Awsaf al Ashraf - The Attributes of the Noble

This treatise ascribed to Khwajah Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (597-672/1201-1273-4), the well-known philosopher, theologian, and astronomer who lived during the turbulent period of Hulagu's invasion of Iran and the fall of the 'Abbasid caliphate, was written, as indicated in the preface by him, years after his Akhlaq-e Nairi, a classic of Muslim ethics and Persian literature. This translation is based on the edition of the work by Sayyid Mahdi Shams al-Din (Tehran: Sazman-e Chap wa Intisharat-e Wizarat-a Farhang wa Irshad e Islami, 2nd edition, summer 1370 H. Sh./[1991]). The editor has made use of two manuscripts of the work belonging to Ayatullah Najafi Mar'ashi Public Library (one dated 16 Rajah 1064 H. and another without a date), a facsimile edition published in Berlin in 1927 (reprinted 1957), and a printed edition published about the year 1967 by Kitab furushi-ye Islamiyyah, Tehran.