Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī was a Persian polymath, philosopher, theologian and astronomer, born in Tus in Khorasan. He worked for years in the Ismaili strongholds and later under the Mongol ruler Hülegü, for whom he founded the observatory at Maragha. His Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī, a Persian work of practical philosophy reworking Miskawayh, became the most influential treatise on virtue ethics in Persian, and he also defended Ibn Sīnā's philosophy and wrote a standard text of Shi'i theology.

Key ideas

• Practical philosophy has three parts: ethics of the individual, management of the household, and politics of the city.
• Virtue is a mean, and character can be refined by training, following Miskawayh's synthesis of Greek and Islamic thought.
• Ibn Sīnā's philosophy can be defended against the theological critique of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī.
• In astronomy he devised the 'Ṭūsī couple', a geometrical device that improved on Ptolemaic models.

Major works

• Akhlāq-i Nāṣirī (The Nasirean Ethics, c. 1235)
• Sharḥ al-Ishārāt (commentary on Ibn Sīnā's Pointers and Reminders)
• Tajrīd al-I'tiqād (Abstract of Belief)
• al-Tadhkira fī 'ilm al-hay'a (Memoir on Astronomy)

In the Book corner

• The Nasirean Ethics 1235; revised later · Intermediate
  A Persian treatise on practical philosophy written by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in 1235 for Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥtasham, the Ismaili governor of Quhistan,…

In the conversation

• Reading group Reading group: Miskawayh’s Refinement of Character, and Tusi’s Persian reworking of it Layla Sfeir · 6 replies