From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, p. 127 |
Courtesy of |
Birjandī: ʿAbd al‐ʿAlī ibn
Muḥammad
ibn Ḥusayn al‐Birjandī
Takanori Kusuba
Died 1525/1526
Birjandī,
a pupil of Manṣūr
ibn Muʿīn al‐Dīn al‐Kāshī
(who was a staff member of the Samarqand Observatory) and of Sayf al‐Dīn
Taftāzānī, was known for his numerous astronomical commentaries
and supercommentaries. He wrote several commentaries on the works of Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī, including Ṭūsī's
al‐Tadhkira fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa, his Taḥrīr al‐Majisṭī
(recension of Ptolemy's
Almagest), and Ṭūsī's
book on astrolabes. In the preface to the last book Birjandī mentions
some tables of the positions of stars that he calculated for the year 853
Yazdigird (1484). In addition, Birjandī wrote a commentary on Kāshī's
Zīj‐i Khāqānī, which was Kāshī's
attempt to correct Ṭūsī's
Īlkhānī Zīj. Birjandī was also known for his
commentary on the Zīj of Ulugh
Beg (the last date provided in it being 929 H = 1523) as well as for
his supercommentary (ḥāshiya) on Qāḍīzāde's commentary
(sharḥ) to Maḥmūd
al‐Jaghmīnī's al‐Mulakhkhaṣ
fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa al‐basīṭa.
In addition
to these commentaries, Birjandī wrote several independent astronomical
works, whose subjects included cosmology, ephemeredes, instruments of observation,
as well as a treatise on the distances and sizes of the planets that was dedicated
to Ḥabīb
Allāh, and another work on the construction of almanacs completed in
1478/1479.
Birjandī
completed his Sharḥ
al‐Tadhkira (Commentary on the Tadhkira) in 1507/1508. Nayanasukha
translated the 11th chapter of the second book of this work into Sanskrit.
This is the chapter in which Ṭūsī deals with the device called the “Ṭūsī couple” and its applications,
mainly to the lunar theory. From the colophon of the Sanskrit translation
we learn that a Persian, Muḥammad Ābida, dictated it (presumably in a vernacular
language) to Nayanasukha as he composed it in Sanskrit. Muḥammad Ābida had been at Jai
Singh's court since at least 1725.
Birjandī's
commentary on the Tadhkira is a good example of the commentary tradition
within Islam. In analyzing Ṭūsī's work, Birjandī provides the reader with explanations
of meanings, shows variants, provides grammatical explanations, and engages
in philosophical discussions. He also provides different interpretations and
examines the objections of his predecessors against Ṭūsī.
In Book II, Chapter 11, Birjandī cites the following authors and works:
Ṭūsī's Risālah‐i muʿīniyya;
Ptolemy's Almagest; Ibn al‐Haytham;
Euclid's Elements; Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī's Tuḥfa and Nihāya;
Theodosius's
Sphaerica; Menelaus;
and Autolycus.
In his commentary, Birjandī seems to follow Shīrāzī's
opinions and his devices. For example, Birjandī mentions an objection
against the application of the Ṭūsī
couple to the celestial spheres regarding the necessity of rest between two
motions; such a discussion about rest between ascending and descending motions
is given by Shīrāzī as well as Shams
al‐Dīn al‐Khafrī (Ragep, pp. 432–433). Also
when Birjandī discusses an application of the curvilinear or spherical
version of the Ṭūsī couple, he mentions that
this version produces a slight longitudinal inclination, which had been discussed
by Shīrāzī in his Tuḥfa (Kusuba and Pingree,
pp. 246–247). Finally we note that Birjandī gives a proof for a device
that G. Saliba has called the “ʿUrḍī lemma,” after Muʾayyad al‐Dīn
al‐ʿUrḍī, but the proof is similar
to that given by Shīrāzī rather than ʿUrḍī's
original in his Kitāb al‐Hayʾa.
Kusuba, Takanori and David Pingree (eds. and trans.) (2002).
Arabic Astronomy in Sanskrit: Al‐Birjandī on Tadhkira
II, Chapter 11 and its Sanskrit Translation. Leiden: E. J. Brill. (The
Arabic text and Sanskrit translation of Birjandī's Sharḥ
al‐Tadhkira, Book II, Chap. 11; also contains commentary.)
Ragep, F. J. (1993).
Naṣīr al‐Dīn
al‐Ṭūsī's Memoir
on Astronomy (al‐Tadhkira fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa). 2 Vols. New York:
Springer‐Verlag.
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians,
Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th
c.). Istanbul: IRCICA, pp. 314–316.
Saliba, George (1979). “The Original Source of Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī's
Planetary Model.” Journal for the History of Arabic Science 3: 3–18.
Sayılı, Aydın (1960). The Observatory in Islam.
Ankara: Turkish Historical Society.