiance, won the trust of Hulegu, and witnessed the fall of the Abbasid caliphate. He administered religious endowments, worked to save scholars from Mongol violence and founded a major centre of learning at Maragha. He died in Baghdad in 1274; his fame preserved nearly all of his roughly 165 works.
Key ideas
- Commentary on Avicenna
- His commentary on Avicenna’s Remarks and Admonitions took him almost twenty years to complete.
- Answering al-Shahrastani
- In The Wrestler’s Throw he refuted al-Shahrastani, who had attacked Avicenna’s metaphysics in The Struggle with the Philosophers.
- A philosophical Sufism
- The Sufism of the masters of his day did not appeal to him, so he wrote his own short manual of philosophical Sufism, The Attributes of the Illustrious.
- Tradition
- Arabic and Islamic
- Region
- Tus, Alamut, Maragha and Baghdad
- Period
- Later Islamic
Influences
Where these links come from
- Nasir al-Din Tusi drew on Avicenna. Source: S. J. Badakhchani, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Nasir al-Din Tusi argued against al-Shahrastani. Source: S. J. Badakhchani, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Nasirean Ethics (Akhlaq-i Nasiri), 1235
- Commentary on Avicenna's Remarks and Admonitions
- The Wrestler's Throw (Musari'at al-musari')
- Contemplation and Action (Sayr wa suluk)
Sources
- S. J. Badakhchani, Nasir al-Din Tusi, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Diana Steigerwald, Al-Shahrastānī, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy