HIS LIFE
Khwajah Nasir al-Din Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Muhammad b. Hasan, an accomplished scholar, mathematician, astronomer, and Shiite politician of the period of the Mongol invasion on the Assassins and the Caliphate, was born at Tus in 597/1201. After receiving early education from his father and Muhammad b. Hasan, he studied Fiqh, Usul, Hikmah and Kalam especially the Isharat of Ibn Sina, from Mahdar Farid al-Din Damad, and mathematics from Muhammad Hasib, at Nishapur. He then went to Baghdad, where he studied medicine and philosophy from Qutb al-Din, mathematics from Kamal al-Din b. Yunus, and Fiqh and Usul from Salim b. Badran.(1)
Tusi began his career as an astrologer to Nasir al-Din 'Abd al-Rahim, the Governor of the Isma`ilite mountain fortress of Quhistan during the reign of 'Ala al-Din Muhammad (618-652/1221-1255), the seventh Grand Master (Khudawand) of Alamut. His “correspondence”(2) with the wazir of the last 'Abbasid Caliph, al-Musta`sim (640-656/1242-1258) of Baghdad, was, however, intercepted by his employers, and he was removed to Alamut under close supervision, although he enjoyed there every facility to continue his .studies. In 654/1256, he “played”(3) the last Assassin ruler Rukn al-Din Khurshah into the hands of Hulagu and then accompanied the latter as his trusted adviser to the conquest of Baghdad in 657/1258.(4)
THE MARAGHAH OBSERVATORY
Tusi's chief claim to fame rests on his persuading Hulagu to found the celebrated observatory (rasad khanah) at Maraghah, Adharbaijan, in 657/1259, which was equipped with the best instruments, “some of them constructed for the first time.”(5) Here he compiled the astronomical tables, called Zij al¬-Ilkhani, which “became popular throughout Asia, even in China.” (6)
(2) Ivanow, Tasawwurat,.p. xxv.
(3) Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV, p. 980.
(4) After passing into the service of Hulagu, Tusi, in the preface to Zij al-Ilkhani, referred to his connection with the Isma'llites as “casual” (Ivanow, op cit., p xxv) and also “rescinded” the dedication of Akhlaq-i Nasiri to Nasir aI-Din 'Abd al¬-Rahim, his Isma’ili patron at Quhistan (Browne, Literary History of Persia, Vol. II, p. 456)
(5) Encyclopaedia of Islam, Vol. IV, 981.
(6) P. K. Hitti, History of the Arabs, p. 378.
Besides being dedicated to the advancement of astronomy and mathematics in the late seventh/thirteenth century, this observatory was important in three other ways. It was the first observatory the recurring and non-recurring expenditure of which was met out of endowments, thus opening the door for the financing of future observatories.7
Secondly, just as Ibn Tufail (d. 581/1185) turned the Court of Caliph 'Abd al-Mu'min into an enviable intellectual galaxy that promoted the cause of knowledge and wisdom in the West, Tusi made the Maraghah observatory a “splendid assembly”8 of the men of knowledge and learning by making “special arrangements”9 a for the teaching of philo¬sophical sciences, besides mathematics and astronomy, and by dedicating the income of endowments to stipends. Thirdly, annexed to the observatory, there was a huge library in which were stored the incorruptible treasures of knowledge looted by the Mongols and Tartars during their invasions on Iraq, Baghdad, Syria, and other territories. According to Ibn Shakir, the library contained more than four hundred thousand volumes.10
Tusi retained his influential position under Abaqa, Hulagu's successor, uninterrupted until his death in 672/1274.
WORKS
In an age of widespread political devastation followed by intellectual decline, Hulagu's patronage to Tusi is of singular importance in the history of Muslim thought. The revival and promotion of philosophical sciences in the late seventh/thirteenth century centred round Tusi's personality. To the Persians, he was known as “the teacher of man”11 (ustad al-bashar). Bar¬-Hebraeus regarded him as “a man of vast learning in all the branches of philosophy.”12 To Ivanow, he appears an “encyclopedist,”13 and Afnan thinks him to be “the most competent ... commentator of Avicenna in Persia.”14
One also cannot help being impressed by the “remarkable industry” displayed by him in “editing and improving”15 the translations made by Thabit bin Qurrah, Qusta bin Luqa, and Ishaq bin Hunain of Greek mathematicians and astronomers. Brockelmann has enumerated fifty-nine of his extant works,16 but Ivanow attributes “something like one hundred and fifty works”17 to him. The list given by Mudarris Ridwi runs to one hundred and thirteen titles, excluding twenty-one the attribution of which to Tusi is doubtful.18
Himself an accomplished scholar rather than a creative mind, Tusi's position is mainly that of a revivalist and his works are largely eclectical in character. But even as a revivalist and eclectic, he is not lacking in originality, at least in the presentation of his material. His versatility is indeed astonishing. His manifold and varied interests extend to philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, physics, medicine, mineralogy, music, history, literature, and dogmatics. His important philosophical works are listed below.
