The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din (1201–74)

A philosopher, scientist, and major Shi‘i theologian contributing to both the Isma‘ili and Twelver traditions, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi wrote one of the most influential Persian medieval works on politics, ethics, and statecraft—namely, the Akhlaq-i Nasiri (Nasirean Ethics).

Abu Ja‘far Muhammad al-Tusi was born into a scholarly Twelver Shi‘i family in Tus in 1201. He began his studies in Arabic, the Qur’an, the hadith, and jurisprudence with his father and continued his education in Nishapur, Baghdad, and Mosul, studying with leading jurists and philosophers. In 1233, in pursuit of patronage, he accepted a commission to write a work on ethics and politics framed within Isma‘ili theology for the governor of Kuhistan, Muhtasham Nasir al-Din. This work was the Akhlaq-i Muhtashami (Ethics for Muhtasham). Two years later, he wrote the Akhlaq-i Nasiri for Nasir al-Din. It drew on Abu ‘Ali Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Miskawayh’s (d. 1030) Tahdhib al-Akhlaq (The refinement of ethics), an Arabic naturalization of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, and on the works of Ibn Sina (d. 1037) and Farabi (d. 950) on politics as well as Persian works of homiletics and statecraft. He spent more than 20 years with the Isma‘ilis, acting as a missionary and benefiting from the excellent library in Alamut. This was his most productive period, in which he wrote major works in philosophy and mystical ethics such as the commentary on Ibn Sina’s al-Isharat wa-l-Tanbihat (Pointers and reminders) and Aghaz-u Anjum (The origins and the final destinations).

After the fall of Alamut in 1256 and the siege of Baghdad two years later, both of which his detractors claimed he had connived, he joined the Mongol entourage of Hulagu, who provided him with a new observatory and academic complex in Maragha, Azerbaijan, making it a major center for philosophical and scientific learning. Toward the end of his life he returned to Baghdad and wrote some further works in Twelver Shi‘i theology. He died in Baghdad in 1274 and was buried in the shrine complex of the seventh and ninth Shi‘i imams in the Kazimiyya section of the city.

Tusi’s contribution to politics and political thought lies not only in his Persian works and in his primary interest in both theoretical philosophy (metaphysics) and practical philosophy (ethics and politics) but also in his practice as a vizier to the Mongols. His works on politics fall within the Aristotelian tradition of virtue ethics being located in a polity that facilitates the production of flourishing happiness (sa‘āda). The Akhlaq-i Nasiri is divided into three discourses. The first is divided into two parts: one on moral psychology and the nature of the soul as the seat of moral will and agency and the other on virtue ethics that focuses upon the notion of the Aristotelian mean and justice as a primary virtue. This has clear implications for politics, as he makes clear later in the text. This first part is, broadly speaking, a Persian paraphrase of Miskawayh’s Tahdhib al-Akhlaq. The second discourse concerns the regulation of household affairs (tadbīr-i manzil) and includes important discussions on mutual rights within the family and household as the basic units of societies and polities. The third discourse addresses Platonic conceptions of politics with philosophers as political leaders and the need for hierarchy and a clear role for different strata in society in advising the ruler. This examination of statecraft is all the more remarkable not only for its insistence on justice as a central political virtue but also for its emphasis on Aristotelian notions of friendship and Neoplatonic ideas of love and sympathy as fundamental elements in the fostering of harmony within society. This akhlāq tradition of placing interpersonal virtue ethics within the context of political thought had an important impact, and imitations were written for various subsequent rulers such as the Akhlaq-i Jalali (The Jalalian ethics), written by Jalal al-Din Dawani (d. 1502) for the Turkoman Aq Quyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan, and the Akhlaq-i Muhsini (Ethics for Muhsin), written by Husayn al-Wa‘iz al-Kashifi (d. 1504) for the son of the Timurid ruler of Herat, Sultan Husayn Bayqara. Later works were written for Mughal and Safavid rulers, and even the Jami‘ al-Sa‘adat (Compendium of happiness), written by Mulla Mahdi Naraqi (d. 1794), shows the influence of Tusi’s work.