Download PDF | (Variorum Collected Studies) Paul Kunitzsch - The Arabs and the Stars_ Texts and Traditions on the Fixed Stars and Their Influence in Medieval Europe-Ashgate Publishing_ Routledge (1989).
351 Pages
PREFACE
The important role played by 'the Arabs' in the transmission and development of the sciences is well known. This volume presents a selection of 29 articles dedicated mainly to the knowledge of the fixed stars.
To speak of 'the Arabs', in this context, involves two distinct traditions. In pre-lslamic and early-Islamic times, the Arabs — i.e. the inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, mostly Bedouins — already possessed a good knowledge of the sky. A large number of fixed stars and asterisms were known and used for orientation in the desert (ihtida '), and for calendrical purposes such as determining seasons, agricultural activities and social or religious events. (Many of these 'indigenous Arabic star names' were also mentioned by the writers of classical Arabic poetry.) The astronomy of the Arabs in this early, *prescientific', period was thus a sort of folk-astronomy, as yet uninfluenced by the scientific methods and traditions of other civilizations. At a later stage, after the spread of Islam through the entire Near and the Middle East, the Arabs became acquainted with the scientific heritage of Greece and with some Indian and Persian traditions.
Furthermore, from about the late eighth century A.D. onwards, all the various peoples of the Islamic world took part in the transmission and development of the sciences. Nevertheless, for many centuries, the Arabic language continued to be used as the vehicle for all scientific activity. It seems thus justified to speak of the 'Arabic-Islamic sciences', in which the language was Arabic, but the authors who wrote it belonged to different nations within the Islamic world. In contrast to the *prescientific' astronomical traditions of the early Arabs, from the late eighth/early ninth century onwards there developed a 'scientific' astronomy (and astrology) which was largely based on Greek, partly also on Indian and Persian, material. The most influential source for the 'scientific' knowledge of the fixed stars now became the star catalogue in Ptolemy's Almagest, comprising 1,025 stars arranged in the 48 'classical' constellations.
(The Almagest was translated into Arabic several times from the late eighth through the ninth centuries.) A third aspect of historical importance is then the transmission of Arabic-Islamic science to medieval Europe, through translations into Latin, in twelfth-century Spain. Through this channel Arabic-Islamic astronomy (and astrology) — quite separately from many other sciences — exerted a fundamental influence on the West and initiated the development of the sciences in late medieval Europe. Testimonies to the Arabic influence of that time remain alive into our own days: technical terms in astronomy such as zenith, nadir, azimuth, and more than two hundred star names (appearing at various stages of the scientific development of the West). The following articles bring forward evidence for all of these three fields of influence. It is only natural that the Almagest is mentioned in nearly every article, being the basic source and reference book for work on the fixed stars in Arabic-Islamic astronomy and, afterwards, in late medieval Europe right down to Copernicus. Items I-V discuss particular star tables and include the edition of some. It may be noted that medieval Byzantium also received and transmitted Arabic-Islamic astronomical knowledge. Item VI provides evidence for the knowledge of the star Alpha Eridani in the 'pre-scientific' Arabic period (being invisible in Alexandria in Ptolemy's time, the star was not included in the star catalogue of the Almagest).
Items VII-X are dedicated to the history of the astrolabe, the most widely used astronomical instrument in the Middle Ages both in the Orient and, subsequently, in Europe. Item XI describes the role played by the most specialized and most influential Arabic-Islamic author on the fixed stars, Abu '1-Husayn al-SQff (903-986), and his book on the constellations which left its mark for centuries both in the Orient and in Europe (cf. also item XXIII). My earlier paper, "Suff Latinus", in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft 115 (1965), 65-74, is superseded by the present article and was therefore not included in this collection. Two biographical notes on al-Suff were also omitted; they can be consulted in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography (ed. C.C. Gillispie), vol. XIII, New York 1976, pp. 149f., and in Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. I, London etc. [1982-] 1985, pp. 148f. (art. 'Abd-al-Rahman b. 'Omar Suft). [An article "al-SufT and the astrolabe stars" will soon be appearing in the same journal, Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften.]
The following three articles (XII-XIV) describe the identification of an astrological treatise on the fixed stars ascribed to Hermes in the Latin and Arabic versions, and which ultimately derives from the late Greek tradition on The Thirty Bright Stars'. The star list is also edited. Items XV-XVI similarly describe an astrological tradition on stars causing, or indicating, tempests, of which until now only the Greek and the medieval Latin versions have been found; an assumed intermediate Arabic version still awaits discovery amongst the innumerable mass of Arabic manuscripts in collections and libraries all over the world. In addition, item XVII discusses and edits some star lists of astrological interest centered, in this case, around the work of the famous and most influential astrologer Abu Ma'shar (the Latin Albumasar) from ninthcentury Baghdad. It is a great pleasure that I obtained permission for the inclusion of three articles of general interest from the Encyclopaedia of Islam, on the Pole (al-Kutb, XVIII), the Milky Way (al-Madjarra, XIX) and the Lunar Mansions (al-Manazil, XX). It may be mentioned that a further article, on the Zodiac (al-Mintaka), will appear in the same Encyclopaedia in due course, and an article on all matters concerning the stars (al-Nudjwri) is envisaged for a later volume. Next there follow three items (XXI-XXIII) illustrating the influence of Arabic-Islamic astronomy in late medieval and Renaissance Europe.
