| From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, p. 357 |
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Courtesy of 
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Farghānī: Abū
al‐ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al‐Farghānī
Gregg DeYoung
Flourished Central Asia
and Baghdad, (Iraq), 9th century
Farghānī's
main claim to fame rests upon his widely circulated compendium of Ptolemy's
Almagest, as well as on his writings on observational instruments.
His name has also been associated with the Nilometer at al‐Fusṭāṭ
(near modern Cairo), as well as with the construction of an irrigation canal
to supply the new city of al‐Jaʿfariyya in Iraq built by Caliph al‐Mutawakkil
(reigned: 847–861). Not many biographical details are known. From his name,
it appears that Farghānī was born in the vicinity of Farghāna
in Transoxiana, probably about the beginning of the 9th century. He appears
to have spent much of his career associated with the ʿAbbāsid
court in Baghdad.
Farghānī's
compendium (jawāmiʿ) of the Almagest
was composed after the death of Maʾmūn
in 833 but before 857. It was quite popular in Arabic, as testified in part
by the surviving manuscript copies. It was also the subject of two commentaries,
the first by Abū ʿUbayd ʿAbd al‐Waḥīd
ibn Muḥammad al‐Jūzjānī, a student of Ibn
Sīnā, and the other by Abū
al‐Ṣaqr ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz ibn ʿUthmān
al‐Qabīṣī. We know that Bīrūnī
wrote an extensive discussion of this work entitled Tahdhīb fuṣūl
al‐Farghānī, but it is no longer extant.
Farghānī's
compendium was, perhaps, even more influential in its Latin translations.
The first of these was by John of Seville about 1135. Printed Latin
versions based on this translation were published in Ferara (1493), Nuremberg
(1537), and Paris (1546). The translation of Gerard
of Cremona (made some time before 1175) was not printed until the
20th century, but it circulated in manuscript form throughout Europe. A Hebrew
translation (before 1385?) of the Arabic text was prepared by Jacob Anatoli.
This Hebrew version, together with the Latin version of John of Seville, was
used by Jacob
Christmann to prepare a new Latin translation, published in Frankfurt
(1590). The Arabic text, together with a new Latin translation and notes (which
cover only the first nine chapters), was published posthumously by Jacob Golius
(Amsterdam, 1669).
Farghānī's
treatise on the astrolabe survives in Arabic. (It appears not to have been
translated into Latin.) It is a competent discussion of the mathematical principles
of astrolabe construction directed toward serious scholars at an “intermediate”
level, according to a statement in the introduction. This treatise also seems
to have been somewhat influential, since a “supplement” (Tatmīm ʿamal
al‐asṭurlāb) was composed by Aḥmad
ibn Muḥammad al‐Azharī al‐Khāniqī (flourished:
1350). An anonymous summary (Tajrīd) is also extant. Farghānī
is also credited with a discussion of the construction of hour lines on horizontal
sundials (ʿAmal al‐rukhāmāt), but it seems not to be extant
Selected References
Campani, R.
(1910). “Il ‘Kitāb al‐Farghānī’ nel testo arabo.” Revista degli studi orientali 31: 205–252.
(An attempt to unravel the complicated textual history of Farghānī's treatise, comparing Arabic, Hebrew, and
Latin versions.)
——— (ed.)
(1910). Alfragano (Al‐Fargānī) Il ‘Libro dell'aggragazione
delle stelle’ (Dante, Convivio, II, vi‐134) secondo il Codice
Mediceo–Laurenziano, Pl. 29, Cod. 9 contemporaneo à Dante. Città de Castello. (An edition of the Latin translation
of Gerard of Cremona.)
Carmody, Francis
J. (1956). Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation:
A Critical Bibliography. Berkeley: University of California Press. (Pages
113–116 discuss the Latin translation of Farghānī's
treatise and show something of the extent of its influence through the number
of surviving manuscripts and studies.)
——— (ed.) (1943). Alfragani differentie
in quibusdam collectis
scientie astrorum. Berkeley.
(An edition of the Latin translation of John of Seville.)
Sabra,
A. I. (1971). “Al‐Farghānī.”
In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. Vol. 4, pp.
541–545. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (Overview of what is known of
Farghānī's life and work, and an introduction to
the secondary literature. Includes a survey of the chapter titles of Farghānī's compendium. This follows the more extensive
summary in J. B. J. Delambre, Histoire de l'astronomie
du moyen âge [Paris, 1819], pp.
63–73.)
Sezgin, Fuat (1978). Geschichte des arabischen
Schrifttums. Vol. 6, Astronomie, pp. 149–151. Leiden: E. J. Brill. (The
most recent bio‐bibliographical study. Provides references to earlier
studies that should be consulted as well, since Sezgin
focuses on manuscript materials not found in the earlier sources.)
Toynbee, P. J. (1895). “Dante's Obligations
to Alfraganius in the Vita Nuova and Convivio.”
Romania 24: 413–432. (Discusses the influence of the Latin version
of John of Seville on European intellectual life.)