| From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 942-943 |
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Qāsim ibn
Muṭarrif
al‐Qaṭṭān:
Abū Muḥammad Qāsim ibn Muṭarrif ibn ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān al‐Qaṭṭān
al‐Ṭulayṭulī al‐Qurṭubī
al‐Andalusī
Mercè Comes
Flourished Cordova, (Spain),
10th century
Qāsim
ibn Muṭarrif al‐Qaṭṭān
may well represent the earliest astronomers in Islamic Spain (al‐Andalus)
of whom we have knowledge. Though known as a reciter of the Quran (muqriʾ)
and traditionalist with the sobriquet al‐shaykh al‐raʾīs
(Principal Shaykh), only one of his works is extant, a study of cosmological
and astronomical subjects. However, in the biographical dictionaries there
is no reference to Qaṭṭān's
interest in cosmology or astronomy. From what we know of the lives of his
teachers, we can deduce that he was born at the end of the 9th or the beginning
of the 10th century. An analysis of Qaṭṭān's work offers
only two chronological details: a quotation from Maslama
al‐Majrīṭī
and the following statement in the title of the star table: “We found its
longitude in the ecliptic in the year 300 of the Hijra” (912–913).
If
the attribution is correct, Qaṭṭān's work, entitled Kitāb al‐hayʾa
(Book on cosmology), would be the first extant Andalusī treatise on astronomy.
The only known manuscript is preserved in the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul
(Carullah Efendi 1279, folios 315r–321v). The work is a compendium of all
the Andalusī cosmological and astronomical knowledge of the time and
draws upon a variety of traditions. The most prominent is that of eastern
Islam, which flourished in the 10th century after successfully combining the
old cosmology and astronomy of Greece and India. There are also echoes of
an old Latin astrological tradition, still in use in the Iberian Peninsula.
The text consists of 30 numbered and five unnumbered chapters. The
unnumbered chapters differ from the others in several aspects and do not seem
to belong to the work. The chapters are as follows: 1–8: signs of the Zodiac
and lunar mansions; 9–11: planets and cosmographical subjects; 12: stars;
13–16: Moon and Sun; 17–27: subjects related to the calendar, i. e.,
years, months, days, hours (22 and 23 are devoted to clocks); and 28–30: description
of the cosmos, both the superlunary and sublunary world. The other five chapters
– the ones without numbering – deal with the Sun, the Moon, and terrestrial
latitudes. Some of the chapters that purport to explain the physical structure
of the cosmos show a clear dependence on Aristotle,
while others draw upon Ptolemy,
in particular on his Planetary Hypothesis, which very probably reached
the author through the Kitāb al‐aʿlāq al‐nafīsa
of the eastern geographer Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn Rustah.
The clocks described are a sundial, the description of which coincides
almost word for word with the one found in the Kitāb al‐asrār
fī natāʾij al‐afkār (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,
MS Misc. Or 152, folio 47r), explicitly attributed to Ibn
al‐Ṣaffār,
one of Maslama's disciples. This clock is unlike extant Islamic clocks, although
we know of at least two texts that describe a similar instrument (the balāṭa described in the Zīj
by Ibn Isḥāq
al‐Tūnisī and the one in the commentary to the Mišná
by Maimonides). These clocks seem
to date back to biblical times. The second one, called thurayya, is
a “fire clock” because the hours are indicated by the burning of oil. A description
of a similar clock is found in a work by a certain Yūnus al‐Miṣrī.
Qaṭṭān's
clock derives from a clock calculated for Baghdad, which probably reached
al‐Andalus through Tunis, perhaps thanks to the well‐known epistolary
relationship between Ḥasdāy
ibn Shaprut of Cordova, and the Tunisian Dunash
ibn Tamīm.
The
star table contains 16 stars. It is a standard table of the kind that accompanies
a treatise for constructing an astrolabe, although, in view of the errors
found, it was probably derived from a reading of the coordinates of an instrument
calculated for Cordova, namely ecliptic coordinates (longitude and latitude)
and the degree of the zodiac that rises with a star and diurnal arc. It is
the first star table documented in al‐Andalus and is clearly influenced
by Battānī and Maslama.
In a number
of chapters there are signs that the author does not have a thorough understanding
of the field. However, the work is important because it demonstrates the emergence
of astronomical and cosmological knowledge from a range of traditions in 10th‐century
al‐Andalus, the period in which science was beginning to develop in
this area. Although the author is Andalusī, the manuscript is eastern,
suggesting that it reached a fairly wide readership. The text is largely nonspecialist
and was probably used in the nonscientific circles in which the author undoubtedly
moved.
Selected References
Casulleras, J. (1993). “Descripciones de un cuadrante solar
atípico en el occidente musulmán.” Al‐Qantara 14:
63–69.
——— (1994). “El contenido
del Kitāb al‐Hayʾa de Qāsim b. Muṭarrif
al‐Qaṭṭān.” In Actes de les I Trobades d'Història
de la Ciència i de la Tècnica, edited by J. M. Camarasa, H. Mielgo, and
A. Roca, pp. 75–93. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Societat catalana
d'Historia de la Ciència i de le Tècnica.
Comes,
M. (1993–1994). “Un procedimiento para determinar la hora durante la noche
en la Córdoba del siglo X.” Revista del Instituto
Egipcio de Estudios Islámicos 26:
263–272.
———
(1994).“La primera tabla de estrellas documentada en al‐Andalus.” In
Actes de les I Trobades d'Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica, edited
by J. M. Camarasa, H. Mielgo, and
A. Roca, 95–109. Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Societat catalana
d'Història de la Ciència i de le Tēcnica.
Comes, M. (2006). “Ibn Muṭarrif
al‐Qaṭṭān, Qāsim.” In Biblioteca de al‐Andalus.
Enciclopedia de la Cultura andalusí. Fundación Ibn Tufaye.
Amería. Vol.
1, [893], 304–306.
Rosenthal, Franz (1955). “From Arabic Books and Manuscripts
V: A One‐Volume Library of Arabic Philosophical and Scientific Texts
in Istanbul.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 75: 14–23, esp.
21.
Samsó,
Julio (1992). Las ciencias de los antiguos en al‐Andalus. Madrid:
Mapfre.
Sezgin,
Fuat (1978). Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums. Vol. 6, Astronomie, 197–198. Leiden: E. J. Brill.