DOCSLIB.ORG

Açiliş Konuşmalari

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Açiliş Konuşmalari T.C. HARRAN ÜNĠVERSĠTESĠ ĠLAHĠYAT FAKÜLTESĠ I. ULUSLARARASI KATILIMLI BĠLĠM DĠN VE FELSEFE TARĠHĠNDE HARRAN OKULU SEMPOZYUMU 28-30 Nisan 2006 I. CĠLT Editör Prof. Dr. Ali BAKKAL ġANLIURFA 2006 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu 369 THE GREAT MUSLIM SCIENTIST THABIT IBN QURRA Dr Qasim Taa'mneh* bu'l Hasan Thabit ibn Qurra' Ibn Marwan al-Sabi al-Harrani was an Arab A astronomer and mathematician, who was known as Thebit in Latin. Thabit was born in 836 AD.at Harran (antique Carrhae), Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Eupharates; site of several ancient civilizations) and died in Baghdad in 901 AD. Harran was an important center of astronomy and mathematics which was used to calculate the movement of planets, the prediction of eclipses and other astronomical events. It should not surprise us that such knowledge had survived a thousand years later in that city perhaps because Harranians refused to convert to Christianity and the planetary worship was still part of their religion which made such knowledge necessary. Thabit belonged to the sect of the Sabians,a name mentioned in Qoran which they adopted to join the ranks of the tolerated people. At times they have been confused with the Sabians (Mandanians who have been classified by scholars as Gnostic) living in southern Mesopotamia. This Sect lived in the vicinity of the main center of the Caliphate until 1258 AD, when the Mongols destroyed their last shrine. During Islamic rule, they were a protected minority, and around the time of al-Mutawakkil's reign their town became a center for philosophical, esoteric and medical learning. They were joined by the descendants of pagan Greek scholars who, having been persecuted in Europe, settled in lands that became part of the Abbasid caliphate. The Muslims were greatly interested in Greek culture and science, collecting and translating many ancient Greek works in the fields of philosophy and mathematics. The Sect, with strong Greek connections, had in earlier times adopted Greek culture, and it was common for members to speak Greek in addition to Arabic. There was another language spoken in southeastern Turkey, namely Syriac, which was based on the East Aramaic dialect of Odessa (now Sanli Urfa in Turkey). This language was Thabit ibn Qurra's native language, but he was fluent in both Greek and Arabic. Some resources mentioned that Thabit was a money changer as a young man. * Dr., Yarmouk University, Department of Planning and Development, Irbed, Jordan 370 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu This is quite possible but some historians do not agree; however, he inherited a large family fortune and must have come from a family of high standing in the community. The great Muslim mathematician Mohammed ibn Musa ibn Shaker, who visited Harran, impressed by Thabit's knowledge of languages, and realizing his potential for a scientific career, choose him to join the scientific group at Baghdad that was being patronized by the Abbasid Caliphs. In Baghdad Thabit received mathematical training and also medical training which was common for scholars of that time. In this way Thabit was able to contribute in several branches of science, notably mathematics, astronomy and mechanics, in addition to translating a huge number of works from Greek to Arabic. He was introduced to the Caliph Al-Ma'amun, and attained high favor at court. Thabit returned to Harran but his liberal philosophies led to a religious court appearance when he had to recant his 'heresies'. To escape further persecution he left Harran and returned to Baghdad, the most intellectually vibrant, and probably the largest city at that time, where he was appointed court astronomer. He occupied himself with mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, medicine and philosophy; he translated from Greek Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy. Thabit had revised translation of Euclid Elements of Hunayn ibn Ishaq and also had rewritten Hunayn's translation of Ptolemy's Almagest( the great book of an astronomical treatise) and translated Ptolemy's Geography, which later became very well-known. Thabit's translation of a work by Archimedes which gave a construction of a regular heptagon(a polygon with seven sides and seven angles. In regular heptagon all sides and all angles are equal) was discovered in the 20th century, the original having been lost. Thabit's major contribution lies in mathematics and astronomy. He was pioneer in extending the concept of traditional geometry to geometrical algebra and proposed several theories that led to the development of non-Euclidean geometry, spherical trigonometry, integral calculus and real numbers. He criticised a number of theorems of Euclid's elements and proposed important improvements. He applied arithmetical terminology to geometrical quantities, and studied several aspects of conic sections, notably those of parabola and ellipse. A number of his computations aimed at determining the surfaces and volumes of different types of bodies and constitute, in fact, the processes of integral calculus, as developed later. Another important aspect of Thabit`s work was his book on the composition of ratios; in this Thabit deals with arithmetical operations applied to ratios of geometrical quantities . The Greeks had dealt with geometric quantities but had not thought of them in the same way as numbers to which the usual rules of arithmetic could be applied . Thabit started a trend which led eventually to the generalization of the number concept by introducing arithmetical operations on quantities previously regarded as geometric and non-numerical. He also discussed parabolas , angle trisection and magic squares. Thabit`s work on probolas and paraboliods is of particular importance since it is one of the steps taken towards the discovery of the I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu 371 integral calculus . Though he was familiar with Archimedes` results on the quadrature of the parabola , he did not have either of Archimedes` two treatises on the topic . Perhaps most impressive is his contribution to amicable numbers. Re-call , two numbers are called amicable if each number is the sum of the set of proper divisors of the other. Thabit discovered a beautiful rule for finding amicable numbers; he also criticized several theorems of Euclid`s elements and proposed important improvements. In astronomy Thabit was one of the early reformers of Ptolemaic views . He added the ninth sphere to Ptolemic astronomy and played a very important role in the establishment of astronomy as an exact science ( methods , topics and program) which developed along three lines. The theorization of the relation between observation and theory , the 'mathematisation' of astronomy , and the focus on the conflicting relationship between 'mathematical' astronomy and 'physical' astronomy Thabit analyzed several problems on the movements of sun and moon and wrote treatises on sundials(measures time by the position of the sun) . According to Copernicus Thabit determined the length of the sidereal year 365 days , 6 hours , 9 minutes and 12 seconds ( an error of 2seconds ) Copernicus based his claim on the latin text attributed to Thabit . In the fields of mechanics and physics he may be recognized as the establisher of statics . His book Kitab fi`l-qarastun ( The book on the beam balance ) on mechanics was of great importance . It was translated into Latin by Gherard of Cremona and became a popular work on mechanics. In this work Thabit proved the principle of equilibrium of levers and demonstrated that two equal loads , balancing a third , can be replaced by their sum placed at a point halfway between the two without destroying the equilibrium . After giving a generalisation Thabit then considers the case of equally distributed continuous loads and finds the conditions for the equilibrium of a heavy beam . Thabit left his legacy with his son ( Sinan), grandson (Ibrahim) and great grandson (Albattini) who also contributed substantially to our knowledge of geometry, astronomy and medicine. As Thabit himself Sinan was trained in medicine, a topic which his father had studied in Baghdad; he achieved his first major position in which he directed the hospitals and all medical activities in Baghdad. By 931 AD he had gained such authority that all doctors had to be tested by him before being allowed to practise. He awarded eight hundred certificates to medical doctors. Sinan also instituted traveling hospitals and inspected prisons to assure adequate health care. Ibrahim ibn Sinan was a son of Sinan ibn Thabit and a grandson of Thabit ibn Qurra. He had studied geometry in particular tangents to circles, and also studied the apparent motion of the Sun and the geometry of shadows. He was one of the most important mathematicians in the medieval Islamic world. Perhaps his early death in the age of thirty eight robbed him of the chance to make a contribution 372 I. Uluslararası Katılımlı Bilim, Din ve Felsefe Tarihinde Harran Okulu Sempozyumu even more important than that of his famous grandfather. Ibrahim's most important work was on the quadrature of the parabola where he introduced a method of integration more general than that of Archimedes. His grandfather Thabit ibn Qurra had started to view integration in a different way to Archimedes but Ibrahim realised that al-Mahani had made improvements on what his father had achieved. To Ibrahim it was unacceptable that al-Mahani's study should remain more advanced than his grandfather's and tried to do something to excel him. Ibrahim work on the motions of the sun is an astronomical work which discusses the motion of the solar apogee and also provides a critical analysis of the observations underlying Ptolemy's solar theory. The work on the astrolabe includes work on map projections, Ibrahim proves in this work that the stereographic projection maps circles which do not pass through the pole of projection on circles.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mathematicians
    MATHEMATICIANS [MATHEMATICIANS] Authors: Oliver Knill: 2000 Literature: Started from a list of names with birthdates grabbed from mactutor in 2000. Abbe [Abbe] Abbe Ernst (1840-1909) Abel [Abel] Abel Niels Henrik (1802-1829) Norwegian mathematician. Significant contributions to algebra and anal- ysis, in particular the study of groups and series. Famous for proving the insolubility of the quintic equation at the age of 19. AbrahamMax [AbrahamMax] Abraham Max (1875-1922) Ackermann [Ackermann] Ackermann Wilhelm (1896-1962) AdamsFrank [AdamsFrank] Adams J Frank (1930-1989) Adams [Adams] Adams John Couch (1819-1892) Adelard [Adelard] Adelard of Bath (1075-1160) Adler [Adler] Adler August (1863-1923) Adrain [Adrain] Adrain Robert (1775-1843) Aepinus [Aepinus] Aepinus Franz (1724-1802) Agnesi [Agnesi] Agnesi Maria (1718-1799) Ahlfors [Ahlfors] Ahlfors Lars (1907-1996) Finnish mathematician working in complex analysis, was also professor at Harvard from 1946, retiring in 1977. Ahlfors won both the Fields medal in 1936 and the Wolf prize in 1981. Ahmes [Ahmes] Ahmes (1680BC-1620BC) Aida [Aida] Aida Yasuaki (1747-1817) Aiken [Aiken] Aiken Howard (1900-1973) Airy [Airy] Airy George (1801-1892) Aitken [Aitken] Aitken Alec (1895-1967) Ajima [Ajima] Ajima Naonobu (1732-1798) Akhiezer [Akhiezer] Akhiezer Naum Ilich (1901-1980) Albanese [Albanese] Albanese Giacomo (1890-1948) Albert [Albert] Albert of Saxony (1316-1390) AlbertAbraham [AlbertAbraham] Albert A Adrian (1905-1972) Alberti [Alberti] Alberti Leone (1404-1472) Albertus [Albertus] Albertus Magnus
    [Show full text]
  • The Fifteenth-Seventeenth Century Transformation of Abbacus Algebra
    The fifteenth-seventeenth century transformation of abbacus algebra Perhaps – though not thought of by Edgar Zilsel and Joseph Needham – the best illustration of the ‘Zilsel-Needham thesis’ Summer School on the History of Algebra Institute for the History of the Natural Sciences Chinese Academy of Science 1–2 September 2011 Jens Høyrup Roskilde University Section for Philosophy and Science Studies http://www.akira.ruc.dk/~jensh PREPRINT 17 September 2011 Erik Stinus in memoriam Abstract In 1942, Edgar Zilsel proposed that the sixteenth–seventeenth-century emergence of Modern science was produced neither by the university tradition, nor by the Humanist current of Renaissance culture, nor by craftsmen or other practitioners, but through an interaction between all three groups in which all were indispensable for the outcome. He only included mathematics via its relation to the “quantitative spirit”. The present study tries to apply Zilsel’s perspective to the emergence of the Modern algebra of Viète and Descartes (etc.), by tracing the reception of algebra within the Latin-Universitarian tradition, the Italian abbacus tradition, and Humanism, and the exchanges between them, from the twelfth through the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Edgar Zilsel and the Zilsel-Thesis .............................. 1 The three acting groups ...................................... 3 Latin twelfth- to thirteenth-century reception ..................... 3 The fourteenth century – early abbacus algebra, and first interaction . 10 The fifteenth century
    [Show full text]
  • Adam and Seth in Arabic Medieval Literature: The
    ARAM, 22 (2010) 509-547. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.22.0.2131052 ADAM AND SETH IN ARABIC MEDIEVAL LITERATURE: THE MANDAEAN CONNECTIONS IN AL-MUBASHSHIR IBN FATIK’S CHOICEST MAXIMS (11TH C.) AND SHAMS AL-DIN AL-SHAHRAZURI AL-ISHRAQI’S HISTORY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS (13TH C.)1 Dr. EMILY COTTRELL (Leiden University) Abstract In the middle of the thirteenth century, Shams al-Din al-Shahrazuri al-Ishraqi (d. between 1287 and 1304) wrote an Arabic history of philosophy entitled Nuzhat al-Arwah wa Raw∂at al-AfraÌ. Using some older materials (mainly Ibn Nadim; the ∑iwan al-Ìikma, and al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik), he considers the ‘Modern philosophers’ (ninth-thirteenth c.) to be the heirs of the Ancients, and collects for his demonstration the stories of the ancient sages and scientists, from Adam to Proclus as well as the biographical and bibliographical details of some ninety modern philosophers. Two interesting chapters on Adam and Seth have not been studied until this day, though they give some rare – if cursory – historical information on the Mandaeans, as was available to al-Shahrazuri al-Ishraqi in the thirteenth century. We will discuss the peculiar historiography adopted by Shahrazuri, and show the complexity of a source he used, namely al-Mubashshir ibn Fatik’s chapter on Seth, which betray genuine Mandaean elements. The Near and Middle East were the cradle of a number of legends in which Adam and Seth figure. They are presented as forefathers, prophets, spiritual beings or hypostases emanating from higher beings or created by their will. In this world of multi-millenary literacy, the transmission of texts often defied any geographical boundaries.
    [Show full text]
  • Ibrāhīm Ibn Sinān Ibn Thābit Ibn Qurra
    From: Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, p. 574 Courtesy of http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_697 Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra Glen Van Brummelen Born Baghdad, (Iraq), 908/909 Died Baghdad, (Iraq), 946 Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān was a creative scientist who, despite his short life, made numerous important contributions to both mathematics and astronomy. He was born to an illustrious scientific family. As his name suggests his grandfather was the renowned Thābit ibn Qurra; his father Sinān ibn Thābit was also an important mathematician and physician. Ibn Sinān was productive from an early age; according to his autobiography, he began his research at 15 and had written his first work (on shadow instruments) by 16 or 17. We have his own word that he intended to return to Baghdad to make observations to test his astronomical theories. He did return, but it is unknown whether he made his observations. Ibn Sinān died suffering from a swollen liver. Ibn Sinān's mathematical works contain a number of powerful and novel investigations. These include a treatise on how to draw conic sections, useful for the construction of sundials; an elegant and original proof of the theorem that the area of a parabolic segment is 4/3 the inscribed triangle (Archimedes' work on the parabola was not available to the Arabs); a work on tangent circles; and one of the most important Islamic studies on the meaning and use of the ancient Greek technique of analysis and synthesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Al-Biruni: a Great Muslim Scientist, Philosopher and Historian (973 – 1050 Ad)
    Al-Biruni: A Great Muslim Scientist, Philosopher and Historian (973 – 1050 Ad) Riaz Ahmad Abu Raihan Muhammad bin Ahmad, Al-Biruni was born in the suburb of Kath, capital of Khwarizmi (the region of the Amu Darya delta) Kingdom, in the territory of modern Khiva, on 4 September 973 AD.1 He learnt astronomy and mathematics from his teacher Abu Nasr Mansur, a member of the family then ruling at Kath. Al-Biruni made several observations with a meridian ring at Kath in his youth. In 995 Jurjani ruler attacked Kath and drove Al-Biruni into exile in Ray in Iran where he remained for some time and exchanged his observations with Al- Khujandi, famous astronomer which he later discussed in his work Tahdid. In 997 Al-Biruni returned to Kath, where he observed a lunar eclipse that Abu al-Wafa observed in Baghdad, on the basis of which he observed time difference between Kath and Baghdad. In the next few years he visited the Samanid court at Bukhara and Ispahan of Gilan and collected a lot of information for his research work. In 1004 he was back with Jurjania ruler and served as a chief diplomat and a spokesman of the court of Khwarism. But in Spring and Summer of 1017 when Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna conquered Khiva he brought Al-Biruni, along with a host of other scholars and philosophers, to Ghazna. Al-Biruni was then sent to the region near Kabul where he established his observatory.2 Later he was deputed to the study of religion and people of Kabul, Peshawar, and Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and other areas of Pakistan and India under the protection of an army regiment.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Arabic Sciences: a Selected Bibliography
    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..
