Miskawayh

Abu 'Ali Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ya'qub Ibn Miskawayh (Persian: ابن مسكوويه), also erroneously known as Ibn Miskawayh (932–1030) or Ebn Meskavayh, was a Persian chancery official of the Buyid era, and philosopher and historian from Rey, Iran. As a neo-platonist, his influence on Islamic philosophy is primarily in the area of ethics. He was the author of the first major Islamic work on philosophical ethics, entitled Tahdhib al-akhlaq (تهذيب الأخلاق: Refinement of Morals), focusing on practical ethics, conduct, and refinement of character. He separated personal ethics from the public realm, and contrasted the liberating nature of reason with the deception and temptation of nature. Ebn Meskavayh was a prominent figure in the intellectual and cultural life of his time.

Life

Ebn Meskavayh was born in Ray, then under Ziyarid control. Miskawayh may have been a Zoroastrian convert to Islam, but it seems more likely that it was one of his ancestors who converted. During his early career, he spent his life in Baghdad, where he served as the secretary of Muhallabi, the vizier of the Buyid Emir Mu'izz al-Dawla. He was fluent enough in Middle Persian to have translated some pre-Islamic texts in that language into Arabic. After a long service to the Buyids of Iraq, Ebn Meskavayh moved to the court of Rukn al-Dawla, where he spent seven years working there with the Buyid vizier Abu 'l-Fadl ibn al-'Amid. In 966, a group of ghazi warriors marched towards the Library of Ray. Ebn Meskavayh, however, managed to save the library. After the death of Abu 'l-Fadl ibn al-'Amid in 970, Ebn Meskavayh continued to serve the latter's son Abu'l-Fath, and in 975 along with him left for Baghdad.