Miskawayh

Miskawayh (932 to 1030) was a Persian philosopher and historian who served as a chancery official to Buyid viziers in Baghdad, work that gave him direct access to the political events he later recorded. His Tahdhib al-Akhlaq, the Refinement of Character, is considered the first major work of Islamic philosophical ethics, and it separates the cultivation of private virtue from conduct in public life. In al-Fawz al-Asghar he set out a Neoplatonic account of existence emanating from God through intellect in a hierarchical chain running from minerals through plants and animals up to human beings, a scheme later scholars have compared to an early evolutionary view of nature. His chronicle Tajarib al-Umam, the Experiences of Nations, is counted among the earliest eyewitness histories written by a Muslim author. His synthesis of Greek ethical philosophy with Islamic thought influenced later philosophers, including Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Mulla Sadra.