Abstract
This section examines the development and great advances in astronomical and astrological knowledge in Eastern cultures, beginning with the initial establishment of Islam in the eighth century, when Muslim armies had taken over much of the collapsed Roman Empire. The discussion continues through the twelfth-century—over 500 years of progress in Arabic astronomy and in its disreputable twin—astrology. At the start of their long translation period, Islamic scholars interacted with surviving classical traditions from Europe and Byzantium, and also absorbed the astronomical knowledge accumulated by Indian, Persian, and Babylonian specialists. The utilization of paper as an inexpensive substitute for costly parchment allowed Arabic authors to create and collect enormous numbers of manuscripts which was cost prohibitive in the Latin West. Precisely illustrated manuscripts and accurate astronomical charts played a great role in popularizing and passing on the work of Muslim scholars. The foremost scientists in the Islamic world credited with establishing and transmitting celestial knowledge will be discussed. This chapter also discusses the illustrated manuscript traditions of the Arabic authors along with their illustrations, particularly Abu Ma’shar and Al-Sufi. In spite of the long distance traveled, Arabic manuscripts and artifacts were instrumental in handing down Eastern-influenced pictures of the constellations, supplementing the separate traditions that had come through Rome and Byzantium. Both pictorial traditions have left traces in the modern world, particularly in the astrological domain.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, the Chinese rituals and certain gods were associated with the four directions, the ancient Maya only called for warfare when Venus was visible (Sivin 1986). “Chinese archaeoastronomy: between two worlds” in World Archaeoastronomy, pp. 55–64; (Krupp 1986). “The cosmic temples of old Beijing”, in World Archaeoastronomy; Milbrath (1999) Star Gods of the Maya: Astronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars.
- 2.
The earliest known horoscope was cast for the year 410 BCE (A. Sachs, Babylonian horoscopes, J. of Cuneiform Studies 6 (1952, p. 49–75) as cited by Neugebauer 1969: 197). “The earliest Greek horoscope known at this time is that of the coronation by Pompey of Antiochus I of Commagene in 62 BCE. Horoscopes on papyrus or in Greek literature start at the beginning of this era.”.
- 3.
Roman imperial astrologer Balbilius (d. c.79 CE), probably the son of Thrasyllus, acted as court astrologer to the Emperors Claudius, Nero and Vespasian. Balbilius was known for his astrological method of determining a subject’s “length of life from starter to destroyer” (Granstan 2012).
- 4.
Tester states emphatically that there was no astrology in Western Europe from the early sixth century to the late twelfth century. To attest to this he comments that there was no known mention or condemnation of astrological practices in the writings of church fathers or in sermons, but warnings of the evils of demons, superstitions and necromancy were common (1987: 200).
- 5.
Quoted from Scientific Contacts and Influences between the Islamic World and Europe: the Case for Astronomy—online article at Muslim Heritage website.
- 6.
A zij was a compilation, including a new type of table in which celestial times and positions of Sun, Moon, planets, and stars were tabulated. The zij also explained how to use the tables and how to solve astronomical problems. A zij also contained mathematical aids for their calculation, canons, and commentaries. Since each zij was specific to a certain time and place, many were produced throughout the Arab World. Their translation along with the use of the astrolabe provided European astronomers the means to make their own observations and calculations. Zijes were influential in introducing the use of Arabic numerals to Europe, and in accurate star mapping.
- 7.
I am using the term Arabic is its broadest sense, not limited to those of Arab heritage which would restrict the discussion to inhabitants of Arabia—present-day Saudi Arabia and southern Syria. Arabic science refers to all contributors under the rule of the Abbāsids, whose official language was Arabic.
- 8.
The three astrologers were an Arab, al-Fazāri, a Persian Nawbakht and a Jew, Mashā allah, and also Umar b. Farrukhn al-Abar; they agreed on the date July 30, 762 for the setting of the first stone in the founding of Baghdad. Al- Fazāri, is thought to be the first Muslim to build an astrolabe and he wrote on the use of the armillary sphere. Al- Fazāri was also involved with translating astronomical texts from Sanskrit into Arabic, although there were several scholars with that same name. See also al-Fazari, Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition (2016) by Julio Samsó.
- 9.
- 10.
See Hoffman (2000) “Beginnings of Illustrated Arabic Books: An Intersection between Art and Scholarship.”
- 11.
Notker, the Stammerer, Thorpe L. ed. (1969) Two Lives of Charlemagne, 143–45, written originally 883/4.
- 12.
Among the astronomers and mathematicians who were thought to work at the House of Wisdom were al-Jawhar, and al-Farghan who wrote an exposition of the Almagest which was translated in 1137 by John of Seville and Gerard of Cremona. The first philosopher of Islam, Abu Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (801–873) also worked in Iraq at this time.
- 13.
- 14.
