Born : October, 1236, Shiraz
Died : 7 February 1311 (aged 75), Tabriz, Iran
Main interest(s) : Mathematics, Astronomy, medicine,
science and philosophy.
Qotb al-Din Mahmoud b. Zia al-Din Mas'ud b. Mosleh Shirazi (1236–1311)
(Persian: قطبالدین محمود بن ضیاالدین مسعود بن مصلح
شیرازی) was a 13th-century Iranian
polymath and poet who made contributions to astronomy, mathematics,
medicine, physics, music theory, philosophy and Sufism.
Biography
He was born in Kazerun in October 1236 to a family with a tradition of
Sufism. His father, Zia' al-Din Mas'ud Kazeruni was a physician by profession
and also a leading Sufi of the Kazeruni order. Zia' Al-Din received his Kherqa
(Sufi robe) from Shahab al-Din Omar Suhrawardi. Qutb al-Din was garbed by the
Kherqa (Sufi robe) as blessing by his father at age of ten[citation needed].
Later on, he also received his own robe from the hands of Najib al-Din Bozgush
Shirazni, a famous Sufi of the time[citation needed]. Quṭb al-Din began
studying medicine under his father. His father practiced and taught medicine at
the Mozaffari hospital in Shiraz. After the passing away of his father (when
Qutb al-Din was 14), his uncle and other masters of the period trained him in
medicine. He also studied the Qanun (the Canon) of the famous Persian scholar
Avicenna and its commentaries. In particular he read the commentary of Fakhr
al-Din Razi on the Canon of Medicine and Qutb al-Din raised many issues of his
own. This led to his own decision to write his own commentary, where he
resolved many of the issues in the company of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
Qutb al-Din lost his father at the age of fourteen and replaced him as the
ophthalmologist at the Mozaffari hospital in Shiraz. At the same time, he
pursued his education under his uncle Kamal al-Din Abu'l Khayr and then Sharaf
al-Din Zaki Bushkani, and Shams al-Din Mohammad Kishi. All three were expert
teachers of the Canon of Avicenna. He quit his medical profession ten years
later and began to devote his time to further education under the guidance of
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. When Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, the renowned scholar-vizier of
the Mongol Holagu Khan established the observatory of Maragha, Qutb al-Din
Shirazi became attracted to the city. He left Shiraz sometime after 1260 and
was in Maragha about 1262. In Maragha, Qutb al-din resumed his education under
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, with whom he studied the al-Esharat wa'l-Tanbihat of Avicenna.
He discussed the difficulties he had with Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on understanding
the first book of the Canon of Avicenna. While working in the new observatory,
studied astronomy under him. One of the important scientific projects was the
completion of the new astronomical table (zij). In his testament (Wasiya),
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi advises his son ṣil-a-Din to work with Qutb al-Din in the
completion of the Zij.
Qutb-al-Din's stay in Maragha was short. Subsequently, he traveled to
Khorasan in the company of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi where he stayed to study under
Najm al-Din Katebi Qazvini in the town of Jovayn and become his assistant. Some
time after 1268, he journeyed to Qazvin, Isfahan, Baghdad and later Konya in
Anatolia. This was a time when the Persian poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi
(Rumi) was gaining fame there and it is reported that Qutb al-Din also met him.
In Konya, he studied the Jam'e al-Osul of Ibn Al-Athir with Sadr al-Din Qunawi.
The governor of Konya, Mo'in al-Din Parvana appointed him as the judge of Sivas
and Malatya. It was during this time that he compiled the books the Meftāḥ
al-meftāh, Ekhtiārāt al-moẓaffariya, and his commentary on Sakkāki. In the year
1282, he was envoy on behalf of the Ilkhanid Ahmad Takudar to Sayf al-Din
Qalawun, the Mamluk ruler of Egypt. In his letter to Qalawun, the Ilkhanid
ruler mentions Qutb al-Din as the chief judge. Qutb al-Din during this time
collected various critiques and commentaries on Avicenna's Canon and used them
on his commentary on the Kolliyāt. The last part of Qutb al-Din's active career
was teaching the Canon of Avicenna and the Shefa of Avicenna in Syria. He soon
left for Tabriz after that and died shortly after. He was buried in the
Čarandāb cemetery of the city.
Shirazi identified observations by the scholar Avicenna in the 11th century
and Ibn Bajjah in the 12th century as transits of Venus and Mercury. However,
Ibn Bajjah cannot have observed a transit of Venus, as none occurred in his
lifetime.
Qutb al-Din had an insatiable desire for learning, which is evidenced by
the twenty-four years he spent studying with masters of the time in order to
write his commentary on the Kolliyāt. He was also distinguished by his
extensive breadth of knowledge, a clever sense of humor and indiscriminate generosity.
He was also a master chess player and played the musical instrument known as
the Rabab, a favorite instrument of the Persian poet Rumi.
Mathematical
1. Tarjoma-ye Taḥrir-e Oqlides a work on geometry in Persian in fifteen
chapters containing mainly the translation of the work of Nasir al-Din
Tusi, completed in November 1282 and dedicated to Moʿin-al-Din Solaymān
Parvāna.