A unique example for such influence is found in XXIII: the Renaissance astronomer Peter Apian (1495-1552) incorporated figures of some indigenous Arabic asterisms into one of his star maps, using the book on the constellations of al-Sufr (see above, XI). Article XXIV was written to warn off historians of astronomy and star names from the book on star names of R.H. Allen (1899, repr. 1963), which, despite being extremely popular right up to the present time, abounds with linguistic mistakes and erroneous associations for the Arabic material and thus has perpetuated misinformation from one generation to the next. For historically and linguistically reliable information on Arabic star names in Western use, the reader should consult my book, Arabische Sternnamen in Europa, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1959 (in German), or most recently — written in collaboration with T. Smart — Short Guide to Modern Star Names and Their Derivations, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1986 (in English). It is not the fixed stars, but the planet Mars (and its Arabic name) that is discussed in item XXV, analysing the anecdote on the foundation of the city of Cairo (al-Qahira). The next three articles deal with the use of astronomical lore and star names in poetry. In item XXVI the star matter in an anthology of verse compiled by the Spanish-Arabic author Ibn al-Kattam (died around 1029) is analysed.
Item XXVII discusses the use of the Greek name Zeus for the planet Jupiter in a poem of the famous poet Abu Nuwas (early ninth-century Baghdad) and describes some other astronomical motifs in his poetry. Lastly, item XXVIII analyses a section from the epic Vis u Raniin by the Persian poet GurganF (written around 1050), which introduces, in connection with a horoscope, all the classical constellations of the fixed stars. The final item (XXIX) is an unpublished index of star names used in the writings of the Arab seafarers of the Indian Ocean, Ahmad ibn Majid (died around 1500) and Sulayman al-Mahrl (first half of the 16th century). This index is intended to facilitate the location of discussions and analyses of these names which are scattered through a number of books and articles of mine (not contained in the present selection). In contrast to the works of several scholarly colleagues which are dedicated to the themes of theoretical astronomy, planetary theory and mathematical astronomy of the Arabic-Islamic civilization, this collection presents a panorama of studies on the matter of the fixed stars. For some major works of mine in this field, the following should be mentioned. On indigenous Arabic star names: Untersuchungen zttr Sternnomenklatur der Araber, Wiesbaden: O, Harrassowitz, 1961, and Ober eine anwa' - Tradition mil bisher unbekannten Sternnamen, Miinchen 1983 (Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philos.-Hist. Kl., Sitzungsberichte, Jahrgang 1983, Heft 5); on the Arabic and the subsequent Latin transmission of the Almagest: Der Almagest. Die Syntaxis Mathematica des Claudius Ptolemaus in arabisch-lateinischer Uberlieferung, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1974.
The star catalogue of the Almagest is now being edited; the first volume containing the two surviving Arabic versions of al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf ibn Matar and of Ishaq ibn Hunayn has recently appeared: Claudius Ptolemaus, Der Sternkatalog des Almagest. Die arabisch-mittelalterliche Tradition, I: Die arabischen Vbersetzungen, Herausgegeben, ins Deutsche iibertragen und bearbeitet von Paul Kunitzsch, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1986. The second volume containing the Latin version made from the Arabic by Gerard of Cremona (Toledo, ca. 1150-80) is in the press; the third volume containing a comprehensive concordance of the star coordinates according to seven basic versions, Greek, Arabic and Latin, is ready for publication.
The highly important treatise of Ibn al-Salahl(died 1154) on the mistakes in the transmission of the star coordinates in the star catalogue of the Almagest — the author quotes directly from five versions accessible to him and thereby gives us the only clue for the interpretation of the material in the surviving Arabic texts — has already been edited: Ibn as-Salah, Zur Kritik der Koordinatenuberlieferung im Sternkatalog des Almagest, G6ttingen 1975 (Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen, PhiloI.-Hist. KL, 3. Folge, Nr. 94). In addition, there should be mentioned the edition of a collection of the most prominent types of star tables in medieval Europe (including the Arabic originals for some of them): Typen von Sternverzeichnissen in astronomischen Handschriften des zehnten bis vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1966. The articles in this collection are reproduced in their original form (adapted in size to the page format here used), but taking the opportunity to correct various misprints and minor errors on the pages themselves.
In some instances (items II, V, XXVII and XXVIII) an additional note has been added to an article. The Index lists proper names, some titles of works and a choice of topics of major interest, and concludes with a list of the star tables discussed or edited in the present articles. It is a pleasure to express my sincere thanks to the publishers of these articles for kindly consenting to their inclusion here. Lastly, I feel indebted to my friend and colleague, Prof. D. King of Frankfurt, for initiating the publication of this volume.
PAUL KUNITZSCH
Munich, June 1989
Link
Press Here
0 التعليقات :
إرسال تعليق