The Nasirean Ethics (RLE Iran C)

Nasīr ad Dīn Tūsi, G. M. Wickens

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136834752
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: History

The Nasirean Ethics is the best known ethical digest to be composed in medieval Persia, if not in all mediaeval Islam. It appeared initially in 633/1235 when T?s? was already a celebrated scholar, scientist, politico-religious propagandist. The work has a special significance as being composed by an outstanding figure at a crucial time in the history he was himself helping to shape: some twenty years later T?s? was to cross the greatest psychological watershed in Islamic civilization, playing a leading part in the capture of Baghdad and the extinction of the generally acknowledged Caliphate there. In this work the author is primarily concerned with the criteria of human behaviour: first in terms of space and priority allotted, at the individual level, secondly, at the economic level and thirdly at the political level.

Notes

1. This doxology contains several quotations from the Koran and elsewhere, not all strictly accurate. In a manner familiar to Islamic scholars, these quotations have been inserted as an integral part of the sentence-structure. Such skilful dovetailing cannot always be reproduced in English, but all such passages are indicated by quotation marks.

2. Ṭūsī, in excusing himself for having served the Ismā ʽīlīs of Quhistān, uses a typical Shīʽite tradition justifying taqīya, i.e. strictly speaking, the concealment of one’s faith to save one’s life, but—by extension— taking the line of least resistance in any difficult situation. However, he can here almost be regarded as implying that he sees himself merely as an unheroic Sunnī! Of the five versions I have used, only Lahore 1952 and 1955 give yaqī (‘protects’); the others provide a Sunnī flavour by writing yūfì or yuwaffī (‘fulfils’), which seems to destroy the argument. Strictly speaking, all the readings (in Arabic they differ only by one dot) involve a grammatical looseness unlikely in a genuine, early tradition: the use of the indicative, instead of the jussive, in a quasi-conditional clause. The transition from formality and mannerism to the bald ‘there was nothing else I could do’, corresponds to the Persian.

3. While this is a Persianized form of a common title of Ibn Miskawaih’s treatise, Ṭūsī is clearly only alluding to that fact here, not quoting the title as such. Cf. Notes 39 and 237.

4. Respectively ‘Practical Wisdom’ (ḥikmat-i ‘amalī), ‘Civic Wisdom’ (ḥikmat-i madanī) and ‘Domestic Wisdom’ (ḥikmat-i manzilī). Ṭūsī means that Ibn Miskawaih treats only of Ethics. Cf. Note 39.

5. ‘Moral Wisdom’ (ḥikmat-i khulqī). Cf. Note 39.

6. ‘Wisdom’ (ḥikmat).

7. ‛ilm and ‛amal respectively.

8. ‘Wise man’ (ḥakīm).

9. Koran 11:272.

10. ḥikmat-i naẓarī and ḥikmat-i ‛amalī respectively.

11. Respectively: ‛ilm-i mā ba‛d al-ṭabī ‘a, ‛ilm-i riyāḍī, and ‘ilm-i ṭabī ‛ī.

12. uṣūl and furū ‛respectively.

13. ‛The Divine Science’ (‘ilm-i ilāhī).

14. falsafa-i ūlā.

15. ‛ilm -i handasa.

16. ‛ilm -i ‘adad.

17. ‛Science of Aspect’ (‛ilm -i hai’a).

18. ‘Laws or Judgments of the Stars’ (aḥkām-i nujūm).

19. ‛ilm -i ta’līf.

20. ‛ilm -i mūsīqā.

21. Respectively: ‘Science of Spectacles and Mirrors’ (‛ilm-i manāẓir u marāyā); ‘Science of Reparation and Equation’ (‛ilm-i jabr u muqābala); ‘Science of Drawing Weights’ (‛ilm -i jarr-i athqāl).

22. ‘The Commonly Accepted relating to Nature’ (samā‛-i ṭabī‘ī). This corresponds to Aristotle’s supposed eight books of Physics.

23. basā’iṭ-i ‛ulwā u suflā (cf. Note 173).

24. samā’ u ‘ālam.

25. arkān u ʼnnāṣir.

26. ‛ilm-i kaun u fasād.

27. ‘Sublime impressions’ (āthār-i ’ulwà).

28. ‘ilm-i ma‛ādin.

29. ‘Growing’ (nāmī).

30. ‘Science of Plants’ (‛ilm-i nabāt).

31. ‘Science of Animals’ (‛ilm-i ḥayawān).

32. ‘Speaking’ (nāṭiq). Cf. Note 135.

33. ‘Science of the Soul’ (‘ilm-i nąfs).

34. Respectively: ‛ilm -i ṭibb; ‛ilm-i aḥkām-i nujūm (see Note 18); and ‛ilm-i falāḥat.

35. ‛ilm-i manṭiq.

36. The foregoing section may be compared with various other schemes set out in Ch. 11 of Introduction à la Théologie Musulmane, by L. Gardet and M. M. Ana...