Part 6

In spite of the bitter accusations hurled at Tusi for the role he was believed to have played in the fall of Baghdād and the massacre of Muslims, study of that crucial situation shows that without the support of a strong Muslim state, individuals such as Tusi could do nothing to prevent the Mongols from achieving their destructive goals. However, Tusi’s influence on the continuation and revival of Islamic scholarship was more effective than his impact, if any at all, on the fall of Baghdād.

As an outstanding Islamic scholar who may be placed beside distinguished thinkers like al-Fārābi, Ibn Sinā, and al-Biruni, Tusi was an exception in a highly crucial period. His significant role in holding and reviving the Islamic civilization by obtaining the favor of Hulāku should not be ignored.[39] Despite his critical evaluation of Tusi, Arberry gives the following account of Tusi’s cultural role:

The Mongols, like their twentieth century disciples, knew how to handle and exploit to their own ends men of that caliber; and in the end, whether out of conviction or statecraft, the Ilkhāns accepted Islam and Muslim civilization was revived in Persia and Iraq.

That such a renaissance could take place at all, after the chaos and slaughter of the preceding years, was in large measure due to the collaboration of such as Nasir al-Din Tusi and Shams al-Din Juvaini, brother of the well-known historian and head of the administration of Persia under Mongol rule in the reigns of Hulāku (to 1265), Abākā (1265-82) and Ahmad (1282-4).

Apart from numerous writings in various fields of Islamic scholarship, Tusi made unique contributions in astronomy. After the fall of Baghdād, his main concern was to establish the school of Marāgha. His scientific center in Marāgha was so attractive that scholars, both Muslims and non-Muslims, came from all over the world to study and research there. 

In addition to Muslim scholars, philosophers and scientists, Chinese astronomers were invited to work at the school of Marāgha. For the last eighteen years of his life, Tusi was engaged in building this observatory. His contribution in astronomy was so important that even modern scholars have benefited from his findings.[40] In appreciation of his scientific findings, NASA nominated one of the craters on the moon to commemorate him.[41]

a. Tusi and the school of Marāgha

Despite the socio-political role he was forced to play by circumstances, Tusi’s main contributions and interests were intellectual. After Jundi Shāpur with its legacy of a pre-Islamic university and the Nizāmiyya established by Nizām al-Mulk in Baghdād, the school of Marāgha was the most important madrasa in the Islamic world. Although this school was first founded as a center for astronomy and mathematics, it then became an important center for all Islamic sciences. The first observatory in the Islamic world was established at the command of al-Ma’mun, an Abbasid caliph.

By the end of the third century A.H. other observatories had been founded in Syria, Egypt and Baghdād. Tusi’s observatory, established at Marāgha in 617/1285, was the most fascinating and advanced.[42] Astronomers were invited to study there from the east and the west while the school of Marāgha incorporated various branches of Islamic sciences.

Students of astronomy were called from as far away as China to study at the school of Marāgha. The observatory of Marāgha was unique for almost three centuries.[43] Tusi actually established in Marāgha the prototype of the modern university. Its library was composed of more than 400,000 volumes, collected from different cities like Transoxiana, Khurāsān, Baghdād, Musil and Damascus which were the victims of the early Mongol invasions.[44]

The school of Marāgha incorporated different sections (dār al-hikma) devoted to philosophy, medicine, jurisprudence (Fiqh), and hadith. Interestingly, they each had a different priority and received their funding based on this hierarchy. Researchers in Dār al-Hikma received three dirhams for every 48 hour period, those in Dār al-Tibb received two dirhams, those in Dār al-Fiqh one dirham, while those in Dār al-Hadith received only half a dirham.[45]

The main source of the income to pay these expenses was the Awqāf under Tusi’s supervision. The distinguishing characteristic of the Marāgha School was its variety of subjects and the priority given to some of the branches of Islamic sciences. These characteristics might explain the accusations which claimed that Tusi was using Muslim endowments not for fiqh but for Greek philosophy and other sciences.

One of Tusi’s outstanding characteristics was that although most of his life was spent among either Assassins or Mongols, surrounded by wars, attacks and retaliations, all of which were conditions unsuitable for study and research, he had an effective influence on intellectual development. This influence was most prominent in astrology, mathematics, philosophy and theology.

According to Strothmann, Tusi’s fame outside Shiʻi circles was due to his books and research in the exact sciences, namely medicine, physics, mathematics and particularly astrology and astronomy. Another important aspect of Tusi was his flexibility and openness in his intellectual relations with all Muslim scholars even non- Shiʻa.

He did not allow his devotion to his own sect to cut him off from scholarly connections with non-Imāmi ʻulamā.[46] This unique characteristic enabled him to influence and be influenced by many contemporary scholars.

b. Reviving the Imāmi theology (particularly the issue of the Imāmate)

One of the most important aspects of Tusi’s intellectual career was his significant role in reformulating the Shiʻi theology, combining the Peripatetic style with what he had grasped from his Shiʻi ideology to give new understanding to the issue of the Imamate. For example, Tajrid al-ʻAqā’id, commented on by several Shiʻi scholars, and Qawāʻid  al-ʻAqāid were written based on an Imāmi point of view.

