Kamāl al‐Dīn
al‐Turkmānī: Kamāl
al‐Dīn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn
Ibrāhīm ibn Muṣṭafā
al‐Māridīnī al‐Turkmānī al‐Ḥanafī
İhsan Fazlıoğlu
Born Cairo, (Egypt),
1314
Died probably Gülistan
(Guliston, Uzbekistan), after 1354
Kamāl
al‐Dīn al‐Turkmānī was one of several writers
who wrote a commentary to Jaghmīnī's
al‐Mulakhkhaṣ
fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa al‐basīṭa. Most of his other writings
are in the fields of history and fiqh and uṣūl
(Islamic law and jurisprudence). There is much confusion regarding his education,
life, and date and place of death. However, we do know that Kamāl al‐Dīn
al‐Turkmānī was born and spent some time in Cairo (where
he undoubtedly benefited from the scientific environment), and that he also
lived much of his life in Mardin (now in southeastern Turkey). He came from
a family that was actively engaged in scientific work; most likely he was
first educated by his father Aḥmad, known as Ibn al‐Turkmānī,
who was an astronomer who had written a commentary on Kharaqī's
astronomical treatise al‐Tabṣira fī ʿilm al‐hayʾa.
Kamāl
al‐Dīn al‐Turkmānī's Commentary to the
Mulakhkhaṣ was written in September
1354 in Gülistan/Saray, the capital city of the Golden Horde State, and
was offered to Jānī Beg Khan (reigned: 1349–1352); the work is
a significant indication of how widespread and established the Islamic scientific
heritage had come to be. The Commentary was used as a textbook for
studying ʿilm
al‐hayʾa (theoretical astronomy) throughout the Ottoman Empire
and Persia for many years. At least ten copies of the work can be found
today in Turkey's manuscript libraries (the oldest copy being Atıf
Efendi Library MS 1707/2, 11b–223a). In addition, Fasīh al‐Dīn
Muḥammad al‐Kūhistānī (died: 1530), who
was a student of ʿAlī
al‐Qūshjī, wrote a supercommentary on Kamāl
al‐Dīn al‐Turkmānī's Commentary. This
represents an important indication of the continuous tradition of studying
hayʾa within the Samarqand school of mathematicians and astronomers.
Selected References
Bağdadlı,
İsmail Paşa (1955). Hadiyyat al‐ʿārifīn.
Vol. 2, Istanbul: Milli Eg‐ition Baliaylign Yayinlare, p. 157.
Brockelmann, Carl (1937). Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur.
Suppl. 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, p. 865.
Ibn Quṭlūbughā,
al‐Qāsim ibn ʿAbd
Allāh (1962). Tāj al‐tarājim. Baghdad, p. 44.
Kātib Čelebī (1943). Kashf al‐ẓunūn
ʿan
asāmī al‐kutub wa‐ʾl‐funūn. Vol.
2, cols. 1749, 1819, 2018. Istanbul: Milli Eg‐ition Baliaylign Yayinlare.
Kaḥḥālah, ʿUmar Riḍā. Muʿjam al‐muʾallifīn.
Vol. 1: 309; Vol. 8: 288. Beirut.
Rosenfeld,
B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians, Astronomers,
and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th c.).
Istanbul: IRCICA. p. 252.