- Asas al-Iqtibas (logic), 1947.
- Mantiq al-Tajrid, (logic).
- Ta'dil al-Mi'yar (logic).
- Tajrid al.'Aqa'id (dogmatics), Teheran, 1926.
- Qawa'id al-'Aqa'id (dogmatics), Teheran, 1926.
- Risaleh-i I'tiqadat (dogmatics).
- Akhlaq-i Nasiri (ethics).
- Ausaf al-Ashraf (Sufi ethics)
- Risaleh dar Ithbat-i Wajib (metaphysics).
- Ithbat-i Jauhar al-Mufariq (metaphysics).
- Risaleh dar Wujud-i Jauhar-i Mujarrad (metaphysics).
- Risaleh dar Ithbat-i 'Aql-i Fa”al (metaphysics).
- Risaleh Darurat-i Marg (metaphysics).
- Risaleh Sudur Kathrat az Wahdat (metaphysics).
- Risaleh 'Ilal wa Ma'lulat (metaphysics).
- Fusul (metaphysics), Teheran, 1956.
- Tasawwurat (metaphysics), Bombay, 1950.
- Talkhis al-Muhassal, Cairo, 1323/1905.
- Hall-i Mushkilat al-Isharat, Lucknow, 1293/1876.
AKHLAQ-I NASIRI
Nothing can be farther from truth than the assertion that Akhlaq-i Nasiri of Tusi is a mere “translation”19 of Tahdhib al-Akhlaq of Ibn Miskawaih. The author was undoubtedly commissioned by Nasir al-Din 'Abd al-Rahim, the Isma'ilite Governor of Quhistan, to translate the Kitab al-Taharat (Tahdhib al-Akhlaq) from Arabic into Persian, but he did not accept the suggestion for fear of “distorting and disfiguring the original.”20
Besides, Ibn Miskawaih's effort is confined to the description of moral discipline; the domestic and political disciplines are altogether missing in his work. These, according to Tusi, are equally important aspects of “practical philosophy” and, therefore, are not to be ignored. With this in mind, Tusi compiled Akhlaq-i Nasiri on the following pattern.
With regard to content, the part on moral philosophy is a “summary”21 and not a translation of Kitab al-Taharat, but the form, the arrangement of topics, and the classification of subjects is Tusi's own, which apparently give an air of originality to it.
For the parts on domestic and political philosophy, Tusi is greatly indebted to Ibn Sina 22 and Farabi,23 and yet the mere addition of these two parts which completed practical philosophy (hikmat-i `amali) in all its details, if not any¬thing else, justifies Tusi's claim that Akhlaq-i Nasiri was written “not on the style of imitation nor in the spirit of translation, but as an original venture.”24
ETHICS
Following Ibn Miskawaih,.Tusi regards ultimate happiness (sa`adat-i quswa) as the chief moral end, which is determined by the place and position of man in the cosmic evolution, and realized through his amenability to discipline and obedience. The concept of ultimate happiness is intrinsically different from the Aristotelian idea of happiness which is devoid of the “celestial element”25 and also has no reference to the cosmic position of man.
The Platonic virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice (derived from the trinity of the soul - reason, ire, and desire) and their differentiation into seven, eleven, twelve, and nineteen species respectively, given by Ibu Miskawaih, figure prominently in Tusi's ethics, the only difference being that he reduced the last nineteen to twelve.
But following Aristotle's distinction in the soul of theoretical reason, practical reason, ire, and desire, and, unlike Ibn Miskawaih, he deduces justice from the culture of practical reason26 without disclaiming the Platonic view of the proper and harmonious functioning of the triple powers of the soul. Unlike Aristotle and like Ibn Miskawaih, he ranks benevo¬lence27 (tafaddul) higher than justice, and love (mahabbah) as a natural source of unity, higher than benevolence.
Aristotle conceived of vice as an extreme of virtue either on the side of excess or defect. To Galen, vice was a malady of the soul. The Qur'an, after enunciating the general ethical principles of moderation,28 defines vice as a disease of the heart.29
Ibn Miskawaih, after enumerating the eight generic vices of astuteness and stupidity (safah and balahat), rashness and cowardice (tahawwur and jubun), indulgence and abstention (sharrahat and khumud), tyranny and sufferance (jaur and mahanat), on the Aristotelian pattern, describes at length the causes and cures of fear and sorrow. Ibn Miskawaih does not make it clear whether fear and sorrow constitute the excess or defi¬ciency of ire and desire.
This problem is taken up by Tusi, and he finds out a solution for it, befitting his ingenuity. Disease is the deviation of the soul from equipoise (i`tidal). Aristotle and following him Ibn Miskawaih had thought of this deviation in terms of quantity (kammiyyat) and, therefore, the excess (ifrat) and defect (tafrit) of a state were for them the only two causes of moral diseases.
