From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 548-549 |
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Ibn Abī al‐Shukr: Muḥyī al‐Milla wa‐ʾl‐Dīn Yaḥyā Abū ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al‐Shukr al‐Maghribī al‐Andalusī [al‐Qurṭubī]
Mercè Comes
Alternate
name
Abī al‐Shukr
Died Marāgha,
(Iran), June 1283
Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr carried out a large‐scale project of systematic
planetary observations, which led to the determination of a number of new
astronomical parameters. He belonged to the group associated with the Marāgha
Observatory, several of whose members developed new planetary models whose
influence on Nicolaus
Copernicus has been clearly demonstrated. These models were meant
to deal with the criticisms of Ptolemaic astronomy that had been previously
set forth in Egypt (11th century) and al‐Andalus (12th century). Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr also compiled Arabic versions of the most important
Greek trigonometric treatises and made some useful innovations.
We know little of Ibn Abī al‐Shukr's early life, but his
name suggests an Andalusī origin. It is also known that he studied the
religious law of the Mālikī School, a school with a wide influence
in al‐Andalus. As for the eastern part of his life, we know that he
lived in Damascus at least until the year 1258, where he is believed to have
written the Tāj al‐azyāj (The crown of astronomical
handbooks), or at least the first version of it. Furthermore, he himself told
Bar Hebraeus that his knowledge of
astrology had saved his life when the Mongols invaded Damascus (circa
1258). According to Ibn al‐Fuwaṭī,
the librarian of the Marāgha Observatory, he joined Naṣīr
al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī's team at Marāgha
at an unknown date, though clearly before 1262, the year that Ibn Abī
al‐Shukr himself mentions as the date of some astronomical observations
that he conducted at the Marāgha Observatory. In fact, he probably joined
the team before 1260, because at that date his Taḥrīr
al‐uṣūl
(Recension of Euclid's Elements) was being copied in Marāgha,
perhaps by his own hand. According to the sources, Ibn Abī al‐Shukr
worked for some 20 years in Marāgha, and in 1275 he composed his second
zīj, entitled Adwār al‐anwār madā al‐duhūr
wa‐ʾl‐akwār in which he introduced the results of
the astronomical observations he carried out in Marāgha.
Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr was a good mathematician, and his writings on trigonometry
contain certain original elements. After traveling at least once to Baghdad
with Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī's son, he went back
to Marāgha, where he devoted his life to teaching. Ibn Abī al‐Shukr
died in Marāgha, where he enjoyed an excellent reputation.
Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr's work deals with three different subjects: astronomy,
astrology, and mathematics (geometry and trigonometry). Most of his work has
not yet been studied, so for the moment no definitive account of his contribution
to Islamic science is possible.
Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr's astrological works are mainly devoted to horoscopes
and planetary conjunctions used to tell the future.
His known works on astronomy include three zījes; three
commentaries on the Almagest; a description of the construction and
use of the astrolabe (Tasṭīḥ
al‐asṭurlāb);
a description of the geometrical methods used to determine the meridian line,
the rising amplitude, and the revolution of the sphere (Maqāla fī
istikhrāj taʿdīl al‐nahār wa saʿat al‐mashriq
wa‐ʾl‐dāʾir min al‐falak bi‐ṭarīq al‐handasa);
and a chronological work on the Chinese and Uighur calendars (Risālat
al‐Khaṭā
wa‐ʾl‐īghūr). Hūlāgu and his brother
Qubilai, rulers of Marāgha and Beijing, respectively, were both interested
in astronomy and had their astronomers translate works on the subject from
Arabic and Persian into Chinese.
