| From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, p. 547 |
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Ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī: Shams al‐Dīn
Abū ʿAbd Allāh
Muḥammad
ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī
İhsan Fazlıoğlu
Alternate
name
Abī
al‐Fatḥ al‐Ṣufi
Ibn
Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī was an important
Egyptian astronomer who wrote some 26 works on astronomy. These works include
astronomical instruments, tables for timekeeping and other purposes, and important
studies on Ulugh Beg's
Zīj. His name and death date have been variously reported by both
historical and modern sources. He has sometimes been confused with his father
who pursued similar studies and had a similar name.
Although little is known about his life, we can surmise that Ibn Abī
al‐Fatḥ al‐Ṣūfī was probably first educated
by his father. He informs us in his Nihāyat al‐rutba fī
al‐ʿamal
bi‐jadwal al‐nisba that his education was
guided by the famous Egyptian astronomer Sibṭ al‐Māridīnī.
Indeed, his approach to astronomy, relying on mathematics and arithmetic and
avoiding philosophical content, does place him within the tradition of the
“Egyptian school” that began with Ibn
al‐Hāʾim in 13th‐century Egypt, was further
developed in the 14th‐century Maghrib with Ibn
al‐Bannāʾ, continued with Ibn
al‐Majdī, and matured with Sibṭ
al‐Māridīnī.
There are 26 works attributed to Ibn
Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī that are currently extant;
some of these may, though, be actually by his father. These works include
astronomical and timekeeping tables, treatises dealing with astronomical instruments,
and reworkings of Ulugh Beg's Zīj. In his Tashīl
zīj Ulugh Beg (or Mukhtaṣar zīj Ulugh Beg),
Ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī recalculated Ulugh Beg's
tables, originally prepared for Samarqand, for Egypt. Similarly, Abū
al‐Fatḥ al‐Ṣūfī wrote another work consisting
only of tables called Bahjat al‐fikr fī ḥall al‐shams wa‐ʾl‐qamar. Undoubtedly, his most important
astronomical study is Zīj Muḥammad
ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī, which purports to be
an emendation of Zīj‐i Ulugh Beg. His student, Taqī
al‐Dīn, mentions in his Sidrat muntahā al‐afkār
that Abū al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī improved the arithmetic
of the zīj, as well as made new observations (although he provides
little detailed information about their details).
Ibn
Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī wrote several books on
astronomical instruments based on the work of Ibn
al‐Shāṭir
and Ibn al‐Sarrāj. He wrote on a quadrant called al‐rubʿ al‐mujannaḥ and on a timekeeping
device called ṣandūq al‐yawāqīt that was invented by Ibn al‐Shāṭir. In other works he describes
two little‐known instruments called the “Goose Chest” and the “Crow
Wing” and how to use sand clocks.
Ibn
Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī's influence was widespread
and enduring as indicated by a commentary on his Nubdhat al‐isʿāf
fī maʿrifat qaws al‐khilāf by the
Egyptian astronomer Ramaḍān
ibn Ṣāliḥ
al‐Khwānakī (died: 1745). He also trained a number of students.
He encouraged his student Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī
al‐Rifāʿī
to translate Ulugh Beg's Zīj from Persian into Arabic. This translation
made this Zīj more widely accessible in Ottoman lands; there are
currently more than 20 extant copies. Ibn Abī al‐Fatḥ
al‐Ṣūfī's most important student,
though, was the great astronomer Taqī al‐Dīn, who corrected
and completed Ulugh Beg's Zij and would become the founder of the Istanbul
Observatory.
Selected References
Bağdadlı
İsmail, Paşa (1955). Hadiyyat al‐ʿārifīn.
Vol. 2, pp. 198, 238, 621. Istanbul.
——— Īḍāḥ al‐maknūn.
Vol. 1: (1945): 197; Vol. 2: (1947): 530. Istanbul.
Brockelmann, Carl (1949). Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur.
2nd ed. Vol. 2: 159; Suppl. 2 (1938): 159. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin et al. (1997). Osmanlı
Astronomi Literatürü Tarihi (OALT) (History of astronomy literature
during the Ottoman period). Vol. 1, pp. 116–126 (no. 58). Istanbul: IRCICA.
Janin, Louis and David A. King (1977). “Ibn al‐Shāṭir's Ṣandūq al‐yawāqīt:
An Astronomical ‘Compendium.’” Journal for the History of Arabic Science
1: 187–256. (Reprinted in King, Islamic Astronomical Instruments, XII.
London: Variorum Reprints, 1987.)
Kātib Čelebī (1941). Kashf al‐ẓunūn
ʿan asāmī al‐kutub wa‐ʾl‐funūn.
Vol. 1, cols. 127, 966–967, 970. Istanbul.
King, David A. (1981
and 1986). A Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National
Library (in Arabic). 2 Vols. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization.
Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th c.). Istanbul: IRCICA, pp. 300–303.