Nasir Al-Din Tusi (1201-1274) : Contemplation and Action (Sayr Wa Suluk)
Nasir Al-Din Tusi (1201-1274) : Contemplation and Action (Sayr Wa Suluk)
Nasir Al-Din Tusi (1201-1274) : Contemplation and Action (Sayr Wa Suluk)
Tusi was born in Tus in 1201 and died in Baghdad in 1274. Very little is known about
his childhood and early education, apart from what he writes in his
autobiography, Contemplation and Action (Sayr wa suluk).
He was apparently born into a Twelver Shi‘i family and lost his father at a young age.
Fulfilling the wish of his father, he took learning and scholarship very seriously and
travelled far and wide to attend the lectures of renowned scholars and acquire the
knowledge which guides people to the happiness of the next world. As a young boy,
Tusi studied mathematics with Kamal al-Diin Hasib about whom we have no authentic
knowledge. In Nishabur he met Farid al-Din ‘Attar, the legendary Sufi master who was
later killed in the hand of Mongol invaders and attended the lectures of Qutb al-Din
Misri and Farid al-Din Damad. In Mawsil he studied mathematics and astronomy with
Kamal al-Din Yunus (d. 1242). Later on he corresponded with Qaysari, the son-in-law
of Ibn al-‘Arabi, and it seems that mysticism, as propagated by Sufi masters of his time,
was not appealing to his mind ,and once the occasion was suitable, he composed his
own manual of philosophical Sufism in the form of a small booklet entitled The
Attributes of the Illustrious (Awsaf al-ashraf).
His ability and talent in learning enabled Tusi to master a number disciplines in a
relatively short period. At the time when educational priorities leaned towards the
religious sciences, especially in his own family who were associated with the Twelver
Shi‘i clergy, Tusi seems to have shown great interest in mathematics, astronomy and
the intellectual sciences. At the age of twenty-two or a while later, Tusi joined the court
of Nasir al-Din Muhtashim, the Ismaili governor of Quhistan, Northeast Iran, where
he was accepted into the Ismaili community as a novice (mustajib). A sign of close
personal relationship with Muhtashim’s family is to be seen in the dedication of a
number of his scholarly works such as Akhlaq-i Nasiri and Akhlaq-i Muhtashimi to Nasir
al-Din himself and Risala-yi Mu‘iniyya to his son Mu‘in al-Din.
Around 1236, he was in Alamut, the centre of Nizari Ismaili government. The scholarly
achievements of Tusi in the compilation of Akhlaq-i Nasiri in 633/1235, seems, among
other factors, to have paved the way for this move which was a great honou and
opportunity for a scholar of his caliber, especially since Alamut was the seat of the
Ismaili imam and housed the most important library in the Ismaili state.
In Alamut, apart from teaching, editing, dictating and compiling scholarly works, Tusi
climbed the ranks of the Ismaili da‘wat ascending to the position of chief missionary
(da‘i al-du‘at). Through constant visits with scholars and tireless correspondence, Tusi
kept his contact with the academic world outside Ismaili circles and was addressed as
‘the scholar’ (al-muhaqiq) from a very early period in his life.
The Mongol invasion and the turmoil it caused in the eastern Islamic territories hardly
left the life of any of its citizens untouched. The collapse of Ismaili political power and
the massacre of the Ismaili population, who were considered to be a serious threat to
the Mongols, left no choice for Tusi except the exhibition of some sort of affiliation to
Twelver Shi‘ism, and he denounced his Ismaili allegiances.
Tusi’s major works are the following: (1) Astronomy: al-Tadhkira fi ‘ilm al-hay’a; Zij
Ilkhani; Risala-yi Mu‘iniyya and its commentary. (2) Ethics: Gushayish-nama; Akhlaq-i
Muhtashami; Akhlaq-i Nasiri, ‘Deliberation 22’ in Rawda-yi taslim and a Persian
translation of Ibn Muqaffa‘’s al-Adab al-wajiz. (3) History: Fath-i Baghdad which
appears as an appendix to Tarikh-i Jahan-gushay of Juwayni (London, 1912-27), vol. 3,
pp. 280-92. (4) Jurisprudence: Jawahir al-fara’id. (5) Logic: Asas al-iqtibas. (6)
Mathematics: Revision of Ptolemy’s Almagest; the epistles of Theodosius, Hypsicles,
Autolucus, Aristarchus, Archimedes, Menelaus, Thabit b. Qurra and Banu Musa. (7)
Medicine: Ta‘liqa bar qunun-i Ibn Sina and his correspondences with Qutb al-Din
Shirazi and Katiban Qazwini. (8) Philosophy: refutation of al-Shahrastani in Musara‘at
al-musari‘; his commentary on Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat wa’l-tanbihat which took him
almost 20 years to complete; his autobiography Sayr wa suluk; Rawda-yi
taslim and Tawalla wa tabarra. (9) Theology: Aghaz wa anjam; Risala fi al-
imama and Talkhis al-muhassal and (10) Poetry: Mi‘yar al-ash‘ar.
Author Information
S. J. Badakhchani
Email: [email protected]
The Institute of Ismaili Studies
United Kingdom