| From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 739-740 |
|
Courtesy of 
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Marrākushī: Sharaf
al‐Dīn Abū
ʿAlī al‐Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al‐Marrākushī
François Charette
Flourished (Egypt), second
half of the 13th century
Marrākushī
was one of the major astronomers in 13th‐century Egypt. As his name
indicates, he was originally from Maghrib, but his major astronomical activities
took place in Cairo during the second half of the 13th century. It is not
too surprising, given the turmoil affecting al‐Andalus and Maghrib at
that time, that a scholar from the westernmost part of the Islamic world would
decide to emigrate to Egypt, whose capital Cairo was already established as
the major cultural center of the Arab–Islamic world. Unfortunately, Marrākushī
does not figure in any biographical sources, so we must rely on the scanty
evidence provided by his own work in order to shed some light on his life.
Marrākushī
is best known for his remarkable summa devoted to spherical astronomy
and astronomical instrumentation, entitled Jāmiʿ al‐mabādiʾ wa‐ʾl‐ghāyāt
fī ʿilm
al‐mīqāt (Collection of the principles and
objectives in the science of timekeeping), which is intended as a comprehensive
encyclopedia of practical astronomy. This work is the single most important
source for the history of astronomical instrumentation in Islam. It was the
standard reference work for Mamluk Egyptian and Syrian, Rasūlid Yemeni,
and Ottoman Turkish specialists of the subject.
This
voluminous work (most complete copies cover 250 to 350 folios of text, diagrams,
and tables) has occasionally been qualified as a mere compilation of older
sources without original contents. While it is true that this synthetic work
heavily depends upon the works of predecessors, it is definitively original
and without any precedent. In fact, no single part of the work can be proven
to reproduce the words of an earlier author, except for the few sections where
Marrākushī clearly states from whom he is quoting. In those occasional
cases where an earlier source is mentioned, Marrākushī's text always
turns out to be either a major rewriting of the original or an independent
paraphrase.
The Jāmiʿ al‐mabādiʾ wa‐ʾl‐ghāyāt is well written and logically
organized, and employs a relatively literate style that is unusual for a work
on technical topics. The author is clearly a very competent astronomer and
also occasionally displays his knowledge of ancillary disciplines such as
philosophy.
The Jāmiҁ
is made up of four books on the following topics:
| (1) |
On calculations, in 67 chapters. This book gives exhaustive
calculatory methods (without proofs) concerning chronology, trigonometry,
geography, spherical astronomy, prayer times, the solar motion, the
fixed stars, gnomonics, etc. |
| (2) |
On the construction of instruments, in seven parts.
The first part concerns graphical methods in spherical astronomy and
gnomonics. The second through the seventh parts then treat the construction
of portable dials, fixed sundials, trigonometric and horary quadrants,
spherical instruments, instruments based upon projection, and observational
and planetary instruments. |
| (3) |
On the use of selected instruments, in 14 chapters. |
| (4) |
The work ends with a “quiz” – i.e., a series
of questions and answers – in four chapters, whose aim is to train the
mental abilities of the students. |
An
interesting confirmation of Marrākushī's Maghribi origin is provided
by his geographical table: 44 of the 135 localities featured in the list of
latitudes are written in red ink to indicate that the author visited these
places personally and determined their geographical latitude in situ
through observation. These 44 locations begin along the Atlantic coast of
today's western Sahara, include numerous cities and villages in the Maghrib,
two cities in al‐Andalus (Seville and Cádiz), and continue along the
Mediterranean coast via Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli to end up in Alexandria,
Cairo, Minya, and Tinnis. Marrākushī's western Islamic heritage
is also apparent in the fact that his chapters on precession and solar theory
depend upon the works of Zarqālī
and Ibn al‐Kammād.
Marrākushī
appears to have written his major work in Cairo during the years 1276–1282.
First, a solar table is given for the year 992 of the Coptic calendar (Diocletian
era), corresponding to the years 1275/1276. Also, some examples of chronological
calculations are given for the year 1281/1282, and his star table in equatorial
coordinates is calculated for the end of the same year.
The arrival of Marrākushī in Cairo coincided with the establishment
of the first offices of muwaqqits (timekeepers) in Egyptian mosques.
