Astronomy and Astrology the I S As Tronomy and Astrology
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Surveys the contributions of Islamic astronomers and mathematicians to the development of astronomy and astrology THE I AS TRONOMY AND TRONOMY It was the astronomers and mathematicians of the Islamic world who S provided the theories and concepts that paved the way from the geocentric LAM theories of Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD to the heliocentric I breakthroughs of Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler in the C WORLD sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Algebra, the Arabic numeral system and trigonometry: all these and more originated in the Muslim East and undergirded an increasingly accurate and sophisticated understanding of the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets. This non-technical overview ASTROLOGY of the Islamic advances in the heavenly sciences allows the general reader to appreciate (for the first time) the absolutely crucial role that Muslim scientists played in the overall development of astronomy and astrology in the Eurasian world. Key Features IN • The first accessible, non-technical history of Islamic astronomy and astrology • Surveys the major advances in the heavenly sciences from Isfahan, Maragha and Samarqand from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries • Shows the impact of astronomy and astrology on individuals and institutions • Looks at the influence of almanacs and horoscopes in the Mughal, Ottoman and Safavid Empires • Considers the ways Islamic astronomy and astrology shaped beliefs and practices in the medieval and early modern Islamic and European worlds STEPHEN Stephen P. Blake is Associate Professor Emeritus at St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. His books include Time in Early Modern Islam: Calendar, Ceremony, and Chronology in the Safavid, Mughal, and Ottoman Empires (2013), Shahjahanabad: The Sovereign City in Mughal India, 1639–1739 (2002) and Half the World: The Social Architecture of STEPHEN P. BLAKE P Safavid Isfahan, 1590–1722 (1999). BL Cover design: riverdesign.co.uk AKE Cover image: ‘Taqi al-Din and other astronomers at work in the observatory of Sultan Murad III in ASTRONOMY Istanbul’. Turkish miniature painting, 1581, from Shahinshahnama (Book of Kings). Roland and Sabrina Michaud/akg-images ISBN 978-0-7486-4909-9 AND ASTROLOGY edinburghuniversitypress.com IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD THE NEW EDINBURGH ISLAMIC SURVEYS SERIES EDITOR: CAROLE HILLENBRAND THE NEW EDINBURGH ISLAMIC SURVEYS SERIES EDITOR: CAROLE HILLENBRAND Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys Series Editor: Carole Hillenbrand Contemporary Issues in Islam Asma Asfaruddin Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World Stephen P. Blake The New Islamic Dynasties Clifford Edmund Bosworth An Introduction to the Hadith John Burton A History of Islamic Law Noel Coulson Medieval Islamic Political Thought Patricia Crone A Short History of the Ismailis Farhad Daftary Islam: An Historical Introduction (2nd Edition) Gerhard Endress The Arabic Aristotle Gerhard Endress A History of Christian–Muslim Relations Hugh Goddard Shi‘ism (2nd Edition) Heinz Halm Islamic Science and Engineering Donald Hill Muslim Spain Reconsidered Richard Hitchcock Islamic Law: From Historical Foundations to Contemporary Practice Mawil Izzi Dien Sufism: The Formative PeriodAhmet T. Karamustafa Islamic Aesthetics Oliver Leaman Persian Historiography Julie Scott Meisami The Muslims of Medieval Italy Alex Metcalfe The Archaeology of the Islamic World Marcus Milwright Twelver Shi‘ism Andrew Newman Muslims in Western Europe (4th Edition) Jørgen S. Nielsen and Jonas Otterbeck Medieval Islamic Medicine Peter E. Pormann and Emilie Savage-Smith Islamic Names Annemarie Schimmel The Genesis of Literature in Islam Gregor Schoeler Modern Arabic Literature Paul Starkey Islamic Medicine Manfred Ullman A History of Islamic Spain W. Montgomery Watt and Pierre Cachia Introduction to the Qur’an W. Montgomery Watt Islamic Creeds W. Montgomery Watt Islamic Philosophy and Theology W. Montgomery Watt Islamic Political Thought W. Montgomery Watt The Influence of Islam on Medieval Europe W. Montgomery Watt www.edinburghuniversitypress.com Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World Stephen P. Blake For Meg – with love as always Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: www.edinburghuniversitypress.com © Stephen P. Blake, 2016 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11/13pt Monotype Baskerville by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 4910 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 0 7486 4909 9 (paperback) ISBN 978 0 7486 4911 2 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 1319 0 (epub) The right of Stephen P. Blake to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Published with the support of the Edinburgh University Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund. Contents List of colour plates vi Preface vii 1 From Egypt to Islam 1 2 From Muhammad to the Seljuqs 22 3 The observatory in Isfahan 38 4 Astronomy and astrology in al-Andalus 51 5 The observatory in Maragha 65 6 The observatory in Samarqand 80 7 The observatory in Istanbul 96 8 The observatory in Shahjahanabad 112 9 Medieval and early-modern Europe 126 10 Conclusion 146 Glossary: astronomical instruments 150 Select bibliography 155 Index 159 Colour plates Between pages 54 and 55 1 Thirteenth-century astrolabe and its component parts 2 Reverse and obverse of a fourteenth-century astrolabic quadrant 3 Brass celestial globe, possibly from Maragha, 1275–6 4 Brass astrolabe, perhaps Isfahan, late seventeenth–early eighteenth century 5 Steel mirror inlaid in gold and silver, Mamluk Syria or Egypt, c.1320–40 6 Astronomers line up parts of an armillary sphere with specific stars to produce flat charts of the heavens, sixteenth-century Ottoman manuscript 7 Reconstruction of the observatory of Ulugh Beg at Samarqand, 1428–9 8 Astronomers at the observatory of Nasir al-Din Tusi being taught by means of the astrolabe, 1411 9 The House of Saturn from a manuscript on astrology, late fourteenth or early fifteenth century Preface To compose a readable, nontechnical account of astronomy and astrology in the Muslim world is challenging. The topic is scientific (dependent on arcane mathematical and physical theories and concepts), the period is long (covering nearly 1,000 years), the geography is extensive (stretching from India in the East to Spain in the West), and the context is crucial. To make sense of the Islamic era (from the middle of the eighth century ce until the middle of the sixteenth century), the narrative must begin three millennia before (with the Egyptians) and continue through the century following (with Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton). Up to now, the treatments that are available fall into one of two categories. On the one hand, the books and articles by historians of Islamic science are admirably complete and sophisticated – full of formulas, diagrams, and explana- tions. Men like E. S. Kennedy, David Pingree, and David King have studied the Arabic treatises, carefully laying out the contributions of Islamic astronomers and mathematicians. Other historians, George Saliba, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Julio Samso, for example, have written longer less mathematical studies of particular topics or regions – cosmology, planetary theory, or Andalusia. And Aydin Sayili has compiled an exhaustive history of the observatory in the Muslim world. The second category is the general history. The best of these, like the surveys of John David North, are useful for their context, situating the Islamic achieve- ment in the larger framework of astronomy worldwide, but they are necessar- ily brief. Muslim astronomers and mathematicians are given no more than a chapter or two – only the most illustrious mentioned at all. This book, on the other hand, offers a different perspective. It aims, in the first place, to be complete, covering the entire range of the nearly one thousand years of Islamic astronomy and astrology – from the first translations and com- positions in al-Ma’mun’s House of Wisdom in mid-eighth century Baghdad to the observatories and treatises of Raja Jai Singh in mid-eighteenth century Shahjahanabad (Old Delhi). It also aspires to be inclusive – covering not only the famous and illustrious (Nasir al-Din Tusi, al-Biruni, and Ulugh Beg) but the comparatively neglected as well – the Ottoman Taqi al-Din, the Mughal Jai Singh, and the many other scholars and scientists from Spain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and India who played important roles in the development of both the science viii Astronomy and astrology in the Islamic world and the pseudoscience. To situate the individual astronomers and astrologers in the context of their own societies is another theme, to see them in the social, cultural, religious, and scientific milieu from which they sprang. Finally, there is a good deal of comparison across regions and through time. How, for example, did the Alfonsine Tables of Cardoba (1270) compare to the Zij-i Ilkhani of Nasir al-Din Tusi (1272)? And what impact did the work of the earlier astronomers have on the observational programs, instruments, and theories of the latter? The second feature of this essay is the effort to place the Islamic millennium in the larger history of astronomy and astrology in Western Eurasia – from the Egyptians in the third millennium bce to Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ce. The first chapter traces the anteced- ents of the Muslim era – the Egyptians, Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Greeks, Indians, and Iranians. In order to pinpoint the Islamic achievement it is impor- tant to distinguish what the early Muslim scientists took from their forbearers.