Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Rāzī (d. 421/1030), renowned Persian historian, philosopher, physician and man of letters.

Miskawayh is the Arabicised form of the original Persian name, Mushkūyah, which is also the name of one of the suburbs of Rayy (see Yāqūt, Buldān, 4/543; cf. al-Ṭabarī, 8/392). In some of his works he gives his name and nisba as ‘Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Miskawayh’ or ‘Aḥmad b. Yaʿqūb Miskawayh’, a fact which has caused the conf…