Tusi for the first time propounded the view that the deviation is not only quantitative but also qualitative, and to this new type of deviation he gave the name of perversion30 (rada'at). Consequently, a moral disease may have one of the three causes: (1) excess, (2) defect, or (3) perversion of reason, ire, or desire. This explains adequately that fear constitutes the perversion of ire, and sorrow, the perversion of desire.
Equipped with the theory of triple causation of the maladies of the soul, Tusi classifies the fatal diseases of the theoretical reason into perplexity (hairat), simple ignorance (jahl-i basit), and compound ignorance (jahl-i murakkab), constituting its excess,-deficiency, and perversion - a classification which cannot be traced to Ibn Miskawaih.
Perplexity is caused by the inability of the soul to distinguish truth from falsehood due to the conflicting evidence and confusing arguments for and against a controversial issue. As a cure of perplexity, Tusi suggests that a perplexed man should, in the first instance, be made to realize that composition and division, affirmation and denial, i, e., the contraries, being mutually exclusive, cannot exist in one and the same thing at the same time, so that he may be convinced that if a proposition is true, it cannot be false, and if it is false, it cannot be true. After his assimilating this self-evident principle, he may be taught the rules of syllogism to facilitate the detection of fallacies in the arguments.
Simple ignorance consists in a man's lack of knowledge on a subject without his presuming that he knows it. Such ignorance is a precedent condition for acquiring knowledge, but it is fatal to be contented with it. The disease may be cured by bringing home to the patient the fact that intellection and not physical appearance entitles a man to the designation of man, and that an ignorant man is no better than a brute; rather he is worse than that, for the latter can be excused for its absence of reason, he cannot.
Compound ignorance is a man's lack of knowledge on a subject coupled with his presumption that he knows it. In spite of ignorance he does not know that he is ignorant. According to Tusi, it is almost an .incurable disease, but devotion to mathematics may perhaps reduce it to simple ignorance.
Tusi regards anger (ghadab), cowardice (jubun), and fear (khauf) as the three prominent diseases of ire (quwwat-i difa') on the side of excess, deficiency, and perversion, respectively. In his analysis of fear, especially the fear of death, and in his elaboration of the seven concomitants and ten causes of anger, he follows Ibn Miskawaih.
Similarly, excess of appetite (ifrat-i shahwat) is caused by the excess of desire while levity (batalat) results from its deficiency, and sorrow (huzn) and jealousy (hasad) constitute the perversion of this power. He defines jealousy as one wishing a reverse in the fortune of another, without longing to possess a similar fortune for oneself. Following Ghazali, he also distinguishes between envy31 (ghibtat) and jealousy, by defining the former as a longing to have the fortune similar to the one possessed by another without wishing any reverse to him. Jealousy consumes virtue as fire consumes fuel, but envy is commendable, if directed to the acquisition of virtues, and condemnable if directed to lust for worldly pleasures.
Tusi regards society as the normal background of moral life, for man is by nature a social being, and his perfection consists in evincing this characteristic of sociability towards his fellow-beings. Love and friendship, therefore, con¬stitute the vital principles of his moral theory - a theory in which apparently there is no place for the retired and secluded life of an ascetic.
In a later work, Ausaf al-Ashraf, however, he approvingly writes of asceticism as a stage in mystical life. He claims no mystic experience and makes it clear in the preface that his effort is a purely intellectual appreciation and rational formulation of the mystic tradition.32 Though not a mystic, he is an advocate of a rational treatment of mysticism. He classifies it into six progressive stages, each stage, excepting the last, having six moral states of its own.
The first stage is that of the preparation for the mystic journey (suluk), the necessary requirements of which are faith in God (iman), constancy in the faith (thabat), firmness of intention (niyyat), truthfulness (sidq), contempla¬tion of God (anabat), and sincerity (khulus).
The second stage consists of the renunciation of the worldly connections which obstruct the mystic path. There are six essentials of this stage and these are repentance over sins (taubah), asceticism of the will (zuhd), indiffer¬ence to wealth (faqr), rigorous practices to subdue irrational desires (riyadat), calculation of virtues and vices (muharabat), harmony between actions and intentions (muraqabat), and piety (taqwa).
The third stage of the mystic journey is marked by aloofness (khalwat), contemplation (tafakkur), fear and sorrow (khauf and huzn), hope (rija'), endurance (sabr), and gratitude to God (shukr).
The, fourth stage covers the experiences of the traveller (salik) before reaching the final goal. They are devotion to God (iradat), eagerness in de¬votion (shauq), love of God (mahabbah), knowledge of God (ma'ri fat), un¬shakeable faith in God (yaqin), and tranquillity of the soul (sukun).
The fifth stage consists of resignation to God (tawakkul), obedience (rida'), submission to the divine will (taslim), certitude about the oneness of God (tauhid), effort for union with God (wahdat), and absorption in God (ittihad).
In the sixth stage the process of the absorption in God reaches its culmination and the traveller is ultimately lost (fana') into the oneness of God.
Minggu, 04 Agustus 2024