Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ṭūsī (1201–1274), also known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (Arabic: نصیر الدین الطوسی; Persian: نصیر الدین طوسی) or simply as (al-)Tusi, was a Persian polymath, architect, philosopher, physician, scientist, and theologian. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi was a well published author, writing on subjects of math, engineering, prose, and mysticism. Additionally, al-Tusi made several scientific advancements. In astronomy, al-Tusi created very accurate tables of planetary motion, an updated planetary model, and critiques of Ptolemaic astronomy. He also made strides in logic, mathematics but especially trigonometry, biology, and chemistry. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi left behind a great legacy as well. Tusi is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of medieval Islam, since he is often considered the creator of trigonometry as a mathematical discipline in its own right. The Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) considered Tusi to be the greatest of the later Persian scholars. There is also reason to believe that he may have influenced Copernican heliocentrism.
Biography Nasir al-Din Tusi was born in the city of Tus in medieval Khorasan (northeastern Iran) in the year 1201 and began his studies at an early age. In Hamadan and Tus, he studied the Quran, Hadith, Ja'fari jurisprudence, logic, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. He was born into a Shī‘ah family and lost his father at a young age. Fulfilling the wish of his father, the young Nasir took learning and scholarship very seriously and traveled far and wide to attend the lectures of renowned scholars and acquired knowledge, an exercise highly encouraged in his Islamic faith. At a young age, he moved to Nishapur to study philosophy under Farid al-Din Damad and mathematics under Muhammad Hasib. He met also Attar of Nishapur, the legendary Sufi master who was later killed by the Mongols, and he attended the lectures of Qutb al-Din al-Misri – a student of Al-Razi. Nasir-al-Din Tusi writes in his work, Desideratum of the Faithful (Maṭlūb al-muʾminīn),“To become people of spiritual reality, it is incumbent to fulfill the symbolic elucidation (ta'wīl) of the seven pillars of the religious law (sharīʿat)”. He also explains that fulfilling the religious law is much easier than fulfilling its spiritual interpretation. He explains in his book Aghaz u anjam that the sacred accounts of history that we perceive within the bounds of space and time symbolize events that have no such restrictions. They are only expressed in this way so that humans are able to comprehend them. In Mosul, al-Tusi studied mathematics and astronomy with Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus (d. AH 639 / AD 1242), a pupil of Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. Later on he corresponded with Sadr al-Din al-Qunawi, the son-in-law of Ibn Arabi, and it seems that mysticism, as propagated by Sufi masters of his time, was not appealing to him. Once the occasion was suitable, he composed his own manual of philosophical Sufism in the form of a small booklet entitled Awsaf al-Ashraf, or "The Attributes of the Illustrious". As the armies of Genghis Khan swept his homeland, he was employed by the Nizari Ismaili state and, while moving from stronghold to stronghold, made his most important contributions in science, first in those of the Quhistan region under muhtasham Nasir al-Din Abu al-Fath Abd al-Rahim ibn Abi Mansur (where he wrote the Nasirean Ethics in 1235). He was later sent to the major castles of Alamut and Maymun-Diz to continue his career under Nizari Imam Ala al-Din Muhammad. He was captured after the capitulation of Maymun-Diz to the Mongol forces under Hulegu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan. Nasir al-Din Tusi’s autobiography, The Voyage (Sayr wa-Suluk) explains that a literary devastation such as the devastation of the Alamut libraries in 1256 would not waver the spirit of the Nizari Ismaili community because they give more importance to the “living book” (the Imam of the Time) rather than the “written word”. Their hearts are attached to the Commander of the Believers (amir al-mu'minin), not just the “command” itself. There is always a present living Imam in world, and following him, a believer will never go astray.
Role during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad In 1256, al-Tusi was in the castle of Alamut when it was attacked by the forces of the Mongol leader Hulegu. Some sources claim that al-Tusi betrayed the defences of Alamut to the invading Mongols. After his forces destroyed Alamut, Hulegu, who was himself interested in the natural sciences, treated al-Tusi with great respect, appointing him as scientific adviser and a permanent member of his inner council. To great controversy, it is widely assumed Tusi was with the Mongol forces under Hulegu when they attacked and massacred the inhabitants of Baghdad in 1258 and he played an essential role in ending of the Abbasid empire. After the siege of Baghdad, he was entrusted with the administration of religious endowments and traveled extensively to both Sunni and Shiʿi institutions. In this capacity, he is credited with helping preserve religious foundations, libraries, and scholarly institutions during the period of Mongol rule. Through his scholarly and administrative influence, al-Tusi helped strengthen Twelver Shiʿi intellectual life and institutional presence in Persia and Iraq, without formally transforming the sectarian order of the state.
Works Tusi has about 150 works, of which 25 are in Persian and the remaining are in Arabic, and there is one treatise in Persian, Arabic and Turkish.
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