Two of
the zījes, the Tāj al‐azyāj wa‐ghunyat
al‐muḥtāj
(= al‐muṣaḥḥaḥ bi‐adwār al‐anwār
maʿa al‐raṣad wa‐ʾl‐iʿtibār,
according to Escorial MS 932) and the Adwār al‐anwār madā
al‐duhūr wa‐ʾl‐akwār, represent a break
in the Andalusī–Maghribī tradition. The only Andalusī materials
preserved are the tables of geographical coordinates. According to the author,
in the second zīj he included the results of the astronomical
observations he carried out in Marāgha. However, we find some of these
results in the Maghribī copies of the Tāj for which, according
to the title of one of the manuscripts, the Adwār was used. Echoes
of these zījes, especially of the Tāj, resonate not
only in al‐Maghrib but also in Hebrew and Latin European sources, especially
in Barcelona. One example is the abandonment of the trepidation models, which
are found in all the Andalusī and Maghribī zījes, and
the proposal of a new parameter for precession. The only extant copy of the
third zīj, entitled ʿUmdat al‐ḥāsib wa‐ghunyat al‐ṭālib and compiled in Marāgha
(circa 1262) after the Tāj and before the Adwār,
is a mixture of different zījes and has nothing to do with Ibn
Abī al‐Shukr's work.
With regard
to the Almagest, he wrote the Talkhīṣ al‐Majisṭī (Compendium of the
Almagest), based on his observations carried out between the years
1264 and 1275; the Khulāṣat al‐Majisṭī
(Summary of the Almagest), different from the Talkhīṣ; and the Muqaddimāt
tataʿallaq bi‐ḥarakāt al‐kawākib (Prolegomena on the motion of the stars), which contains
five geometric premises on the planetary motions in the Almagest.
Comes,
Mercè (1994). “The ‘Meridian
of Water’ in the Tables of Geographical Coordinates of al‐Andalus and North Africa.” Journal for the History of Arabic
Science 10: 41–51. (Reprinted in The Formation of al‐Andalus, Part 2: Language, Religion, Culture and the Sciences,
edited by Maribel Fierro
and Julio Samsó, pp. 381–391. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998.)
——— (November, 2000). “A New Manuscript of Ibn Abī ʾl‐Shukr's Tāj al‐Azyāj.”
Paper presented at the VII International Symposium on the History of Arabic
Sciences, Al‐Ain, United Arab Emirates.
——— (2000). “Islamic Geographical
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Turnhout.
——— (May–June 2002). “The Localities
in al‐Maghrib and the Meridian of Water in
the Tāj al‐Azyāj.” Paper presented
at the 7e Colloque maghrebin sur l'histoire des mathématiques arabes, Marrakech.
(Proceedings forthcoming.)
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Kennedy, E. S. and
M. H. Kennedy (1987). Geographical Coordinates of Localities
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für Geschichte der Arabischen‐Islamischen
Wissenschaften an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe‐Universität.
Saliba, George
(1983).“An Observational Notebook of a Thirteenth‐Century
Astronomer.” Isis 74: 388–401. (Reprinted in Saliba, A History,
pp. 163–176.)
——— (1984). “Arabic Astronomy and
Copernicus.” Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen
Wissenschaften 1: 73–87. (Reprinted
in Saliba, A History, pp. 291–305.)
——— (1985). “Solar Observations at
the Maraghah Observatory before 1275: A New Set
of Parameters.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 16: 113–122. (Reprinted in Saliba, A History,
pp. 177–186.)
——— (1986). “The Determination of
New Planetary Parameters at the Maragha Observatory.”
Centaurus 29: 249–271. (Reprinted
in Saliba, A History, pp. 208–230.)
——— (1987). “Theory and Observation
in Islamic Astronomy: The Work of Ibn al‐Shātir
of Damascus.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 18: 35–43. (Reprinted
in Saliba, A History, pp. 233–241.)
——— (1994). A History of Arabic
Astronomy: Planetary Theories during the Golden Age of Islam. New York:
New York University Press.
Samsó, Julio
(1992). Las ciencias de los antiguos en al‐Andalus. Madrid:
Mapfre.
——— (1998). “An Outline of the History
of Maghribī Zijes
from the End of the Thirteenth Century.” Journal for the History of Astronomy
29: 93–102.
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S. (1974). “Muḥyī
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