    [Show full text]
  • The Persian-Toledan Astronomical Connection and the European Renaissance
    Academia Europaea 19th Annual Conference in cooperation with: Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, Ministerio de Cultura (Spain) “The Dialogue of Three Cultures and our European Heritage” (Toledo Crucible of the Culture and the Dawn of the Renaissance) 2 - 5 September 2007, Toledo, Spain Chair, Organizing Committee: Prof. Manuel G. Velarde The Persian-Toledan Astronomical Connection and the European Renaissance M. Heydari-Malayeri Paris Observatory Summary This paper aims at presenting a brief overview of astronomical exchanges between the Eastern and Western parts of the Islamic world from the 8th to 14th century. These cultural interactions were in fact vaster involving Persian, Indian, Greek, and Chinese traditions. I will particularly focus on some interesting relations between the Persian astronomical heritage and the Andalusian (Spanish) achievements in that period. After a brief introduction dealing mainly with a couple of terminological remarks, I will present a glimpse of the historical context in which Muslim science developed. In Section 3, the origins of Muslim astronomy will be briefly examined. Section 4 will be concerned with Khwârizmi, the Persian astronomer/mathematician who wrote the first major astronomical work in the Muslim world. His influence on later Andalusian astronomy will be looked into in Section 5. Andalusian astronomy flourished in the 11th century, as will be studied in Section 6. Among its major achievements were the Toledan Tables and the Alfonsine Tables, which will be presented in Section 7. The Tables had a major position in European astronomy until the advent of Copernicus in the 16th century. Since Ptolemy’s models were not satisfactory, Muslim astronomers tried to improve them, as we will see in Section 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Bīrūnī's Telescopic-Shape Instrument for Observing the Lunar
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert Bīrūnī’s Telescopic-Shape Instrument for Observing the Lunar Crescent S. Mohammad Mozaffari and Georg Zotti Abstract:This paper deals with an optical aid named barbakh that Abū al-Ray¬ān al- Bīrūnī (973–1048 AD) proposes for facilitating the observation of the lunar crescent in his al-Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī VIII.14. The device consists of a long tube mounted on a shaft erected at the centre of the Indian circle, and can rotate around itself and also move in the vertical plane. The main function of this sighting tube is to provide an observer with a darkened environment in order to strengthen his eyesight and give him more focus for finding the narrow crescent near the western horizon about the beginning of a lunar month. We first briefly review the history of altitude-azimuthal observational instruments, and then present a translation of Bīrūnī’s account, visualize the instrument in question by a 3D virtual reconstruction, and comment upon its structure and applicability. Keywords: Astronomical Instrumentation, Medieval Islamic Astronomy, Bīrūnī, Al- Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī, Barbakh, Indian Circle Introduction: Altitude-Azimuthal Instruments in Islamic Medieval Astronomy. Altitude-azimuthal instruments either are used to measure the horizontal coordinates of a celestial object or to make use of these coordinates to sight a heavenly body. They Suhayl 14 (2015), pp. 167-188 168 S. Mohammad Mozaffari and Georg Zotti belong to the “empirical” type of astronomical instruments.1 None of the classical instruments mentioned in Ptolemy’s Almagest have the simultaneous measurement of both altitude and azimuth of a heavenly object as their main function.2 One of the earliest examples of altitude-azimuthal instruments is described by Abū al-Ray¬ān al- Bīrūnī for the observation of the lunar crescent near the western horizon (the horizontal coordinates are deployed in it to sight the lunar crescent).
    [Show full text]
  • Spherical Trigonometry in the Astronomy of the Medieval Ke­ Rala School
    SPHERICAL TRIGONOMETRY IN THE ASTRONOMY OF THE MEDIEVAL KE­ RALA SCHOOL KIM PLOFKER Brown University Although the methods of plane trigonometry became the cornerstone of classical Indian math­ ematical astronomy, the corresponding techniques for exact solution of triangles on the sphere's surface seem never to have been independently developed within this tradition. Numerous rules nevertheless appear in Sanskrit texts for finding the great-circle arcs representing various astro­ nomical quantities; these were presumably derived not by spherics per se but from plane triangles inside the sphere or from analemmatic projections, and were supplemented by approximate formu­ las assuming small spherical triangles to be plane. The activity of the school of Madhava (originating in the late fourteenth century in Kerala in South India) in devising, elaborating, and arranging such rules, as well as in refining formulas or interpretations of them that depend upon approximations, has received a good deal of notice. (See, e.g., R.C. Gupta, "Solution of the Astronomical Triangle as Found in the Tantra-Samgraha (A.D. 1500)", Indian Journal of History of Science, vol.9,no.l,1974, 86-99; "Madhava's Rule for Finding Angle between the Ecliptic and the Horizon and Aryabhata's Knowledge of It." in History of Oriental Astronomy, G.Swarup et al., eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 197-202.) This paper presents another such rule from the Tantrasangraha (TS; ed. K.V.Sarma, Hoshiarpur: VVBIS&IS, 1977) of Madhava's student's son's student, Nllkantha's Somayajin, and examines it in comparison with a similar rule from Islamic spherical astronomy.
