From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, p. 1008 |
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Samarqandī: Shams al‐Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ashraf al‐Ḥusaynī al‐Samarqandī
İhsan Fazlıoğlu
Born Samarqand,
(Uzbekistan)
Died 1302
Shams
al‐Dīn al‐Samarqandī, who lived in the 13th century,
wrote books on kalām (theology), logic, mathematics, and astronomy;
his works were taught for many centuries in the madrasas (schools)
throughout the Islamic world.
Little
is known about his life. After studying the standard curriculum in the basic
religious sciences, Samarqandī mastered kalām, (logic, and
geometry). His works in these fields cover the standard material of Hellenistic
and Islamic knowledge, but they also contain contributions that are original
both in content and method. One of the most striking features of his works
is that they set forth the idea of a universe based upon geometrical forms.
In this sense, he can be regarded as the founder of the movement that might
be named “geometrical” kalām in the Islamic world.
In the field of theoretical astronomy, Samarqandī wrote a (commentaroy)
sharḥ on Naṣīr
al‐Dīn al‐Ṭūsī's taḥrīr (Recension) of
Ptolemy's
Almagest. He also wrote a general astronomy book, no longer extant,
reportedly entitled al‐Tadhkira fī ʿilm al‐hayʾa. Finally, he prepared the ʿAmāl
al‐taqwīm li‐ʾl‐kawakīb al‐thābita, which was a star calendar for the
year 1276–1277. Unfortunately, most of Samarqandī's astronomical works
have not been studied yet.
Samarqandī
was most influential for his various textbooks, which provided a wealth of
information about the content and methods of past scholars and greatly influenced
future generations, who studied these books in various madrasas. His
geometrical work entitled Ashkāl al‐taʾsīs contains
35 propositions from Euclid's Elements; the first 30 propositions are
strictly geometrical, while the last five deal with what has been called “geometrical
algebra.” Regarding the problem of the fifth (“parallels”) postulate, he supported
Euclid and considered the criticisms of earlier Islamic mathematicians to
have been misplaced. The most important aspect of the book was Samarqandī's
view that a study of geometry was a propaedeutic to the study of the forms
of Platonic philosophy. It was used as a “middle‐level” textbook for
Muslim scholars in the madrasas, later most often with Qāḍīzāde's commentary. Samarqandī also
wrote widely used textbooks in the fields of kalām, logic, rhetoric,
and philosophy.
Al‐Samarqandī,
Shams al‐Dīn (1985). al‐Ṣaḥaʾif
al‐ilāhiyya, edited by Aḥmad
ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān al‐Sharīf. Kuwait: Moktabaṯ al‐Fatāḥ. pp. 13–28.
Bağdadlı İsmail Paşa (1955). Hadiyyat
al‐ʿārifīn.
Vol. 2, p. 106. Istanbul: Milli Egition Bahaanlīge Yayinlare.
Bingöl, Abdulkuddüs (1991). “Shams al‐Din Muhammad b.
Ashraf al‐Samarqandi ve Qistas al‐Afkar'ı.” Edebiyat Bilimleri
Arastırma Dergisi 19: 173–182.
Brockelmann, Carl. Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur.
2nd ed. Vol. 1 (1943): 615–617; Suppl. 1 (1937): 849–850. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Dilgan,
H. (1960). “Démonstration du Ve postulat d'Euclide par Shams‐ed‐Din
Samarqandi.” Revue d'histoire des sciences et de leurs applications 13: 191–196.
——— (1975). “Al‐Samarqandī.”
In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie.
Vol. 12, p. 91. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Kātib Čelebī. Kashf al‐ẓunūn
ʿan asāmī al‐kutub wa‐ʾl‐funūn.
Vol. 1 (1941), cols. 39–40, 105; Vol. 2 (1943), cols. 1074, 1075, 1326. Istanbul:
Milli Egition Bahaanlīge Yayinlare.
Qurbānī,
Abū al‐Qāsim (1986/1987). Zindagī‐nāmah‐i
riyādī'dānān dawrah‐i Islāmī. Tehran:
Markaz‐i Nasr‐i Danişgah, pp. 275–288.
Suwaysī, Muḥammad (ed.) (1984). Ashkāl al‐taʾsīs
li‐ʾl‐Samarqandī (with the Sharḥ of Qāḍīzāde
al‐Rūmī). Tunis: al‐Dār al‐Tunîsiyya,
pp. 23–26.