Philosopher
Nasir Khusraw
1004–1060
Also known as Nasir-i Khusraw, Abu Mo'in Hamid al-Din Nasir ibn Khusraw
Persian poet, traveller and Ismaili philosopher whose Neoplatonic cosmology traces all things from God's creative word down to humanity, and back again through the intellect.
Nasir Khusraw was born in 1004 in Qobadiyan, in the eastern Iranian province of Khurasan, and received an excellent education in the sciences, literature and philosophy of his time, including Greek and Neoplatonic thought. He held a high post in the Saljuq administration until, at about forty, after studying the teachings of the various Islamic schools, he converted to Ismailism. He then set out on a seven-year journey, recorded in his Book of Travels, and spent three years at the Fatimid court in Cairo.
He returned to Khurasan as head of the Ismaili mission there, but Sunni authorities drove him into exile, and he spent the rest of his life in the Pamir mountains of Badakhshan, writing in poetry and prose. His cosmology follows Plotinus closely, as did those of his fellow Ismailis al-Nasafi and al-Sijistani, and differs from the scheme that al-Farabi introduced and Avicenna and al-Kirmani adopted. Since his death he has featured in every significant history or literary survey of Ismailism.
Key ideas
- God beyond being and non-being
- God is indescribable, beyond every category of being and non-being; nothing that has an opposite can be said of Him without limiting Him to human concepts. Understanding God’s oneness (tawhid) is the only way to spiritual perfection.
- Intellect and Soul
- From God’s command “Be!” comes Universal Intellect, perfect and beyond time and space. From its worship of God comes Universal Soul, which longs for the perfection Intellect enjoys, and its striving sets the whole cosmos in motion, producing the elements, minerals, plants, animals and finally human beings.
- Inner and outer
- The world is divided into an inner, esoteric realm (batin) and an outer, exoteric one (zahir). Everything physical points to its spiritual counterpart, its source and true form, and the physical world in turn seeks to grasp the spiritual.
- A living guide
- Each person must recognise and correct their own imperfections by applying the intellect to worldly and spiritual matters. Since God sends no revelation without a guide to interpret it, this requires a living, divinely inspired guide, the Imam of the Time.
- Tradition
- Arabic and Islamic
- Region
- Khurasan and Badakhshan
- Schools
- Neoplatonism
- Period
- Classical Islamic
- Themes
- God
Influences
Where these links come from
- Nasir Khusraw drew on Plotinus. Source: Alice C. Hunsberger, Nasir Khusraw, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Key works
- Book of Travels (Safarnama)
Terms on this page
- tawhid
- God’s oneness, or unity. Nasir Khusraw held that only a clear understanding of it leads to spiritual perfection; for al-Shahrastani it meant denying God every attribute humans ascribe.
- batin
- The inner, esoteric realm, as against the outer, exoteric one (zahir). Ismaili accounts of creation are built on the split between these two realms.
- zahir
- The outer, exoteric realm, as against the inner, esoteric one (batin). Ismaili accounts of creation are built on the split between these two realms.
Sources
- Alice C. Hunsberger, Nasir Khusraw, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy