THE HISTORY OF ARABIC SCIENCES: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Mohamed ABATTOUY Fez University Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin A first version of this bibliography was presented to the Group Frühe Neuzeit (Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin) in April 1996. I revised and expanded it during a stay of research in MPIWG during the summer 1996 and in Fez (november 1996). During the Workshop Experience and Knowledge Structures in Arabic and Latin Sciences, held in the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin on December 16-17, 1996, a limited number of copies of the present Bibliography was already distributed. Finally, I express my gratitude to Paul Weinig (Berlin) for valuable advice and for proofreading. PREFACE The principal sources for the history of Arabic and Islamic sciences are of course original works written mainly in Arabic between the VIIIth and the XVIth centuries, for the most part. A great part of this scientific material is still in original manuscripts, but many texts had been edited since the XIXth century, and in many cases translated to European languages. In the case of sciences as astronomy and mechanics, instruments and mechanical devices still extant and preserved in museums throughout the world bring important informations. A total of several thousands of mathematical, astronomical, physical, alchemical, biologico-medical manuscripts survived. They are written mainly in Arabic, but some are in Persian and Turkish. The main libraries in which they are preserved are those in the Arabic World: Cairo, Damascus, Tunis, Algiers, Rabat ... as well as in private collections. Beside this material in the Arabic countries, the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, the Biblioteca del Escorial near Madrid, the British Museum and the Bodleian Library in England, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Süleymaniye and Topkapi Libraries in Istanbul, the National Libraries in Iran, India, Pakistan... own invaluable treasures of manuscripts and scientific instruments. Some of the sources are now preserved in places as far apart as Hyderabad and Chicago. Newly-identified sources offer new informations and provide far more scope to the writing of the history of the sciences composed in Arabic, and promise to yield a far more accurate historical picture of the genesis and the development of the scientific disciplines in the world of Islam in the classical age than has been possible hitherto. Credit must be given to the labours of historians of science who have deployed their efforts since the last century to document the scientific production of the Arabic-Islamic civilization. But the work done in the recent period is of a wider scope, and affords more occasions to write and re-write the history of the sciences called Arabic. In the following General Bibliography, I present a selected list of works related to the different fields of the history of the sciences written and developed in the lands of Islam during the classical period (VIIIth-XVIth century). The history of Arabic science is a field of research in which hundreds of specialists deployed their efforts during the last 150 years; it is impossible to present here all of this work. Consequently, I don't have the pretention to be exhaustive. I selected only a little number of sciences (mathematics, astronomy, optics, mechanics, natural philosophy); I let aside all the rich production in medicine, chemistry, alchemy, theology or kalam... In particular I had to neglect all the important material published on the history of medicine in Islam, which deserves a special bibliography on its own. On the other hand, even within the sciences I choosed to cover, I outlined only the essential texts and I mentioned mainly the references to which I had access, directly or indirectly. I let aside a quite large variety of titles; I hope that I didn't neglect many of the important ones. Recent publications of original material and commentaries were somehow privileged, for the simple reason of access. It is more easy to know about books and articles published recently than to look for informations on texts published many decades earlier or on original manuscripts located in various libraries throughout the world. Several titles listed hereafter are mentioned only for their historical value, as indications of some aspects of past studies. The major part of the bibliographical references shall constitute a representative selection of the present state of the research. I mentioned the publications in all languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Russian), published in Arabic and Islamic countries or in Europe and North America. My commentaries tend to draw supplementary light on the references and to recommend some titles. The following bibliography is composed of 502 references. The whole is divided in seven sections: 1. Manuscripts: My aim in presenting this list of Arabic scientific primary sources is to provide, firstly, a concrete illustration of the value of the material which constitutes the scientific heritage in Arabic, and to show how it is disseminated throughout the world, secondly. For a more accurate picture on the original manuscripts, it is recommended to consult the specialized bio-bibliographical sources, such as Ibn al-Nadim, Brockelmann, Hajji Khalifa, King and others. 