Intellectual development (1):

1. Biography of Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74)(A Presentation for History of Islamic Philosophy Lectures )By Ahmad Y. Samantho& Andri KusmayadiICAS – Paramadina Jakarta

2. Intellectual development(1): • Born in Tus in Khurasan in northwest Iran in 11 Jamadil Ula AH 597 (16 February AD 1201) up to his middle or late twenties, al-Tusi lived in a Twelver Shi‘i milieu, and learn much about religious law (syariah & fiqh). But His jurist Father (Muhammad ibn Hasan) , was sufficiently broad-minded to encourage him beyond scholastic studies to the philosophical and natural sciences, and to acquaint himself with the doctrines of other schools and sects • Study philosophy in Nishapur, where he was taught by a scholar whose teaching lineage went back to Ibn Sina (peripatetics-aristotelian)

3. Intellectual development (2): • He was not convinced that the intellect could answer the ultimate metaphysical questions. Perhaps as a way out of his perplexity, and quite possibly as the result of sectarian connections through an uncle, he turned to the Isma‘ilism, which had been influenced by the Neoplatonic speculations of Isma‘ili thinkers in the third and fourth centuries AH (ninth and tenth centuries AD)

4. Intellectual development (3): • With the Mongol invasion of Iran in the middle of the thirteenth century the Isma‘ili strongholds were destroyed, and al-Tusi found himself involved in the negotiations leading to the surrender of the Grand Isma‘ili Master to the invaders. His efforts were appreciated by the Mongol conqueror Hülegü, who took him on as an advisor, in which capacity he assisted at the sacking of Baghdad in AH 656/AD 1258. Later al-Tusi was put in charge of religious endowments and affairs. Hülegü also had the great observatory and library at Maraghah built for al-Tusi, where he led a team of scientists and mathematicians from as far away as China. It is clear that immense resources were put at his disposal for this project, where the teaching and study of philosophy went on hand in hand with that of the exact sciences.

5. Intellectual development (4): • Al-Tusi died in AH 672/AD 1274 in Baghdad, in the same year as Thomas Aquinas. He was buried according to his last wishes beside the shrine of the seventh Twelver Imam, Musa ibn Ja‘far, in Kazimayn just outside Baghdad. Among his most remarkable students were the philosopher Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (d. AH 710/AD 1310) and the Imami jurist and theologian, the ‘Allamah al-Hilli (d. AH 726/AD 1325). • The end of his Isma‘ili period also marked al-Tusi’s turn (or return) to Twelver Shi‘ism, and the last period of his life witnessed not only a remarkable output of scientific works but also a reformulation of Imami theology in philosophical terms which was as influential in the Shi‘I world as was that of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in the Sunni.

6. Intellectual development (5): • If in his early life al-Tusi believed in the need for reason to be sustained by a non-rational (or supra-rational) guarantor, his move to Twelve Shi‘ism, with its doctrine of the hidden, inaccessible Imam, indicates a growing strength in his convictions about the ability of the intellect. His sectarian shifts have given rise to much argument concerning his genuine doctrinal loyalties, but throughout his life there runs a consistent philosophical thread whose main characteristic was the defense, rehabilitation and elaboration of Ibn Sina’s method and theories. It is through his interpretations in texts, epitomes, commentaries and refutations that subsequent generations in the Islamic east have approached their understanding of Ibn Sina. His output as an author in both Arabic and Persian was prodigious, including lasting contributions to logic, metaphysics, ethics, mathematics and astronomy.

7. His works on logic, metaphysics and theology(1): • Al-Tusi’s main contribution to logic is contained in his Persian Asas al-iqtibas (The Ground for the Acquisition of Knowledge), • An Arabic manual of logic by al-Tusi, the Tajrid al-mantiq (Abstract of Logic), was commented on by his pupil the ‘Allamah al-Hilli.

8. His works on logic, metaphysics and theology(2): • the major text on which al-Tusi’s reputation as an interpreter of Ibn Sina’s philosophy rests is his commentary on the Kitab al-Isharat(Remarks and Admonitions), written towards the end of his stay with the Isma‘ilis. Al-Tusi’s work was in part, at least, intended as a response to the commentary of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on the same text. This work shows one of al-Tusi’s continuing complaints, that those who attack Ibn Sina are generally ill-equipped as philosophers and that analysis can reveal their weaknesses.

9. His works on logic, metaphysics and theology(3): • Masari‘ al-musari‘ (The Floorings of the Wrestler), a refutation of an Isma‘ili Neoplatonic text by the crypto-Isma‘ili al-Shahrastani (d. AH 548/AD 1153) which attacked Ibn Sina for deviating from ‘prophetic theology’. Al-Tusi’s vehemently anti-Isma‘ili defence of Ibn Sina is unreservedly polemical, using the same tactic of accusations of weak logic and feeble-mindedness which he had employed against al-Razi. Perhaps also a rejection of al-Tusi’s own past, this text marks another stage in the development of his conviction of the superiority of philosophical thinking over religious dialectics.