2. Risala fi Harkat al-Daraja" a work on Mathematics
Astronomy and Geography
1. Eḵtiārāt-e moẓaffari It is a treatise on astronomy in Persian in four
chapters and extracted from his other work Nehāyat al-edrāk. The work was
dedicated to Mozaffar-al-Din Bulaq Arsalan.
2. Fi ḥarakāt al-dahraja wa’l-nesba bayn al-mostawi wa’l-monḥani a written as
an appendix to Nehāyat al-edrāk
3. Nehāyat al-edrāk - The Limit of Accomplishment concerning Knowledge of the
Heavens
4. (Nehāyat al-edrāk fi dirayat al-aflak) completed in 1281, and The Royal
Present (Al-Tuhfat al - Shahiya) completed in 1284. Both presented his models
for planetary motion, improving on Ptolemy's principles. In his The Limit of
Accomplishment concerning Knowledge of the Heavens, he also discussed the possibility
of heliocentrism.
5. Ketāb faʿalta wa lā talom fi’l-hayʾa, an Arabic work on astronomy, written
for Aṣil-al-Din, son of Nasir al-Din Tusi
6. Šarḥ Taḏkera naṣiriya on astronomy.
7. Al-Tuḥfa al-šāhiya fi’l-hayʾa, an Arabic book on astronomy, having four
chapters, written for Moḥammad b. Ṣadr-al-Saʿid, known as Tāj-al-Eslām Amiršāh
8. *Ḥall moškelāt al-Majesṭi a book on astronomy, titled Ḥall moškelāt
al-Majesṭi
a manuscript copy of Shirazi's al-Tuhfa al-Shahiya,
15th century
Philosophical
1. Dorrat al-tāj fi ḡorrat al-dabbāj Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi's most famous work
is the Pearly Crown (Durrat al-taj li-ghurratt al-Dubaj), written in Persian
around AD 1306 (705 AH). It is an Encyclopedic work on philosophy written for
Rostam Dabbaj, the ruler of the Iranian land of Gilan. It includes
philosophical outlook on natural sciences, theology, logic, public affairs,
ethics, mysticism, astronomy, mathematics, arithmetic and music.
2. Šarḥ Ḥekmat al-ešrāq Šayḵ Šehāb-al-Din Sohravardi, on philosophy and
mysticism of Shahab al Din Suhrawardi and his philosophy of illumination in Arabic.
Medicine
1. Al-Tuḥfat al-saʿdiyah also called Nuzhat al-ḥukamāʾ wa rawżat al-aṭibbāʾ,
on medicine, a comprehensive commentary in five volumes on the Kolliyāt of the
Canon of Avicenna written in Arabic.
2. Risāla fi’l-baraṣ, a medical treatise on leprosy in Arabic
3. Risāla fi bayān al-ḥājat ila’l-ṭibb wa ādāb al-aṭibbāʾ wa waṣāyā-hum
Religion, Sufism, Theology, Law, Linguistics and Rhetoric and others
1. Al-Enteṣāf a gloss in Arabic on Zamakhshari's Qurʾan commentary, al-Kaššāf.
2. Fatḥ al-mannān fi tafsir al-Qorʾān a comprehensive commentary on the Qurʾan
in forty volumes, written in Arabic and also known by the title Tafsir ʿallāmi
3. Ḥāšia bar Ḥekmat al-ʿayn on theology; it is a commentary of Ḥekmat al-ʿayn
of Najm-al-Din ʿAli Dabirān Kātebi
4. Moškelāt al-eʿrāb on Arabic syntax
5. Moškelāt al-tafāsir or Moškelāt al-Qorʾān, on rhetoric
6. Meftāḥ al-meftāhá, a commentary on the third section of the Meftāḥ
al-ʿolum, a book on Arabic grammar and rhetoric by Abu Yaʿqub Seraj-al-Din
Yusof Skkaki Khwarizmi
7. Šarḥ Moḵtaṣar al-oṣul Ebn Ḥājeb, a commentary on Ebn Ḥājeb's
Montaha’l-soʾāl wa’l-ʿamal fi ʿelmay al-oṣul wa’l-jadwal, a book on the sources
of law according to the Maliki school of thought
8. Sazāvār-e Efteḵā, Moḥammad-ʿAli Modarres attributes a book by this title to
Quṭb-al-Din, without providing any information about its content
9. Tāj al-ʿolum A book attributed to him by Zerekli
10. al-Tabṣera A book attributed to him by Zerekli
11. A book on ethnics and poetry, Quṭb-al-Din is also credited with the
authorship of a book on ethics in Persian, written for Malek ʿEzz-al-Din, the
ruler of Shiraz. He also wrote poetry but apparently did not leave a divan (a
book of poems)
Qutb al-Din was also a Sufi from a family of Sufis in Shiraz. He is famous
for the commentary on Hikmat al-ishraq of Suhrawardi, the most influential work
of Islamic Illuminist philosophy.
Shirazi's Tomb in Tabriz, Charandab
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