Naṣīr al-Dīn Mahmud b. Ahmad Khū’ī
, fl. mid 6th/13th century
Biographical notes
According to his nisba he was from
Khūy (Iran) and apparently lived in Konya (Turkey). Nothing is known of the life of this
author, and even the attribution of works to him has been debated by modern
scholars despite unambiguous references to him as the author in manuscripts.
Judging by the formula with which his name is mentioned in the earliest
manuscript, Suleymaniye Library, Halet Ek
92, he must have been dead by the time that work was copied in 660 AH [1262 CE]. The field has been muddied by
Naṣīr al-Dīn Khū’ī’s
identification with the semi-mythical figure of Ahi Evren, اخي
اوران, the purported founder of akhī groups in Anatolia (see (Bayram_1991) ). This can certainly not be sustained, as it is based on assuming the identity
of Naṣīr al-Dīn Khū’ī
with the full name of Ahi Evren as given in his waqfiyya,
Nāṣir al-Dīn Pīr-i Pīrān Akhī Evren (or Evrān) ناصر الدين بير بيران اخي اوران. Nāṣir ناصر and
Naṣīr نصير are however, quite different words and cannot be interchanged. The
waqfiyya also contains no reference to the Khuy nisba that our author holds. In
addition, all the indications are that Ahi Evren probably died in the 8th century [1300-1399 CE]
early , whereas Naṣīr al-Dīn
Khū’ī, judging by the manuscripts, must have been active in the mid
thirteenth century; he was certainly writing before 660 AH [1262 CE], the date of the earliest extant manuscript. Naṣīr al-Dīn Khū’ī’s extant works
bear strong similarities to the style and approach of Ṣadr al-Dīn Qunawī, and have been published with
attributions to that author. Chittick ( (Chittick_1992_a, pp. 255)) argues he may have been a member of Qunawī’s circle. However, the
only near-contemporary who is directly referred to in the texts is Awḥad al-Dīn Kirmānī . For a discussion of authorship,
see (Chittick_1992_a, pp. 255-62).
This work is dedicated to Sayf al-Din Tughril, سيف الدين
طغرل. Chittick comments that he was ‘a government official
apparently employed at one of the Seljuk courts of Anatolia. His name suggests that
he was born a Turk. He seems to have recently converted to Islam or, if he was a
born Muslim, he had decided to take religion seriously’ (xi). No evidence for any individual
named Sayf
al-Din Tughril has come to light from any other source. The Al-Manāhij al-Sayfiyya provides an outline of
what Sayf
al-Din needs to understand about God, and then detail on obligatory
practices for every Muslim. Chittick (xi) has described the text as indicating ‘the lowest common denominator' of
Sufi practice. Show more
The editions of this work is ascribed to Abu’l-Ḥaqā’iq Muḥammad al-Juwaynī, ابو الحقائق محمد الجويني and corrections to
the edition can be found in 268-70.
The ascription to Naṣīr al-Dīn
Khū’ī is based on the evidence of the unique ms, which gives the
author’s name on the title page: كتاب المناهج السيفية تاليف الشيخ الامام
العالم العامل المحقق المتودع سيد المشايخ والابدال نصير الملة والدين ابو الحقائق
محمود بن احمد قدس الله روحه و جعل في اعلى عليين درجته بفضله و كرمه و سعة جوده
. Although Chittick states that the author’s name can also be read as
Juwaynī, as the text’s Iranian editor also read, but the reading Khūyī seems clear
from the ms. Confidence in the Iranian editor’s palaeographic abilities is also
diminished by the fact that he read the unambiguous Maḥmūd as Muḥammad.
A later note on the title page claims that this work was composed for Ertughrul b.
Suleymanshah, the ancestor of the Ottomans, by one of the 'ulama' of
his age.This doubtless derives from an attempt to identify the dedicatee,Sayf al-Din
Tughril, with Ertughrul.
The text aims to explain the three principles of Islam: tawḥīd (God’s unity),
nubuwwa (prophecy), and ma‘ād (eschatology) Show more
It has been suggested by Chittick (256-7) that this work may be by Naṣīr al-Dīn Khū’ī, as is is found together in the same
manuscript and share a similar style and interests with the al-Manāhij al-Sayfiyya. However, their authorship
must be regarded as very uncertain.
The edition is ascribed to Ṣadr al-Dīn
Qunawī, something done also, albeit with caution, by Todd (see 185).
The text aims to explain the three principles of Islam: tawḥīd (God’s unity),
nubuwwa (prophecy), and ma‘ād (eschatology) Show more
It has been suggested by Chittick (256-7) that this work may be by Naṣīr al-Dīn Khū’ī, as is is found together in the same
manuscript and share a similar style and interests with the Maṭāli’ al-Īmān. However, their authorship must
be regarded as very uncertain.
The attribution of this work is extremely confused. While several manuscripts
attribute it to Ṣadr al-Dīn Qunawī,
others mention Nāṣir al-Dīn
al-Bayḍāwī or Fakhr al-Dīn
Rāzī as the author. Others have no attribution at all, and it was
probably the lack of any such attribution in early mss that led to the
confusion.
This appears to be a wrong attribution to Qūnawī, see 255-62