10. His works on logic, metaphysics and theology(4): • Al-Tusi made several contributions to the field of metaphysical theology. The first attempt in this direction was an exposition of Isma‘ili qiyama (resurrection) theology in his Rawdat al-taslim (The Garden of Submission), but of more enduring consequence was his later Twelver work, the Tajrid al-kalam (Abstract of Theology). This has been the subject of numerous commentaries down to the present century, the most important of which is the ‘Allamah al-Hilli’s Kashf al-murad (Disclosing the Intention). After the Tajrid, practically all Imami theological works would be expressed in the terminology of metaphysics, with Mulla Sadra eventually achieving a comprehensive and lasting fusion.

11. His Works on : ethics, mathematics and the natural sciences (1): • There are two main works in al-Tusi’s ethical output, the Akhlaq-i Muhtashami (Muhtashamean Ethics) and the Akhlaq-i Nasiri (The Nasirean Ethics), both written in Persian. • Akhlaq-i Muhtashami is scarcely more than a manual of ethical precepts, amply illustrated with quotations from the Qur’an, the Shi‘i Imams and Greek sources • Akhlaq-i Nasiri divided into three parts – ethics (akhlaq), domestic economics (tadbir-e manzil), politics (siyasat-e mudun) - set the pattern for subsequent works on practical philosophy in the Islamic tradition (see al-Dawani).

12. His Works on : ethics, mathematics and the natural sciences (2): • Throughout his life al-Tusi was a prolific writer in mathematics and the natural sciences, and made advances in trigonometry, mathematics and astronomy. This aspect of his intellectual endeavour was eventually rewarded with the foundation of the Maraghah observatory. The result of the astronomical observations and calculations made there was the famous tables of the Zij-e Ilkhani (in Persian, but also translated into Arabic).

13. The setting up of the observatory and the institutionalization of the rational sciences created a demand for teaching materials, and al-Tusi was himself the author of a number of recensions (tahrir) of scientific texts as well as summaries and abridgements of theological, logical, and philosophical texts, clearly intended to supply this teaching need. • Al-Tusi’s lasting influence can be seen in the subsequent surge of activity in the rational sciences in the Islamic east, as well as in their gradual absorption into religious education, which in turn affected the development of theology, particularly among Shi‘i scholars

14. List of works of Kwajhah Nasirudin Thusi : • 1235, 1265) Akhlaq-i Nasiri (The Nasirean Ethics), trans. G.M. Wickens, London: George Allen & Unwin, 1964.(An excellent,meticulous translation of the Akhlaq-e Nasiri, with a brief introduction and notes.) • (1242) Rawdat al-taslim (The Garden of Submission), trans. C. Jambet, La convocation d’Alamût: somme de philosophie ismaélienne (Radat al-taslîm: Le jardin de vraie foi), Lagrasse and Paris: Éditions Verdier and Éditions UNESCO, 1996.(A work of Isma‘li theology.) •  (1244-5) Asas al-iqtibas (The Ground for the Acquisition of Knowledge), ed. M. Radawi, Tehran: Tehran University Press, 1947.(Al-Tusi’s major logical text, in Persian.) • (probably after 1246) Sayr wa suluk (Contemplation and Action), ed. and trans. S.J.H. Badakhchani, London: Institute for Ismaili Studies, 1997.(This is the autobiography which al-Tusi wrote during his stay with the Isma‘ilis, and is untinged with the complaints which he later made of this period in his life.) • (before 1258) Sharh al-Isharat (Commentary on the Isharat), ed. S. Dunya in Ibn Sina, al-Isharat wa-’l-tanbihat, Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘arif, 1957-60, 4 parts, 3 vols in 2; also in Ibn Sina, al-Isharat wa-’l-tanbihat, Tehran: Matba‘at al-Haydari, 1957-9, 3 vols.(Both these editions contain al-Tusi’s commentary as parts of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s commentary, to which al-Tusi is responding. The Tehran edition also contains Qutb al-Din al-Razi’s commentary, which sets out to adjudicate between al-Tusi and al-Razi.) • al-Tusi (probably before 1270-1) Tajrid al-kalam (Abstract of Theology).(The text of this, al-Tusi’s major theological work (also known as Tajrid al-‘aqa’id and Tajrid al-i‘tiqad), can be found in the commentary by his pupil Hasan ibn Yusuf ibn al-Mutahhar al-Hilli, Kashf al-murad fi sharh tajrid al-i‘tiqad, Qum: Jama‘at al-Mudarrisin, no date.)