Nasir聽al-Din聽Tusi completed his聽Nasirean Ethics聽(Akhlaq-i Nasiri), the most highly esteemed book on ethics in Persian, around the year 633 AH / 1235 CE while in the service of the Ismaili governor of Quhistan. Two decades later, Tusi parted company with the IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Ja士far al-峁⒛乨iq (d. 765), as his successor..
This essay charts the course of his works, in particular聽Nasirean Ethics聽to his enigmatic treatise on Sufi ethics entitled聽The Attributes of the Illustrious聽(Awsaf al-ashraf). Prof. Madelung investigates Tusi鈥檚 sources, putting a number of what he views as erroneous suppositions about the man to rest. This study of Tusi鈥檚 works and philosophy affords the reader an insight into Tusi鈥檚 own personal journey from the time he penned聽Nasirean Ethics聽(Akhlaq-i Nasiri) to his eventual status as King of Philosophers by the end of his life.
Author
Professor Wilferd Madelung
A leading contemporary Islamicist, Professor Wilferd Madelung has made significant contributions to modern scholarship on mediaeval Islamic communities and movements, including Twelver Shi’ism, Zaydism and Ismailism. Educated at the Universities of Cairo and Hamburg, he became Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Chicago in 1969 and the Laudian Professor of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1978.
Among his recent publications are聽Religious Schools and Sects in Mediaeval Islam聽(London, 1985),聽Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran聽(Albany, NY, 1988),聽Religious and Ethnic Movements in Mediaeval Islam聽(Hampshire, 1992),聽The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate (Cambridge, 1997), and with Paul E. Walker聽An Ismaili Heresiography聽(Leiden, 1998). He has contributed extensively to聽The Encyclopaedia of Islam,聽Encycopaedia Iranica聽of which he is also a Consulting Editor, and learned journals.
