Work · Philosophy in the Islamic World
The Refinement of Character
Treatise in six discourses on the soul and its virtues: drawing on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in Arabic translation, on Plato and on Galen, Miskawayh describes virtue as a mean, shows how character can be trained as the body is, and places friendship and love at the centre of social life.
Introduction
Miskawayh wrote “The Refinement of Character” (Tahdhīb al-akhlāq) around the turn of the eleventh century as a manual of philosophical ethics for readers who wanted to reform their own conduct. Its six discourses move from the soul and its faculties to the virtues and vices, the nature of the good and of happiness, justice, love and friendship, and finally the care of the soul, modelled on medicine, with remedies for anger, fear of death and sorrow. Miskawayh draws on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in Ishaq ibn Hunayn’s Arabic translation, on Plato’s division of the soul and on Galen, and includes a programme for the education of children that closely follows the Greek author Bryson. His argument that character can be changed by habit underlies the whole book. Nasir al-Din al-Tusi reworked it in Persian as the first part of his Nasirean Ethics (1235), and Mohammed Arkoun translated it into French (1969).
Connections
Builds on
- Nicomachean Ethicsc. 340 BCE · Aristotle
More works by Miskawayh
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made