Their precisely recorded cosmological positions were not exceeded until the observations of Tycho Brahe in the sixteenth century, who was able to make slight improvements on the Arabic annotations. The noted Danish astronomer made the most detailed and accurate astronomical, stellar and planetary observations possible with the naked eye (Goldstein 1986: 87).
- 15.
See also Sabra (2003). Sabra argued against the theories of Pierre Duhem, and demonstrated that Islamic societies did not merely receive and protect Greek science passively but actively appropriated and modified it. The inherent Orientalism prevalent in art history is another topic currently under revision.
- 16.
Arabic scholars had made great advances in mathematics by applying the concept of zero and substituting the cumbersome Roman numerals with Indian/Arabic numbers. They achieved huge progress in astronomy by improving their measuring instruments, keeping accurate charts, developing technical terminology, applying mathematics, and naming individual stars. They enriched scientific knowledge with many original and creative ideas, discoveries, and inventions.
- 17.
Stein was Hungarian-born but had adopted British nationality; he worked under the auspices of the Archaeological Survey of India, controlled by Great Britain. He knew of the potential of that specific area from Count Loczy who had been a member of a Hungarian expedition two decades earlier. Stein made three separate expeditions within fifteen years (Whitfield 1999: 3).
- 18.
Known for his linguistic skills, Stein spoke many languages and wrote over 20 books and nearly 100 articles. From sites along the Silk Road, he uncovered in total over a hundred thousand manuscripts, painting, murals, statues, textiles, potsherds, and items of everyday use which were given to museums worldwide (Whitfield 2004: 13).
- 19.
Also found at Dunhuang is the oldest surviving printed book in the world—a copy of a Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra dated to 868 (Whitfield 1999: 36). The Diamond Sutra is a brief but essential text containing the wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism, now held by the British Library.
- 20.
The writings from the ‘library cave’ are now scattered throughout scholarly institutions and private collections. The International Dunhuang Project, based at the British Library in London, was founded in 1994 to bring the manuscripts back together using computer technology. Many thousands of the manuscripts, and details of their contents, can now be viewed on the Project website.
- 21.
- 22.
See Kunitzsch in Scientific Contacts and Influences between the Islamic World and Europe: the Case for Astronomy on line article for Muslim Heritage website.
- 23.
Ptolemy organized the stars in his Almagest by magnitude or brightness graded in a scale of one to six, one indicates the brightest, for instance the brilliant star Sirius is rated a first magnitude; a category six is assigned to the dimmest stars that can be seen with the naked eye. Ptolemy was influenced in this process by Hipparchus’ who classified the stars as bright, half-bright, and dark. (Toomey 1998: 323).
- 24.
In order to make a number of Arabic names and words more accessible to the reader, I have eliminated many diacritics and other accent marks and substituted the more familiar English forms when possible. For example Abu Ma’shar for Ab_ Ma’shar; al-Kindi for Abu Yusuf Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi; al-Sufi for Abu al-Sufi for 'Abd al-Rahman al-S_f_; and zij instead of z_j.
- 25.
A few of the many treatises written by Al-Kindi are: The Book of the Judgement of the Stars, On the Stellar Rays, On the Revolutions of the Years, On the Signs of Astronomy as Applied to Medicine.
- 26.
This manuscript was edited in Abu Rida 1950 and 1953; several important texts have been edited and translated by Rashed and Jolivet in 1998. This Istanbul manuscript also includes one of the few Arabic copies of al-Kindi's On the Intellect to survive; this work also survives in a Latin translation. In the same manuscript, Al-Kindi explains his cosmological theories in two texts, On the Proximate Agent Cause of Generation and Corruption and On the Prostration of the Outermost Sphere. He also wrote numerous works on meteorology and weather forecasting which apply the same cosmological theories in explaining how heavenly motion produces rain and other meteorological phenomena in the lower world. While these works are influenced by Aristotle, al-Kindi also relies on other Greek sources, especially Ptolemy. A key section of On Rays relates that the stars and planets bring about events in the sublunary world by means of rays emitted from the stars and planets to certain points on the earth’s surface. Adamson, Peter, “Al-Kindi”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition), E. N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/al-kindi/.
- 27.
For a complete biography see David Pingree, “Abu Ma’shar in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles Gillespie (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1970, 1:32–39.
- 28.
See Pingree (1968) the Thousands of Ab_Ma’shar, Studies of the Warburg Institute.
- 29.
Abu-Ma’shar was composing both the Ysagoge minor and the Introductorium maius during the period when Aristotle’s treatises were being translated from Greek into Arabic at the House of Wisdom. Consequently, he absorbed the philosophical views of Aristotle along with his numerous other sources and many Aristotelian concepts found their way into his texts. For more information on this topic see Lemay (1962).
- 30.