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking the Circle: the Emergence of Archimedean Mechanics in the Late Renaissance
    Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. (2008) 62:301–346 DOI 10.1007/s00407-007-0012-8 Breaking the circle: the emergence of Archimedean mechanics in the late Renaissance Paolo Palmieri Received: 10 May 2007 / Published online: 10 August 2007 © Springer-Verlag 2007 Contents 1 Introduction: machines and equilibrium ................... 301 2 The a priori principles of scientia de ponderibus .............. 307 3 Center of gravity lost and found ....................... 314 4 An exploded drawing of mechanical reductionism ............. 321 5 Intermezzo: debunking the circle ...................... 325 6 The emergence of Archimedean mechanics ................. 329 7 Conclusion: surface phenomena, not deep roots ............... 336 Appendix. The workshop ............................. 337 1 Introduction: machines and equilibrium Imagine a weightless, rectilinear beam with two equal but punctiform weights fixed at its ends. The beam is free to rotate around its middle point, i.e., the fulcrum. I call this abstract machine a balance of equal arms (or balance, for brevity). If a balance is horizontal it will remain in equilibrium (as long as no external disturbances affect its state). What happens if a balance is inclined? Will it return to the horizontal position, or remain in equilibrium, like a horizontal balance? What happens if one weight is removed further from the fulcrum? Does a bent balance (i.e., a two-beam machine with Communicated by N. Swerdlow. P. Palmieri (B) Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA e-mail: [email protected] 123 302 P. Palmieri two weightless arms rigidly joined on the fulcrum, one horizontal and one inclined, and with two equal punctiform weights fixed at their ends) behave like a balance of equal arms? Some late-medieval and Renaissance theorists of the so-called science of weights [scientia de ponderibus], such as Jordanus de Nemore (thirteenth century) and Niccolò Tartaglia (1500–1557), sought an a priori answer to these questions.
    [Show full text]
  • The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for Al-Maʾmūn by Al-Ḥasan Ibn Quraysh: a Text Fragment in Ibn Al-Ṣalāḥ’S Critique on Al-Fārābī’S Commentary
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2020 The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for al-Maʾmūn by al-Ḥasan ibn Quraysh: A Text Fragment in Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Critique on al-Fārābī’s Commentary Thomann, Johannes DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120176 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-190243 Book Section Accepted Version Originally published at: Thomann, Johannes (2020). The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for al-Maʾmūn by al-Ḥasan ibn Quraysh: A Text Fragment in Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Critique on al-Fārābī’s Commentary. In: Juste, David; van Dalen, Benno; Hasse, Dag; Burnett, Charles. Ptolemy’s Science of the Stars in the Middle Ages. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 117-138. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.PALS-EB.5.120176 The Oldest Translation of the Almagest Made for al-Maʾmūn by al-Ḥasan ibn Quraysh: A Text Fragment in Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Critique on al-Fārābī’s Commentary Johannes Thomann University of Zurich Institute of Asian and Oriental Research [email protected] 1. Life and times of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ (d. 1154 ce) The first half of the twelfth century was a pivotal time in Western Europe. In that period translation activities from Arabic into Latin became a common enterprise on a large scale in recently conquered territories, of which the centres were Toledo, Palermo and Antioch. This is a well known part of what was called the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.1 Less known is the situation in the Islamic World during the same period.
    [Show full text]
  • Thabit Ibn Qurra : History and the Influence to Detemine the Time of Praying Fardhu
    PROC. INTERNAT. CONF. SCI. ENGIN. ISSN 1504607797 Volume 4, February 2021 E-ISSN 1505707533 Page 255-258 Thabit Ibn Qurra : History and The Influence to Detemine The Time of Praying Fardhu Muhamad Rizky Febriawan1, Saka Aji Pangestu2 1 Mathematics Department, 2 Mathematics Education Department, Faculty Mathematics and Natural Science, Yogyakarta State University. Jl. Colombo No. 1 Caturtunggal,, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia. Tel. (0274)565411 Email: [email protected] Abstract. The application of mathematical history for overcoming with life’s problems are reflection to build more advanced civilizations than previous civilizations, because by studying history a nation can do an evaluation of the past mistakes. In addition, mathematical history gives wide basic understanding against the mathematical consepts for giving a solution against the problems. Not only about the ideal world held by the Platonist. As example, in the golden age of islam, the scientist at that moment developed knowledge especially mathematics with the principal to solve the problems with in daily life. The one of them is Thabit ibn qurra. Thabit ibn qurra used the principal of geometry to decide motion of the sun. The method used was by means of a shadow that produced by sunlight. So, the muslim can pray fardhu on time. This research is meant to reconstruct the method was used by Thabit ibn qurrah, so that the mathematics especially, the topic of geometry is no longer a matter that cannot be expressed in real or real terms. So that, the young generations, especially muslim will realize that learn the mathematics is invaluable in this life.
    [Show full text]