Astronomy of Islamic Times for the Twenty-first Century PDF Download

Author: Mohammad Ilyas
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Author: George Saliba
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814738893
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A History of Arabic Astronomy is a comprehensive survey of Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century based on recent manuscript discoveries. George Saliba argues that the medieval period, often called a period of decline in Islamic intellectual history, was scientifically speaking, a very productive period in which astronomical theories of the highest order were produced. Based on the most recent manuscript discoveries, this book broadly surveys developments in Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth. Taken together, the primary texts and essays assembled in this book reverse traditional beliefs about the rise and fall of Arabic science, demonstrating how the traditional “age of decline” in Arabic science was indeed a “Golden Age” as far as astronomy was concerned. Some of the techniques and mathematical theorems developed during this period were identical to those which were employed by Copernicus in developing his own non-Ptolemaic astronomy. Significantly, this volume will shed much-needed light on the conditions under which such theories were developed in medieval Islam. It clearly demonstrates the distinction that was drawn between astronomical activities and astrological ones, and reveals, contrary to common perceptions about medieval Islam, the accommodation that was obviously reached between religion and astronomy, and the degree to which astronomical planetary theories were supported, and at times even financed, by the religious community itself. This in stark contrast to the systematic attacks leveled by the same religious community against astrology. To students of European intellectual history, the book reveals the technical relationship between the astronomy of the Arabs and that of Copernicus. Saliba’s definitive work will be of particular interest to historians of Arabic science as well as to historians of medieval and Renaissance European science.

Author: Stephen P. Blake
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748649115
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
It was the astronomers and mathematicians of the Islamic world who provided the theories and concepts that paved the way from the geocentric theories of Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD to the heliocentric breakthroughs of Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler in the 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 nontechnical overview 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.

Author: Benno van Dalen
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000944190
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
This volume comprises nine articles on Islamic astronomy published since 1989 by Benno van Dalen. Van Dalen was the first historian of Islamic astronomy who made full use of the new possibilities of computers in the early 1990s. He implemented various statistical and numerical methods that can be used to determine the mathematical properties of medieval astronomical tables, and utilized these to obtain entirely new, until then unattainable historical results concerning the interdependence of individual tables and hence of entire astronomical works. His programmes for analysing tables, making sexagesimal calculations and converting calendar dates continue to be widely used. The five articles in the first part of this collection explain the principles of a range of statistical methods for determining unknown parameter values underlying astronomical tables and present extensive step-by-step examples for their use. The four articles in the second part provide extensive studies of materials in unpublished primary sources on Islamic astronomy that heavily depend on these methods. The volume is completed with a detailed index.

Author: Sally P. Ragep
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319319930
Category : Mathematics
Languages : ar
Pages : 359

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This book provides the only critical edition and English translation of Maḥmūd al-Jaghmīnī’s al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī al-hayʾa al-basīṭa, the most widely circulated Arabic treatise on Ptolemaic astronomy ever written. Composed in the early 13th century, this introductory textbook played a crucial role in the teaching, dissemination, and institutional instruction of Islamic astronomy well into the 19th century (and beyond). Establishing the base text is a fundamental prerequisite for gaining insights into what was considered an elementary astronomical textbook in Islam and also for understanding the extensive commentary tradition that built upon it. Within this volume, the Mulakhkhaṣ is situated within the broader context of the genre of literature termed ʿilm al-hayʾa, which has become the subject of intensive research over the past 25 years. In so doing, it provides a survey of summary accounts of theoretical astronomy of Jaghmīnī’s predecessors, both Ancient and Islamic, which could have served as potential sources for the Mulakhkhaṣ. Jaghmīnī’s dates (which until now remained unsettled) are established, and it is definitively shown that he composed not only the Mulakhkhaṣ but also other scientific treatises, including the popular medical treatise al-Qānūnča, during a period that has been deemed one of scientific decline and stagnation in Islamic lands. The book will be of particular interest to scholars engaged in the study of Islamic theoretical astronomy, but is accessible to a general readership interested in learning what constituted an introduction to Ptolemaic astronomy in Islamic lands.

Author: Nachum Dershowitz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052188540X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Expanded coverage includes generic cyclical calendars, astronomical lunar calendars, and the Korean, Vietnamese, Aztec, and Tibetan calendars.

Author: David A. King
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000585158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
This volume of 12 studies, mainly published during the past 15 years, begins with an overview of the Islamic astronomy covering not only sophisticated mathematical astronomy and instrumentation but also simple folk astronomy, and the ways in which astronomy was used in the service of religion. It continues with discussions of the importance of Islamic instruments and scientific manuscript illustrations. Three studies deal with the regional schools that developed in Islamic astronomy, in this case, Egypt and the Maghrib. Another focuses on a curious astrological table for calculating the length of life of any individual. The notion of the world centred on the sacred Kaaba in Mecca inspired both astronomers and proponents of folk astronomy to propose methods for finding the qibla, or sacred direction towards the Kaaba; their activities are surveyed here. The interaction between the mathematical and folk traditions in astronomy is then illustrated by an 11th-century text on the qibla in Transoxania. The last three studies deal with an account of the geodetic measurements sponsored by the Caliph al-Ma'mûn in the 9th century; a world-map in the tradition of the 11th-century polymath al-Bîrûnî, alas corrupted by careless copying; and a table of geographical coordinates from 15th-century Egypt.

Author: Azim Nanji
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141920866
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Islam today is a truly global faith, yet it remains somewhat of an enigma to many of us. Each and every day our newspapers are saturated with references to Islam; Quran, Taliban, Hijab, Fatwa, Allah, Sunni, Jihad, Shia, the list goes on. But how much do we really understand? Are we, in fact, misunderstanding? The Penguin Dictionary of Islam provides complete, impartial answers. It includes extensive coverage of the historical formations of the worldwide Muslim community and highlights key modern Muslim figures and events. Understanding Islam is vital to understanding our world and this text is the definitive authority, designed for both general and academic readers.

Author: John M. Steele
Publisher: Saqi
ISBN: 0863568963
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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The Middle East is the birthplace of astronomy and the centre for its development during the medieval period. In this brief introduction John Steele offers an intriguing insight into Middle Eastern achievements in astronomy and their profound influence on the rest of the world. Amongst other things, the book traces the Late Babylonians' ingenious schemes for modelling planetary motion. It also reveals how medieval Islamic advances in the study of the heavens, and the design of precise astronomical instruments, led to breakthroughs by Renaissance practitioners such as Copernicus and Kepler. An invaluable introduction to one of the oldest sciences in the world.

Author: Daniel A. Stolz
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107196337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
This history of astronomy in Egypt reveals how modern science came to play an authoritative role in Islamic religious practice.