An alternate form of al-Sufi’s name which goes back to a Spanish-Jewish scholar and astronomer is Azophi. This spelling appears on the famous celestial map of Albrecht Dürer published at Nuremberg in 1515. In the four corners of Dürer’s map are imaginative portraits of astronomers from four different eras and cultures, who made contributions to the field, in the lower right corner is Azophi Arabus.
- 31.
- 32.
A dissertation by Ihsan Hafez (2010) Abd al-Rahan al-Sufi and his book of the fixed stars: a journey of rediscovery. PhD thesis, James Cook University, includes a study and, for the first time, an English translation of the main sections of the book. There is also a condensed online version.
- 33.
The Andromeda Galaxy is the only galaxy visible to the naked eye and the largest of the Local Group that includes about 45 other ‘nearby’ galaxies.
- 34.
The concept of dual interpretations of stellar illustrations was introduced in the discussion of celestial globes and will be mentioned further in Appendix C.
- 35.
Julio Samsó and Mercè Comes, “Al-S_f_ and Alfonso X” in Islamic Astronomy in Medieval Spain, p 69 Al-Sufi makes corrections to Ptolemy’s charts to allow for precession, adjusts the stars’ magnitudes according to his own observations, and also adds many more stars not included by Ptolemy. His correction for precession equals one degree of longitude for every 66 years, but he actually used 70 years at times.
- 36.
Kunitzsch lists only eight manuscripts of al-Sufi Latinus on p. 68 and includes the illustrations. Current inventories list nine Latin copies. The following can be seen online: the Metropolitan Museum holds a late fifteenth-century and an eighteenth-century copy, both on paper. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France holds a manuscript of Book of Fixed Stars that was prepared for Uleg Beg (grandson of Tamerlane) in 1436. St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ara185 [MS 85 Rosen Catalogue MS C 724] has a sixteenth-century copy, probably made in Istanbul. The Brooklyn Museum owns a single page from a sixteenth-century al-Sufi manuscript, the Constellation of Corvus the Raven, watercolor on paper, but it is not on display.
- 37.
An Arabic copy of al-Sufi’s Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars can be found in the collections of the Library of Congress, Washington D.C. This illustrated copy on paper was produced somewhere in south or central Asia, and this too is an exact copy of a manuscript, now lost, prepared for Ulug Beg of Samarkand (present-day Uzbekistan) in 1417 and was rebound circa 1730.
- 38.
An article by Mora Carey, Al-Sufi and Son: Ibn al-Sufi’s Poem on the Stars and its Prose Parent, London, can be read online at archnet.org/system/publications/contents/6803/original/DPC3668.
- 39.
Thanks to the current electronic age, the entire 435 pages of Marsh 144 including the intriguing dual miniatures of the constellations can be viewed online at the Bodleian Digital Image Library.
- 40.
For examples of an Islamic Perseus see cod. Vat. 8174, cod. Vondob. 5415, and the lapidary of Alfonso X; al-Sufi ms. Paris, Bib. Nat. cod. Arab. 5036; or B L. Cod. Or. 5323.
- 41.
For a detailed description of the Uranography of al-Sufi see Dekker (2013) pp. 286–307.
- 42.
A detailed description of the manuscript completed by David A. King, Barbara Brend, and Robert Hillenbrand can be found in Sotheby’s auction catalogue (Sotheby’s 1998 33–48, lot 34).
- 43.
Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MS 1036 is included in Saxl and Meier, 1953, p. XXXII and in Dix Siècles d’enluminure italienne, Francois Avril, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, 1984, pp. 41–42.
- 44.
As in other manuscripts based on the work of al-Sufi, this one includes longitudes of stars that are rectified by al-Sufi’s empirical observations, as well as the magnitude of each star. Arsenal 1036 also contains John of Seville’s Latin translation of De magnis coniunctionibus by Abu Ma’shar.
- 45.
See Carey (2001) “Painting the Stars in a Century of Change: A Thirteenth-Century Copy of al-Sūfī’s Treatise on the Fixed Stars, British Library Or. 5323.
- 46.
Some additional surviving al-Sufi manuscripts in Arabic are: Suleymanie Library, Istanbul, MS Fatih 3422, (1125); Topkapī Sarayī, Istanbul, MS Ahmet III 3493, (1130–31); Bodleian, MS Huntington 212, in poor condition, (1170); Vatican Library, Rome MS Ross. 1033, (1224); Suleymanie Library Istanbul, MS Ayasofya 2595, (1249–50); Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, MS Arabe Ar 2489, (1266–7); National Library, Cairo, MS Dãr al-Kuftub miqãt 390, (1300); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, MS Rogers Fund 1913, (c. 1400); Pertev Pasa Library, Istanbul, MS 375, (16th c.); Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, MS Copenhagen ms Arabe 83, (1602); Princeton, University Library, MS Garrett 2259, (1607).
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Dolan, M. (2017). The Transmission of Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World. In: Astronomical Knowledge Transmission Through Illustrated Aratea Manuscripts. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56784-6_4
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