In Fusul Nasiriyya he explicitly disagreed with the philosophic and determinative Ashʻarite point of view while in Talkhis al-Muhassal he critiqued the K. al-Muhassal of Fakhr al-Din al-Rāzi. His Masāriʻ al-Masāriʻ was a critical commentary on K. al-Musāriʻa of M. ʻAbd al-Karim  al-Shahrastāni which refuted Ibn Sinā’s ideas. Several other treatises were written based on either the Imāmi or the Ismāʻili points of view.[47]

More important is a treatise on the issue of the Imāmate republished on the occasion of the commemoration of his 7th anniversary. His main goal in these works was to rationalize what previously had been presented by other Imāmi scholars in a more or less traditionalist point of view. This characteristic will be clearer if his method is compared with that of Nawbakhti in K. al-Yāqut and those of Shaykh al-Mufid (336-413) and Seyyed Murtazā (355-436) against Bāqilāni.[48]

In the history of Imāmi theology, Tusi reformulated this branch of thought from traditionalism to rationalism. His doctrines put him in a position distinct from both Ismāʻilis and Sunnis. Tajrid al-Iʻtiqād, Fusul Nasiriyya and the Treatise on the Imamate were written using an Imāmi methodology. In his Qawāʻid, particularly on the issue of the Imamate, he tried to present various ideas according to Imāmis, Zaydis, Extremists (Ghulāt), Kaysānis and Sunnis without insisting on any particular idea.[49]

c. Tusi and philosophy, mysticism and ethics

As a philosopher, Tusi was greatly influenced by Ibn Sinā (980-1037). He supported Ibn Sinā’s ideas by refuting critiques written against him.[50] He spent about twenty years writing a commentary on the Al-Ishārāt wa al-Tanbihāt (Safadi, Al-Wāfi bi al-Wafayāt).

However, he disagreed with Ibn Sinā on the issue of God’s knowledge and approached it from an illuminationist (Ishrāqi) point of view. Like Suhrawardi al-Maqtul (d. 587/1191), he believed that God’s knowledge is a kind of illuminational relation (izāfa ishrāqiyya).[51]

Tusi’s mystical background goes back to his early learning period in Nishāpur when he first visited Farid al-Din Saʻid Ibn Yusif Ibn ʻAli ʻAttār (513-617A.H) and was attracted to his ideas.[52] He treated mystics with respect and honor. At the time of the conquest of Baghdād, he and Hulāku visited Abā al-Fuqarā’ Muhammad b. ʻAbd al-ʻAziz, one of the greatest mystics of the time, at his zāwia (privte place for the Sufi’s practices and contemplation).

When Abā al-Fazl Jaʻfar b. ʻAli, known as al-Mu’taman al-Sufi al-Baghdādi, went to Marāgha to visit Tusi, Tusi assigned 100 dinārs to him each year from the awqāf of Baghdād.[53] In addition, Tusi had a warm relationship with Sadr al-Din Qunyawi (d. 673) and Jamāl al-din ʻAyn   al-Zamān Jili (d. 651) - two of the great mystics of the time -through various letters.[54]

In the meantime, Tusi himself wrote mystical treatises. His Awsāf al-Ashrāf written at the request of Hulāku’s vizier Shams al-Din Muhammad Juvayni (d. 681) is a written price with a mystical methodology about the spiritual journey (Sayr wa Suluk).[55]

In spite of his considerable devotion to the twelve Imāms, his deep respect for Hallāj distinguished him from most of the other Shiʻa.[56] R. Āghāz va Anjām, also entitled as Tadhkira, has an Ismāʻili basis and deals with demonstrating the principles of beliefs in a mystical way.[57]

Why was the intellectual atmosphere of Tusi’s time dominated by mystical thought and the Ismāʻili esoteric understanding of Islamic belief?  Although this current of mystical thought was mainly centered at the court of the Saljuks of Rum, other parts of the Islamic world were not totally exempt from this trend.

The esoteric doctrines of the Ismāʻilis might have been a reaction against Sunni orthodox Islam, first formed by the Fatimids of Egypt and then by the Nazāri Ismāʻilis of Iran and Syria. They were the opposite side to the extreme traditionalism held by the Abbasid caliphs and their political supporters such as the Saljuks.

Nonetheless, this pole of esoteric thought collapsed officially upon the destruction of the Ismāʻili fortresses. As far as an extension of pure mystical thought is concerned, one can find various interpretations. Some believe that mystical tendencies are rooted in a weakness of the political authority or material disadvantages.

When the people are deprived of worldly advantages, they tend to focus on the afterlife. However, the very core of mystical thought and its flourishing took place at the powerful and wealthy court of the Saljuks of Rum. By the time of the Mongol invasion, the Saljuks of Rum were the only shelter for Muslim scholars under the pressure of Mongol attacks. Since the most dominant figure at this court was Sadr al-Din Qunyawi, the immediate disciple of Ibn ʻArabi, his colleagues were mostly mystics.

Undoubtedly, one main reason for the spread of mystical thought at this time was the immigration of Ibn ʻArabi from Andalusia to Anatolia. His school of thought was so influential that for several centuries, it remained active throughout the Islamic world. The reasons for Ibn ʻArabi‘s departure from Andolusia remain unclear. His migration may have been the result of a dream which inspired him to leave Andalusia.

On the other hand, he may have wanted to leave Islamic lands dominated by Māliki ideas and the Peripatetic philosophy which denied an esoteric interpretation of Islamic knowledge. What was it about the eastern part of the Islamic world which attracted Ibn ʻArabi and encouraged him to establish his own school of thought there? What was the real background in the eastern part of the Islamic lands which caused the development of mystical thought? Can we find any socio-political reason for this flourishing mysticism? These questions remain unanswered.

Tusi’s writings in ethics were written mainly while he was living among the Ismāʻilis. At the request of Nāsir al-Din ʻAbd al-Rahim Ibn Abi Mansur, the ruler (muhtasham) of Quhistān, he rewrote and corrected Tahdhib al-Akhlāq wa Tathir al-Aʻrāq by Abu ʻAli Miskawayh (d.421/1029) and called it as Akhlāq-i Nāsiri.[58] Then he translated the K. Adab al-Saghir of Ibn al-Muqaffaʻ into Persian.[59]

[39] Hairi 1968, pp. 72,73.