the arbiter among all people in matters over which they differ. Thus al-Nasīr al-Tūsī and others like him among the Muslim and Jewish heretics sought to formulate a creed for the unbelieving, polytheistic, ignorant state of Hūlāgū. They agreed that it should be the creed of Ibn Sīnā. This is why the heretics were strongly inclined toward these polytheists, and why their ruler, Hūlāgū, brought the heretics close to him and enlisted their help against the Muslims: he knew that their false beliefs placed them in opposition to Islam and its adherents, despite their hypocritical show of allegiance to them.