His work can thus be seen as fulfilling a specific demand of Mamlūk Egyptian
society (more specifically, the mosque administration, the muezzins and muwaqqits,
instrument‐makers, interested students, etc.). But the lack of
any reference to the profession of the muwaqqit or to the milieu of
the mosque would seem to indicate that Marrākushī was an independent
scholar without institutional affiliation. The motive he gives for writing
his magnum opus is the inadequate education of instrument–makers and
their methodological failures. His introduction suggests that his target audience
was instrument–makers, i.e. artisans and practitioners of applied science,
who were not professional astronomers. However, this is somewhat contradicted
by the technical level of the book, which certainly assumes the reader to
know at least the basics of arithmetic, geometry, spherics, algebra, and trigonometry.
Thus the Jāmiʿ al‐mabādiʾ
wa‐ʾl‐ghāyāt seems more likely to
be a comprehensive reference work of intermediate to advanced level intended
for active and apprentice muwaqqits, and for specialists of timekeeping
and instrumentation who were associated with them.
Marrākushī
must have died, most probably in Cairo, between the years 1281/1282 and circa
1320, since two early 14th‐century sources refer to him as being deceased
(an anonymous treatise on timekeeping entitled Kanz al‐yawāqīt,
datable to 723 H/1323 and preserved in MS Leiden Or. 468, f. 91r,
and a treatise on instrumentation by Najm
al‐Dīn al‐Miṣrī composed in
Cairo circa 1330).
Selected References
Charette, François (2003). Mathematical Instrumentation in
Fourteenth‐Century Egypt and Syria: The Illustrated Treatise of Najm
al‐Dīn al‐Miṣrī. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Delambre,
J. B. J. (1819). Histoire de l'astronomie du moyen âge. Paris.
(Reprint: New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1965). (Delambre used the unpublished
manuscript of J. J. Sédillot's translation of Marrākushī for his
section on Islamic astronomy.)
King, David A. (1991).
“al‐Marrākushī, Abū ʿAlī
al‐Ḥasan b. ʿAlī.” In
Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Vol. 6, p. 598. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
——— “The Astronomy
of the Mamluks.” Isis 74 (1983): 531–555. (Reprinted in King, Islamic
Mathematical Astronomy, III. London: Variorum Reprints, 1986; 2nd rev.
edn., Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.)
——— (1993). Astronomy
in the Service of Islam. Aldershot: Variorum.
——— (1996). “On the
Role of the Muezzin and the Muwaqqit in Medieval Islamic Society.” In Tradition,
Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre‐modern
Science Held at the University of Oklahoma, edited by F. Jamil Ragep and
Sally P. Ragep, with Steven Livesey, pp. 285–346. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
——— (2004). In
Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation
in Medieval Islamic Civilization. In The Call of the Muezzin (Studies
I–IX). Vol. 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Lelewel, Joachim (1850–1857). Géographie du moyen‐âge.
5 Vols. and an atlas. Vol. 1, pp. 134–142 and atlas, plate 22. Brussels.
Mancha, J. L. (1998). “On Ibn al‐Kammād's Table for
Trepidation.” Archive for History of Exact Sciences 52: 1–11.
Mercier, Raymond (1977). “Studies in the Medieval Concept of
Precession (Part II).” Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences
27: 33–71.
Schmalzl, Peter (1929). Zur Geschichte des Quadranten bei
den Arabern. Munich.
Schoy, Carl (1923). Die Gnomonik der Araber. Munich.
Sédillot,
Jean‐Jacques (trans.) (1834). Traité des instruments astronomiques
des Arabes. 2
Vols. Paris. (Reprint, edited by Fuat Sezgin, Frankfurt an Main: Institut
für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften). (Printed in
two volumes under the editorship of his son L. A. Sédillot; French translation
of the first half [Book 1 and the first three parts of Book 2] of Marrākushī's
book. The rest of Book 2 was summarized in a rather inadequate fashion by
L. A. Sédillot [see below]. The third and fourth books have never been investigated.
This work represents one of the first Islamic astronomical texts to have been
translated into a European language in the modern period and was given a prize
by the Académie des inscriptions et belles‐lettres in 1822.)
Sédillot,
Louis‐Amélie (1841). Mémoire sur les instruments astronomiques des
Arabes. Paris.
(Reprint, edited by Fuat Sezgin, Frankfurt an Main: Institut für Geschichte
der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1989.)
———
(1842). Mémoire sur les systèmes géographiques des Grecs et des Arabes.
Paris.
Sezgin, Fuat (2000). “Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums.”
In Mathematische Geographie und Kartographie im Islam und ihr Fortleben
im Abendland: Historische Darstellung. Vol. 10, pp. 168–172. Frankfurt
an Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften.