From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 1054-1055 |
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Shīrāzī: Quṭb
al‐Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Masʿūd Muṣliḥ al‐Shīrāzī
F. Jamil Ragep
Born Shīrāz
(Iran), October/November 1236
Died Tabrīz
(Iran), 1311
Quṭb
al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī was one of the most prominent
theoretical astronomers of the 13th century. Born into a family of physicians,
he studied with his father Ḍiyāʾ al‐Dīn
al‐Kāzarūnī at the then new Muẓaffarī
Hospital. When Shīrāzī was 14, his father died but even at
that young age he was able to assume his father's position at the hospital.
He continued his studies, at first with an uncle, also a physician, and later
with two prominent teachers, Shams al‐Dīn Kīshī and Sharaf
al‐Dīn Būshkānī. These studies included most prominently
the “general principles” of Ibn Sīnā's
Canon of Medicine as well as Sufi mysticism, which had been another
important part of his father's life. Uncharacteristic for someone of his talents
and searching intellect, Shīrāzī remained in Shīrāz
until the age of 24, most likely because of the turmoil in Iran brought on
by the Mongol invasions.
But the Mongols also provided Shīrāzī with a unique
opportunity, that of studying at the Marāgha Observatory with its director
Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī. Though
Shīrāzī was probably seeking to further his medical education,
he soon turned to serious studies of philosophy and the mathematical sciences,
especially astronomy, and would become Ṭūṣī's most prominent student. In Marāgha, he also studied with
the philosopher Najm al‐Dīn al‐Kātibī and with
the renowned astronomer Muʾayyad al‐Dīn al‐ʿUrḍī.
Even though based in Marāgha, Shīrāzī seems to have traveled
a great deal for both teaching and learning. Sometime in his mid‐30s,
before the death of Ṭūsī
in 1274, he may have become estranged from his teacher and left Marāgha.
Accounts vary, but this may have had to do with the secondary role he was
assigned at the observatory, or to not being named by Ṭūsī in the Īlkhānī
Zīj, the handbook with tables that was produced at Marāgha.
Wābkanawī states that Shīrāzī,
though asked by Ṭūsī's son Aṣīl al‐Dīn to
help revise the Zīj, did so only in a perfunctory way because
of his sense of having been slighted.
Sometime
after leaving Marāgha, Shīrāzī traveled to Anatolia and
studied for a time in Konya, perhaps meeting the famous Sufi poet Jalāl
al‐Dīn al‐Rūmī. He was appointed chief judge in
Malaṭya and Siwās and began to take an active role in political
affairs, including acting as an emissary from the Mongol court to the Mamluks
in 1282. Sometime around 1290, Shīrāzī retired to the city
of Tabrīz in Azerbaijan where the Mongol court was located. But because
of a falling out with the chief minister, he seems to have retired from government
service and devoted himself to writing and teaching. It is of some interest
that Shīrāzī dedicated his major philosophical encyclopedia,
the Durrat al‐tāj, to the ruler of an independent principality
in western Gīlān in 1306; but later that year, the principality
was brought under the control of the Mongols, and Shīrāzī was
probably back in Tabrīz shortly thereafter.
Shīrāzī
wrote three major works in theoretical astronomy – the
Nihāyat al‐idrāk fī dirāyat al‐aflāk
(The highest attainment in comprehending the orbs), dedicated to the Vizier
Shams al‐Dīn al‐Juwaynī (who may have been responsible
for his judgeship) and completed in November 1281; al‐Tuḥfa
al‐shāhiyya (The imperial gift), dedicated to the Vizier Amīr
Shāh ibn Tāj al‐Dīn Muʿtazz ibn Ṭāhir in Siwās
in July or August 1285; and Faʿalta fa‐lā
talum (You've done it so don't blame [me]), a supercommentary on the Tadhkira
fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa by Ṭūsī. All have the characteristic four‐part
division of a hayʾa (theoretical astronomy) work: an introduction,
a section on the structure of the celestial region, a section on the structure
of the terrestrial region, and a section on the sizes and distances of the
celestial and terrestrial bodies. The Nihāya is the longest of
the works, at some 300 or more pages in manuscript. It tends to present more
of the work of Shīrāzī's predecessors than does the Tuḥfa.
Faʿalta
is a peculiar work in that Shīrāzī is ostensibly commenting
on the commentary of the Tadhkira by a certain al‐Ḥimādhī; in reality, it is a harshly worded
attack on this author who, according to Shīrāzī, has plagiarized
his Tuḥfa. This makes it an interesting work for the history
of the notion of intellectual property. In addition to these straightforward
astronomical works, there are also large sections related to astronomy in
two of Shīrāzī's Persian works – the Durrat al‐tāj
and his Ikhtiyārāt‐i Muẓaffarī,
which was dedicated to the local ruler of a small emirate in Kastamonu. Large
parts of the latter seem to be translations from the Nihāya.
Shīrāzī's
works have not received the study they deserve, which is unfortunate since
they promise to shed much light on the so called Marāgha school. Kennedy
(1966) noted a number of innovative astronomical models in the Nihāya
and the Tuḥfa,
but Saliba showed that many of these models were due to Muʾayyad al‐Dīn
al‐ʿUrḍī.
Shīrāzī should still be credited with new models for the Moon
and Mercury (both in the Tuḥfa).
He creatively uses what are now known as the ʿUrḍī
lemma and the Ṭūsī couple to achieve combinations
of uniform, circular motions (as required by ancient physics for motions in
the heavens) that resolve the irregular motions resulting from Ptolemy's
equant for Mercury and from his choice of the center of the universe as the
reference point of motion for the Moon's eccentric orb.
Shīrāzī
gives high praise to astronomy in his introduction to the Nihāya
and echoes Ptolemy who, in his introduction to the Almagest, referred
to physics and theology as guesswork as opposed to the true knowledge offered
by the mathematical sciences. Indeed, it would seem that Shīrāzī
somewhat disagreed with his mentor Ṭūsī on this point. This manifested itself in the question
of the Earth's motion – Ṭūsī had held that the matter
had to be left to the natural philosophers since there was no decisive observational
or mathematical proof, whereas Shīrāzī, not wishing to leave
such an important matter to “guesswork,” insisted that there could be devised
an observational test. This test took the form of two rocks of different weights
thrown straight up in the air; Ṭūsī had said that in such
a case a rotating Earth could carry the air and whatever was in it at the
same speed, but Shīrāzī thought that objects of different weights
would be carried with different speeds. Since we do not observe such an effect,
the Earth must be at rest.
Shīrāzī's
influence in astronomy was widespread. His words were copied and studied for
several centuries. Often referred to simply as ʿAllāma (supremely learned),
one finds citations to him by almost all later Islamic theoretical astronomers.
In medicine, he was known for his extensive commentary on the first book of
Ibn Sīnā's Canon, and he was to have a major influence on
optics by recommending that his student Kamāl al‐Dīn al‐Fārisī
undertake a study of Ibn al‐Haytham's Kitāb al‐manāẓir.
Kennedy, E. S. (1966). “Late Medieval Planetary Theory.” Isis
57: 365–378. (Reprinted in E. S. Kennedy, et al, Studies in the Islamic
Exact Sciences, edited by David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy, pp. 84–97.
Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1983.)
Morrison, Robert (2005).
“Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī's Hypotheses
for Celestial Motions.” Journal for the History of Arabic Science 13:
21–140.
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.
——— (2001). “Ṭūsī and Copernicus: The Earth's
Motion in Context.” Science in Context 14: 145–163.
Saliba, George (1979). “The Original Source of Quṭb al‐Dīn
al‐Shīrāzī's Planetary Model.” Journal for the History
of Arabic Science 3: 3–18.
——— (1996). “Arabic
Planetary Theories after the Eleventh Century AD.” In Encyclopedia of the
History of Arabic Science, edited by Roshdi Rashed, pp. 58–127. London:
Routledge.
Walbridge, John (1992).
The Science of Mystic Lights: Quṭb al‐Dīn al‐Shīrāzī and
the Illuminationist Tradition in Islamic Philosophy. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press. (Excellent source for Shīrāzī's life
and works.)
Wiedemann, E. (1986). “Ḳuṭb al‐Dīn Shīrāzī.”
In Encyclopaedia of Islam. 2nd ed. Vol. 5, pp. 547–548. Leiden: E.
J. Brill. (Important for a listing of Wiedemann's articles on Shīrāzī.)