Nasirean Ethics

Nasirean Ethics
Akhlaq-i Nasiri (Persian: اخلاق ناصری)

Persian front cover of Nasirean Ethics
Author	Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Language	Persian
Published	13th century
Publication place	Nizari Ismaili state
Media type	Book

Nasirean Ethics (Persian: اخلاق ناصری Akhlāq-i Nāsirī) is a 13th century Persian book in philosophical ethics that is written by Khaje Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. This book is divided to three part: ethics, domestic economy and politics.

Author

Main article: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was Persian philosopher, mathematician, and theologian that was born into Shia family in Tus in 1201.[1][2] He was of the Ismaili, and subsequently Twelver Shia Islamic belief.[3] Nasir al-Din has about 150 works in different languages (Persian, Arabic).[4][5]

Reason of writing

At the end of thirteen century, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi wrote this book when he was in Quhistan to response to request of Nasir al-Din Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahim ibn Abi Mansur, a Nizari Ismaili governor, for translating a famous Arabic book, Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, that was written by Miskawayh. The Miskawayh's book was about ethics but Nasir al-Din al-Tusi added the parts of domestic economy and politics of his work.[6][7][8]

Contents

Akhlaq-i Nasiri has three parts.

The first part is the Persian interpretation of Refinement of Morals (Tahdhib al-Akhlaq) of the earlier philosopher Miskawayh. The second part is about domestic economy and management of household affairs and contains the main mutual rights within the family as the most fundamental units of societies and the third part is about the political ideas of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. In this part is seen the influence of Platonic, Neoplatonic and Aristotelian political ideas but also he mentioned to the ideas of Pre-Islamic rulers of Iran specially Achaemenid and Sasanian.[1][9]

Influence over later books

Akhlaq-i Nasiri had influenced Jalaladdin Davani in Akhlaq-i Jalali, Hosayn Va'iz Kashifi in Akhlaq-i Mohseni and Mulla Mahdi Naraqi in Jame' al-Sa'adat.[1]

See also

• Hilyat al-Muttaqin
• Tahdhib al-Ahkam

References

1. Gerhard Böwering, Patricia Crone (2013). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press. pp. 570–571. ISBN 978-0691134840.
2. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Persian scholar. Britannica.
3. Ṭūsī, Naṣīr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad; Badakchani, S. J. (2005), Paradise of Submission: A Medieval Treatise on Ismaili Thought, Ismaili Texts and Translations, vol. 5, London: I.B. Tauris in association with Institute of Ismaili Studies, pp. 2–3, ISBN 1-86064-436-8
4. H. Daiber, F.J. Ragep, "Tusi" in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. Quote: "Tusi's prose writings, which number over 150 works, represent one of the largest collections by a single Islamic author. Writing in both Arabic and Persian, Nasir al-Din dealt with both religious ("Islamic") topics and non-religious or secular subjects ("the ancient sciences")."
5. Seyyed Hossein Nasr. The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia. Curson Press, 1996. See p. 208: "Nearly 150 treatises and letters by Nasir al-Din Tusi are known, of which 25 are in Persian and the rest in Arabic. There is even a treatise on geomancy which Tusi wrote in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, demonstrating his mastery of all three languages."
6. Gérard Chaliand (1994). The Art of War in World History: From Antiquity to the Nuclear Age. University of California Press. p. 444. ISBN 9780520079649.
7. Edward Craig (1998). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Volume 8. Taylor & Francis. p. 441. ISBN 9780415073103.
8. Farhad Daftary (2005). Ismailis in Medieval Muslim Societies: A Historical Introduction to an Islamic Community. I.B.Tauris. pp. 171–172. ISBN 9781845110918.
9. Colin P. Mitchell (3 March 2011). New Perspectives on Safavid Iran: Empire and Society. p. 45. ISBN 9781136991943.

Bibliography

English translation of the book

• Nasir ad-Din Tusi (2011). The Nasirean Ethics. Translated by Wickens, G. M. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-61047-6.