From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 603-604 |
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Jurjānī: ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAli al‐Ḥusaynī al‐Jurjānī (al‐Sayyid
al–Sharīf)
Alnoor Dhanani
Born Taku (near
Astarābādh, Gurgān, Iran), 1340
Died Shiraz, (Iran),
1413
Jurjānī's
contribution to astronomy is in his role as commentator on several significant
astronomical texts of his time. Jurjānī's interest in science and
philosophy is evident in his journey to Herat (Afghanistan) to study with
the aged Quṭb al‐Dīn Muḥammad
al‐Rāzī (died: 1365), who wrote on logic, philosophy, and
theology. Al‐Rāzī was a student of the Shīʿī scholar ʿAllāma al‐Ḥillī (died: 1325), who
in turn had studied with the astronomer, philosopher, and theologian Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī at the Marāgha Observatory.
Pleading advanced age, al‐Rāzī declined Jurjānī's
request to study with him, recommending instead that Jurjānī study
with his student Mubārakshāh, who was known as “the logician” (al‐Manṭiqī), in Cairo. Jurjānī's
subsequent journey to Cairo took 6 years as he traveled and studied with scholars.
In 1371, Jurjānī arrived in Cairo to study religious, linguistic,
and rational disciplines. Four years later, he returned to Iran by way of
Constantinople, then under Byzantine rule. In 1377 he was invited to join
the court of the Muẓaffarid ruler Shāh Shujāʿ (reigned: 1353–1384)
in Shiraz. Following Tamerlane's capture of Shiraz in 1387, Jurjānī
was forced to relocate to Tamerlane's court in Samarqand. Here he encountered
the elderly distinguished scholar Saʿd al‐Dīn al‐Taftazānī
(died: 1390), who had also been brought to Samarqand by Tamerlane. Like Jurjānī,
al‐Taftazānī had written commentaries on works in several
disciplines, but from a conservative perspective. Jurjānī engaged
him in several debates in the presence of Tamerlane. After Tamerlane's death
in 1405, Jurjānī returned to Shiraz where he resided until his death.
Jurjānī
lived during the turbulent aftermath of the Mongol conquest of the lands of
Islam up to the emergence of the Timurid empire. Intellectually, this period
is characterized by the proliferation of commentaries, supercommentaries,
and glosses on the “canonical texts” of various disciplines. Jurjānī's
voluminous writings, of about 100 works, are characteristic in this regard.
The 16th‐century historian Khwāndamīr noted that Jurjānī
“has glosses on most books by the ancients and moderns in the curriculum.
Indeed, from his own time until the present, no lesson is given without the
benefit of his glosses and studies.”
Jurjānī
cannot be considered an astronomer in the strict sense – he was neither engaged
in observational nor in theoretical astronomy. Nor is he the author of independent
astronomical treatises. His astronomical writings, that is to say, commentaries
on the significant astronomical texts of his time, are a small part of his
total corpus. These consist of his commentaries on Ṭūsī's
The Memoir on Astronomy, Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī's The Imperial Gift, and Maḥmūd
al‐Jaghmīnī 's
The Compendium of Cosmology. His grasp of astronomy is evident in these
commentaries. He even suggests textual emendations to the manuscripts he had
consulted. While multiple copies of these commentaries have survived, the
task of editing and publishing them is still incomplete.
Besides these “purely” astronomical texts, Jurjānī participated
in the wider dissemination of astronomy via his commentaries on theological
texts, which were part of the curriculum of the religious colleges (madrasas).
The universe and its constituents is a standard motif of these texts. In his
commentaries on Ṭūsī's Paring Down to the
Articles of Faith and ʿAḍud
al‐Dīn al‐Ījī's (died: 1355) influential theological
text Stations of the Discipline of Kalām as well as his supercommentary
on al‐Razī's Commentary on the Risings of Light, Jurjānī
supplements, explains, and glosses discussions related to astronomy. Jurjānī's
commentaries became the subject of further supercommentaries and glosses.
In this manner, aspects of astronomy were scholasticized and persisted for
centuries in religious colleges via their inclusion in theological
texts. This could include new observational findings; regarding precession,
Jurjānī, in his commentary on the Stations, tells theology
students: “a group of recent investigators who have determined that it describes
one degree every seventy years which confirms the new measurements made at
Maragha.” Also included was the important distinction between “fact” and “reasoned
fact,” the former being within the purview of the astronomer while the latter
was for the natural philosopher to determine. Since many doctrines of the
natural philosophers were suspect from the point of view of Muslim theologians
(such as Aristotle's
insistence upon the necessity of nature and the immutability of the celestial
realm), a number of other views were put forth and debated, such as the possibility
of void space and the expansion and contraction of the celestial sphere, in
order to maintain God's omnipotence and volition.
Another
point of debate in these theological texts was the question of the reality
of the celestial orbs. Al‐Ījī had declared that they were
imaginary, no more real than a “spider's web.” But Jurjānī disagreed:
“Even though the circles have no external reality, being imaginary entities,
they are still valid imaginary entities corresponding to what actually is
the case … they are not invalid imaginary entities such as fangs of ghouls
or ruby mountains or two‐headed humans!” For Jurjānī, the
astronomer's role was to understand God's creation, thereby glorifying its
wondrousness.
Al‐Ījī,
ʿAdud
al‐Dīn (n.d.). al‐Mawāqif fī ʿilm al‐kalām. Beirut: ʿālam
al‐kutub.
Al‐Jurjānī,
ʿAlī
ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī
al‐Sayyīd al‐Sharīf (1907). Sharḥ al‐Mawāqif fī ʿilm al‐kalām.
8 Vols. in 4. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat
al‐Saʿīda.
——— (2000). Sharḥ abyāt al‐mufaṣṣal wa‐ʾl‐mutawassiṭ, edited by ʿAbd al‐Ḥamīd al‐Fayyāḍ
al‐Kubaysī. Beirut: Dār al‐Bashāʾir al‐Islāmiyya.
Gümüs, Sadreddin (1984). Seyyıd Şerîf Cürcânî.
Istanbul: Fatıh Yayιnevi Matbaasι.
Khwandamir (1994). Habibu's‐Siyar, Vol. Three: The
Reign of the Mongol and the Turk. Part One, Genghis Khan – Amir Temür,
translated and edited by W. M. Thackston. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Department
of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, pp. 302–303.
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.
——— (2001). “Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of
Islamic Influence on Science.” Osiris 16: 49–71.
Sabra,
A. I. (1994). “Science and Philosophy in Medieval
Islamic Theology: The Evidence of the Fourteenth Century.” Zeitschrift
für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften 9: 1–42.