2. The bio-bibliographical sources constitute the subject of the second section, devoted to general works on systematics and the reference tools for the beginner as well as for the historian; these sources are diverse in form as well as in range: catalogues of libraries, lists of manuscripts and printed books, Arabic classical writings and chronicles on bio-bibliography. Sections 3-6 are devoted respectively to: 3. Mathematics and Optics, 4. Astronomy, 5. Mechanics and Engineering, 6. Natural philosophy (essentially on the Aristotelian tradition developed in the Oriental as well as in Occidental lands of Islam, in Baghdad, Damascus, Samarqand, Bukharra, Cordoba, Murrakush and Fez). 7. Finally, Section 7 concludes this bibliography by a list of references on the question of the transmission of scientific knowledge from Greek to Arabic and from Arabic to Latin, plus other miscellaneous references on different topics (natural sciences, classification of the sciences...) 2 - I - SELECTED MANUSCRIPTS 1. Al-Battiwi, Abu-Miqrac, Commentary on al-Marghithi's astronomical poem: MS Cairo, Egyptian National Library DM 415, etc. See Colin & Renaud (1933). 2. Al-Jaddari, Poem on folk astronomy: MSS Oxford, Bodleian Library 411, 2; Cairo, Egyptian National Library, K 4311, etc. 3. Al-Khalili, Universal auxiliary tables: MSS Oxford, Bodleian Library Add. 9599, 31; Maghribi copy. 4. Al-Mahani, Risala fi l-mushkil min amri al-nisba [Treatise on what is problematic in the question of proportionality] by one of the first Arabic commentators on Euclid's Elements (Xth century): MS Istanbul, Carullah 1502. 5. Al-Maghribi, Muhyi al-Din (XIIIth century), Tahrir of Euclid's Elements: MS Oxford, Bodleian Library or. 448 (copy dated 1260). 6. Al-Maghribi, ibn abi al-Shukr, Zij for Damascus: MS Escorial ar. 932. 7. Al-Maghribi, ibn abi al-Shukr, Zij:: MSS Escorial 9090, 1; Dublin Chester Beatty 4087, etc. 8. Al-Mardini, Muhammad Sibt al-Mardini, Risala fi al-camal bi-l-rubc al-mujayyab [Treatise on the work with the sine quadrant]: Copy in my private collection, ff. 1v-9r. 9. Al-Mardini, al-Risala al-fathiyya bi-al-acmal al-jaybiyya [Treatise of the sine works]: MS Rabat D 2755, 156 folios. 10. Al-Qalsadi, Sharh dhawat al-asma'e [On irrational quantities]: Copy in my private collection; 9 pages of Maghribi handwriting of one of the algebraic treatises of this Andalusian-Tunisian mathematician. 11. Al-Qustantini, Zij: MS Escorial 909, 2. 12. Al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din, al Tadhkira fi cilm al-hay'a [Memoir on Astronomy]: MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale ar. 2509. 13. Al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din, Tahrir Uqlidis [Redaction of Euclid's Elements]: MS Istanbul, Aya Sofya Ahmet III 3452. 14. Al-cUrdi, Mu'ayyad al-Din, Risala fi kayfiyyat al-arsad wa-ma yuhtaju ila cilmihi wa- camalihi min al-turuq al-mu'addiya ila macrifati cawdat al-kawakib... [Treatise on the means of observations and what is needed to be known and practiced in the knowledge of the return/motion of planets]: MS Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 2544. 15. Anonymous, al-Iqtisar fi basti al-kusur [On fractions]: Copy in my private collection. 16. Anonymous, recension of Zij of ibn al-Shatir: MS Cairo, Egyptian National Library DM 533. 17. Anonymous, Kitab al-murasala fi al-jabr wa al-muqabala [Book of algebra]: MS Oxford, Bodleian Library Hunt 214. 18. Anonymous, Arabic translation of the Elements of Euclid: MS Saint Petersburg, Akademia Nauka C 2145. 19. [Euclid], Kitab al-Usul li Uqlidis [Arabic translations of Euclid's Elements]: MSS Rabat, Hassaniya, 1101; Hassaniya 53; Oxford, Bodleian Thurston 11; Escorial 907; etc. (complete and incomplete versions, e.g. Hassaniya-Rabat 1101 contains the complete text of the 13 books of the Elements, while we find in Hassaniya 53 only the first five books). 20. Hajji Khalifa, Kashf al-zunun can asami al-kutub wa al-funun [Removing the doubts concerning the names of the books and the arts; famous bio-bibliographical work]: MSS Subayhiya Library, Sala, Morocco, 7/223; 1/517. 21. Husayn Qus'a, recension of Zij of Ulugh Beg: MS Cairo DM 814, etc. 3 22. Ibn Aflah, Jabir, Islah al-Majisti [Reform of the Almagest]: MS Escorial, Arabe 910 copy with the title: Kitab al-Hay'a li Abi Muhammad ibn Aflah al-Ishbili, wa huwa Talkhis Kitab al-Majisti; ff. 1-120. Still unpublished Andalusian work in theoretical astronomy. 23. Ibn al-Banna, Fi al-taksir [On fractions]: MS Tunis, National Library 9002. 24. Ibn al-Banna, Minhaj al-talib li-tacdil al-kawakib [Guide of the researcher for the equation of planets]: MSS Algiers, National Library, 1454; El Escorial, 904.