| From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 943-944 |
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Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī: ʿAyn al‐Zamān Abū ʿAlī Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī
Behnaz Hashemipour
Born Marw (Merv,
Turkmenistan), 1072/1073
Died Marw (Merv,
Turkmenistan), October 1153
Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī was a prominent scholar of the 11th and 12th centuries,
whose only extant work, a treatise on astronomy, entitles him to be ranked
among the leading observational astronomers of his age. He was born in Marw,
an ancient city in Persia, which had become by then one of the most prosperous
cities of Great Khurāsān, a vast and flourishing province on the
eastern borders of the Islamic world and home to many outstanding scientists,
philosophers, religious scholars, saints, and mystics. At the time Marw had
ten large public libraries, one of them housing 12,000 books.
Living
in a city with a rich cultural milieu, Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī grew up to become an
expert in many fields of science and wisdom. Like other erudite and encyclopedic
savants of the Islamic Middle Ages, he wrote books in most areas of knowledge
including astronomy, medicine, prosody, engineering, and literature. His writings
were regarded highly among the learned circles of Marw. Though well versed
in different disciplines, Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī's main occupation was
medicine.
Sources
describe Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī as a master of Greek sciences and an ardent exponent
of Greek philosophy. Being a student of Lawkarī, who himself was a student
of Bahmanyār, the most distinguished disciple of Ibn
Sīnā, Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī belongs to the third generation of scholars who have
fully benefited from the Avicennian tradition.
None
of Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī's numerous writings, however, have survived save a book
on astronomy written in Persian and entitled Gayhānshenākht
(Knowledge of the Cosmos). According to the author, the book was so titled
because “he who understands this book will have a coherent knowledge of the
configuration of the cosmos, and its system will be clear to him.” The book,
however, is not confined to cosmology in the proper sense of the term, but,
as is usual for the works of its genre in the Islamic tradition, covers a
wider range of subjects such as the configuration of the Earth and certain
topics in geography. Therefore, it falls within the context of cosmographical
works. Furthermore, the treatise also includes what we usually find in the
works dedicated to the calendar and issues related to the “passage of time.”
The book, therefore, comprises a range of topics from the celestial movements,
eccentrics and epicycles, apogees, planetary sectors, the ecliptic, the fixed
stars, lunar and solar eclipses, the meridian, and the azimuth to the sizes
of the Earth and other planets, chronology, and even some minor hints regarding
astrology.
Gayhānshenākht may thus be placed within
the corpus of what was known as hayʾa basīṭa,
i. e., plain or simplified astronomy. These works were simplified forms
and summaries of astronomy that gave a coherent and unified account of the
discipline. The main audience for such works were ordinary, educated people
for whom astronomy had a greater appeal than other sciences, in part because
of its applications in religious matters, and in part because it dealt with
the realm of the unknown. Therefore, despite the fact that Arabic was the
prime language of science and letters throughout Islamdom, Qaṭṭān al‐ arwazī, out of an inner
obligation, chose to write a simple and easy‐to‐understand book
on astronomy in Persian for the educated public and for beginners who wished
to have a share of the art.
Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī seems to have been involved in other aspects of astronomy.
His status as an observational astronomer is well established by the fact
that he mentions in several places his engagement with astronomical measurements.
Furthermore, Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī claims to have written
other books on astronomy, including a zīj or astronomical handbook,
which requires direct participation of the observer. Nevertheless, his interest
was not limited to pure astronomy, a science that in his view “is based on
certitude and demonstration” and “into which no discrepancy shall find a way.”
He shows interest in astrology as well, which for him is “a science of analogy
and conjecture.” By this, however, Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī does not mean to belittle
astrology but rather to place each within its own proper domain, since he
promises to write a book on that subject, too.
Despite
the very little information available to us about the man and his works, we
may conclude that Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī was one of the most prominent scientific figures of
his time. In a series of correspondences between him and Rashīd al‐Dīn
Waṭwāṭ, himself a great literary figure
of his age, Rashīd al‐Dīn Waṭwāṭ
does not fail to acknowledge him as “a scholar for whom not even a minute
replica can be found across either east or west” even though the author is
being accused by Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī of plundering his library. Furthermore, his stature
as a great astronomer may be substantiated by the fact that two centuries
later Ibn Taymiyya, a renowned religious scholar in Damascus, singles out
Qaṭṭān al‐Marwazī's
name as someone very skillful in astronomy, while discussing the question
of lunar crescent visibility.
A clan
of the Turkish Ghuzz (Oghuz) tribe from eastern Asia invaded Marw. Being taken
captive, Qaṭṭān
al‐Marwazī is said to have shouted words of insult at his captors,
which led to his tragic death. They tortured him to death by filling his mouth
with soil.
Selected References
al‐Bayhaqī,
ʿAlī
ibn Zaid (1935). Tatimmat ṣiwān al‐ḥikma, edited by
M. Shafīʿ. Lahore: University of Panjab.
al‐Dhahabī,
Shams al‐Dīn, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (1995). Tārīkh
al‐Islām wa‐wafayāt al‐mashāhīr wa‐ʾl‐aʿlām. Beirut: Dār al‐Kitāb
al‐ʿArabī.
al‐Ṣafadī, Ṣalāḥ al‐Dīn Khalīl
ibn Aybak (1991). Al‐Wāfī
bi‐ʾl‐wafayāt. Stuttgart: Orient‐Institut
der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft.
al‐Suyūtī,
Jalāl al‐Dīn ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān
(n.d.). Bughyat al‐wuʿāt
fī tabaqāt al‐lughawiyyīn wa‐ʾl‐nuḥāt.
Vol. 1, edited by Muhammad Abū al‐Faḍl Ibrāhīm.
Beirut: Maktabat al‐ʿAṣriyya.
al‐Waṭwāṭ, Rashīd al‐Dīn
(1897). Rasāʾil. Vol. 2. Egypt: Maṭbaʿat al‐Maʿārif.
Hashemipour, Behnaz (2004). “Gayhānshenākht: A Cosmological
Treatise” (in Persian). In Sciences,
techniques et instruments dans le monde iranien (Xe– XIXe siècle),
edited by N. Pourjavady and Ž. Vesel, pp. 77–84. Actes du colloque tenu à
l'Université de Téhéran (7–9 juin 1998). Tehran.
Ibn Taymiyya (1981). Majmūʿ fatāwā. Vol.
25, edited by al‐Raḥmān al‐ʿĀṣimī.
Rabat: Maktabat al‐Maʿārif.
Michot,
Yahya M. (January 2001). “Pages spirituelles d'Ibn Taymiyya: Contre l'astrologie.”
Action – Le Billet d'Oxford 41:
10–11, 26.
Ragep, F. Jamil (1993).
Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī's
Memoir on Astronomy (al‐Tadhkira fī ʿilm
al‐hayʾa). 2 Vols. New York:
Springer‐Verlag.
Storey, C. A. (1958). Persian Literature. Vol. 2, pt.
1. A. Mathematics. B. Weights and Measures. C. Astronomy and Astrology.
D. Geography. London: Luzac and Co.
Yāqūt
al‐Ḥamawī
al‐Rūmī (1993). Muʿjam
al‐udabāʾ: Irshād al‐arīb ilā maʿrifat al‐adīb. Vol. 3, edited
by Iḥsān ʿAbbās.
Beirut: Dār al‐Gharb al‐Islāmī.