The Islamic Side of Σàμψ Πουχáρησ F. Jamil Ragep I. Introduction in 1295, a Certain Gregory Ch
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NEW LIGHT ON SHAMS: THE ISLAMIC SIDE OF ΣÀμψ ΠουχÁρηΣ F. Jamil Ragep I. Introduction In 1295, a certain Gregory Chioniades1 of Constantinople traveled to the kingdom of Trebizond, ruled at that time by its emperor John II Komnenos (reigned 1280–1297), from where he would embark upon a momentous journey to the land of the Persians. Chioniades seems to have had a way with rulers, for having found favor with Komnenos, he then traveled to Persia, most likely just after the accession to the Ilkhan throne by Ghazan Khan, who had recently converted to Islam. A generation later, George Chrysococces (fl. 1350), who had also traveled to Trebizond in hopes of learning the astronomy of the Persians, was told the following story by his teacher Manuel: . in a short while he [i.e. Chioniades] was taught by the Persians, having both consorted with the King, and met with consideration from him. Then he desired to study astronomical matters, but found that they were not taught. For it was the rule with the Persians that all subjects were available to those who wished to study, except astronomy, which was for Persians only. He searched for the cause, which was that a certain ancient opinion prevailed among them, concerning the mathematical sciences, namely, that their king will be overthrown by the Romans, after consulting the practice of astronomy, whose foundation would first be taken from the Persians. He was at a loss as to how he might come to share this wonderful thing. In spite of being wearied, and having much served the Persian king, he had scarcely achieved his objective; when, by Royal command, the teachers were gathered. Soon Chioniades shone in Persia, and was thought worthy of the 1 An excellent summary of what is known of the life of Chioniades can be found in Joseph Gerard Leichter, “The Zīj as-Sanjarī of Gregory Chioniades: Text, Translation and Greek to Arabic Glossary” (Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Brown University, 2004), 2–6. Cf. L.G. Westerink, “La profession de foi de Gregoire Chioniades,” Revue des études byzan- tines 38 (1980): 233–245; and David E. Pingree, “Chioniades, Gregory,” in Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. Alexander P. Kazhdan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 422– 423. See also Maria Mavroudi, “Exchanges with Arabic Writers during the Late Byzantine Period,” in Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557): Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture, ed. Sarah Brooks (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), 62–75. 232 f. jamil ragep King’s honor. Having gathered many treasures, and organized many subor- dinates, he again reached Trebizond, with his many books on the subject of astronomy. He translated these by his own lights, making a noteworthy effort. There are in fact other books of the Persian Syntaxis which he trans- lated, those having certain examples with the years systematically at the beginning. However, he handed on the Syntaxis alone, the best and most accurate of all, as our teacher said, who appeared to be telling the truth. He translated separately the commentary, which was taken from the Persians by word of mouth alone. In this way, the Syntaxis, called the Handy, was produced.2 From this account, we can gather that the Persian Syntaxis of Chrysococces is somehow based on the work of Chioniades and that the latter went to some city in Persia to obtain the necessary learning and materials. From letters of Chioniades, we know that the city in question was the Mongol capital, Tabriz.3 Furthermore, in the introduction to his translation of a work that Pingree tells us is related to the Zīj al-ʿAlāʾī of ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Fahhād (fl. 1176), we learn that Chioniades studied with a certain Shams Bukharos,4 about whom the author of a recent article states: “There is nothing known of him in Persian or Arabic sources, nor is there any known reference to him outside the Greek work just mentioned.”5 The purpose of this paper is to try to uncover some information about this elusive Shams, who undertook to teach the Greek Chioniades astronomy and provide him with valuable texts, despite whatever reservations Shams and others in Tabriz may have had. But first we will need to explore the intellectual context of Tabriz in which this transmission took place and the sources of some of the material Chioniades took back with him to Byzantium. II. The Tabriz Context What was the state of astronomy in and around Tabriz at the end of the thirteenth century? Tabriz was the inheritor of the Marāgha scientific tra- dition and observatory, which had been established in Azerbaijan after 2 Raymond Mercier, “The Greek ‘Persian Syntaxis’ and the Zīj-i Īlkhānī,” Archives inter- nationales d’histoire des sciences 34 (1984): 35–36; reproduced in Leichter, “Zīj as-Sanjarī,” 3. 3 Leichter, “Zīj as-Sanjarī,” 3. 4 David Pingree, The Astronomical Works of Gregory Chioniades, vol. 1: The Zīj al-ʿAlāʾī (Amsterdam: J.C. Grieben, 1985), 36–37. 5 Raymond Mercier, “Shams al-Dīn al-Bukhārī,” in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, eds. Thomas Hockey et al. (New York: Springer, 2007), 1047..