581/1185) turned the Court of Caliph 'Abd al-Mu'min into an...

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 philo­sophical 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.