Note 616 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

Khájah signifies “lord, professor, man of distinction” (and also a eunuch). Khájah is the title commonly prefixed to Naśir-eddin, “the defender of the faith,” which is the surname of Muhammed ben Hassan or Ben Muhammed al Túsi, born in Tús, in the year of the Hejira 597, A. D. 1200. He is acknowledged to have been the doctor who acquired among Muselmans the highest reputation in all sorts of sciences; he was a commentator of Euclid, and of the spherics of Theodosius and Menelaus. He left scientific works, duly admired, and was an astronomer, lawyer, theologian, and statesman. We shall have to touch upon the part which he took in the great events of his days. He died in the year of the Hejira 672, or, according to some, 687 (A. D. 1273 or 1285).