Nakhchivani Najmaddin ibn Ahmad ibn Abubakr ibn Mohammad (Nakhchivan – after 1253, Syria, Halab) – an outstanding Azerbaijani philosopher in the Muslim East. He got education in Nakhchivan and learned the all spheres of the science. A certain part of his life he lived in Azerbaijan and worked in Maragha observatory. Arabian scientist Ibn al-Ibri (Abu-l Faraj; 1226-1286) wrote about Nakhchivani in his “Mukhtasar tarikh al-duval” (“Brief history of states”): “he was a deep connoisseur of exact sciences. He was occupied with the philosophy in his motherland.” Probably, Nakhchivani left his motherland because of political problems. For a while he worked as a vizier of Jalaladdin Qaratay, but when he saw the injustice and unfairness of the high officials he could not remain indifferent to the social-political problems and as a sign of protest he left the palace activity and went to Halab and spent an ascetic life till the end of his life there. Ibn al-Ibri writes: “He began to travel the countries. He made long trips. And finally came to Rum and got big posts.“

          Nakhchivani’s scientific and philosophical creative activity was highly evaluated by the Middle Ages authors. Arabian author Ibn Bibi resembled him to “a wavy sea and rainy cloud in all the sciences and subjects” and mentioned that he gathered the religious and secular sciences. Nakhchivani thoroughly investigated the problems of peripatetic philosophy and paid attention to the logic and nature study. Though he was a supporter of Arabian peripatatism and its outstanding representative Ibn Sina, Nakhchivani criticized some doctrines. Nakhchivani wrote comments to the books of “Medicine Law” and “Signs and Remarks” by Ibn Sina. Nakhchivani believed prolonged life of passion after death  and in defiance of the Eastern peripateticians, as it is indicated in the sources, he favored to the tanasukh doctrine. He did not revised Ibn Sina’s works from orthodox Islamic point of view, instead, made a critical approach to the peripateticians adopting a tanasukh doctrine which was not suitable for the principles of ruling ideology. The copies of his manuscripts are kept in a lot of archives of the world, such as the explanation of “Medicine Law” in Paris National Library, the explanation of “Signs and Remarks” in the libraries of Ayasofya, Nur Osmaniyye and Korpulu in Turkey and his letter “The essence of logic and the summary of philosophy” in Al-Mashhad al-Alvin manuscripts fund in Najaf (Iraq).