A Letter from Muhaqiq Tusi and a Lexical Discussion

Published in: Ayeneh-ye Pajoohesh (Mirror of Research), Issue 209, 2024, pp. 313–322

This short piece examines an Arabic letter attributed to Nasir al-Din Tusi, allegedly written at the request of Hulegu Khan. The letter, if authentic, may reflect Tusi’s limited collaboration with the Mongols—a subject of long-standing scholarly debate. The text is brief and rhetorically forceful, invoking Qur’anic verses to urge the recipient’s submission to Hulegu’s army. After reviewing the sources that preserve the letter and surveying historical accounts of its context and addressee, I focus on a key lexical ambiguity in the text and explore its possible readings and implications.

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