Nasir al-Din al-Tusi : English

 

 

 

Description :

 

'Nasir al-Din Tusi : A Philosopher for All Seasons' explores the life and work of the medieval Persian polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274) within the historical and religious contexts in which he was active during the course of his eventful life.

 

 

The book brings to light the philosophical character of all the different intellectual areas and genres of writing that Tusi experimented with, including: metaphysics, theology, ethics, politics, astronomy, logic and aesthetics. Nasir al-Din Tusi: A Philosopher for All Seasons describes one of the most tumultuous periods in medieval Muslim history as the context for the intellectual productions of an influential figure who was both impacted by the events and contributed to them.

 

 

 

 

Khawaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi,

He is Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tusi. Al-Tusi was born [597hijri] in Tus, Khursan which lies close to Mashhad in northeastern Iran. He was a famous Persian scholar and prolific writer in different fields of science and philosophy. He was an astronomer, mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and theologian.


Al-Tusi wrote over 150 works, in Arabic and Persian, that dealt with mathematical sciences, philosophy, and the religious sciences (fiqh, kalam, and tasawwuf). By his prolific oeuvre, the wide diffusion of his works and their influence, he acquired the honourific titles of khwaja (distinguished scholar and teacher), ustadh al-bashar (teacher of mankind), and al-mu'allim al-thalith (the third teacher, after Aristotle and Al-Farabi). In addition, Al-Tusi was the director of the Islamic major astronomical observatory of Mar?gha (northern Iran).


Al-Tusi was born into a family of learned scholars. His father and his uncles encouraged him to pursue the Islamic religious sciences as well as the the rational sciences. He studied philosophy and mathematics in his native town Tus, but eventually traveled to Nishapur (after 1213) in order to continue his education in sciences, medicine, and philosophy. He studied the works of Ibn Sina, who became an important formative influence. Al-Tusi then traveled to Iraq where his studies included legal theory; in Mosul (sometime between 1223 and 1232), one of his teachers was Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus (died 1242), a legal scholar who was also renowned for his expertise in astronomy and mathematics. Al-Tusi's writings are both synthetic and original. His recensions (tah?r?r) of Greek and early Islamic scientific works, which included his original commentaries, became the standard in a variety of disciplines.


Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's major scientific writings in astronomy, including Al-Tadhkira fi ‘ilm al-hay'a, in which he endeavoured to reform Ptolemaic astronomy, had an enormous influence upon late medieval Islamic astronomy as well as the work of early-modern European astronomers, including Copernicus.


Al-Tusi wrote several treatises on practical astronomy (taqw?m), instruments, astrology, and cosmography/theoretical astronomy (‘ilm al-hay'a). He also compiled a major astronomical handbook (in Persian) entitled Z?j-i ?lkh?n? for his Mongol patrons in Mar?gha. Virtually all these works were the subject of commentaries and supercommentaries, and many of his Persian works were translated into Arabic. They were influential for later generations, some still being used into the 20th century.

 

 

 

 

Sayeh Meisami is Associate Professor of philosophy at University of Dayton. She has a PhD in Islamic Studies from University of Toronto and a philosophy PhD from Tehran University. She has taught courses on Islamic philosophy and religion in Iran, Canada and USA.

 

 

 

 

Table of Contents :
 

---Introduction,
-------A Rising Star in Khurasan,
-------Life and Work in Isma'ili Fortress,
-------A Warlord's Confidant and Astronomer.

 

---Chapter One: Theoretical Wisdom,
-------Exoteric and Esoteric,
-------Wrestling with the Master's Critic's,
-------Crossing Boundaries,
-----------God Knows All,
-----------God is not the first cause,
-----------Creation and Time,
-------The Human Soul,
-----------From Whence it Comes and Where it Goes,
---------------Human Knowledge and the Necessity for Instruction,
---------------The Origin and the End of the Soul,
---------------Free Will and Determinism,
-------A Logical Philosopher,
-------Master of Exact Sciences.

 

---Chapter Two: Practical Wisdom,
-------Ethics,
----------Happiness and Virtue,
----------Superiority of Justice,
----------How to become Virtuous,
-------Economics,
-------Politics,
----------Love,
----------Cities of Virtue and Cities of Vice,
----------Friendship,
----------The Imam and His Representative,
-------A Sufi Gateway.

 

---Chapter Three: On Music and Poetry,

 

---Chapter Four: Legacy

Appendix:

---Chronological Table of Al-Tusi's Life,,
---Bibliography.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Islamic Philosophy.

 

 

 

 

*Dimensions : 21 x 13.8cm.

 

**NB: Contains Shi'ah references.