- Lived:
- 1201–1274 · born in Ṭūs, Khorasan (northeastern Iran); died in Baghdad
- Tradition:
- Persian-Islamic philosophy, ethics, and astronomy; architect of the Avicennan revival
- The Big Idea:
- Knowledge can survive the end of the world — if someone is willing to stand next to the man ending it. Ṭūsī rescued Avicenna's philosophy from its critics, wrote the East's definitive ethics, and turned a Mongol warlord's superstition into history's best-funded observatory.
- In their words:
- "Justice produces an artificial union; love, a natural one — and the need for justice arises only where love is lacking." (from the Nasirean Ethics)
- If you remember one thing:
- While his civilization burned, Ṭūsī made a choice most philosophers in this book never faced: serve the destroyer and save the books, or refuse and burn with them. He served. Seven centuries later, we still argue about whether to thank him.