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Pouyan Rezvani (Editions, Translations and Commentary). Two Treatises on the Astrolabe by Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (d. ca. 1050)

Kaveh Niazi
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Pouyan Rezvani (Editions, Translations and Commentary). Two Treatises on the Astrolabe by Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (d. ca. 1050). Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2020, 496 p. (Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy 115).

Texte intégral

1“Two Treatises on the Astrolabe by Abū Rayān Bīrūnī” is a study of two astronomical treatises by Bīrūnī, both published in their first modern editions. These are: (1) the “Treatise on Opening the Way towards Using the Different Kinds of Astrolabes” (Arabic: Maqāla fī al-Taṭrīq ilā Istiʿmāl Funūn al-Usṭurlābāt), and (2) the “Book on Bringing what is in the Potentiality of the Astrolabe into Actuality” (Arabic: Kitāb Ikhrāj mā fī Quwwat al-Usṭurlāb ilā al-Fiʿl). The study which is published by the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johhann Wolfgang Geothe University, Frankfurt, is based on the Pouyan Rezvani’s doctoral research and includes the Arabic editions and the English translations of both of Bīrūnī’s treatises. Rezvani wrote his study in four parts. In the first part he provides introductory remarks on the history of ancient and medieval Islamic mathematical astronomy and the prinicples of the standard astrolabe. The subsequent two sections are devoted to discussions of each of Bīrūnī’s treatises as well as a presentation of the English translations. The final part of the study consists of the edited Arabic texts of the two treatises. Maqāla fī al-Taṭrīq ilā Istiʿmāl Funūn al-Usṭurlābāt is a technical text of 20 chapters treating standard and non-standard astrolables and was composed for specialists. It was likely written after 1036 A.D. when its author was in Afghanistan. The probable addressee of the treatise is ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥasan Khwārizmī whom Bīrūnī addresses elsewhere as the inventor of the scorpion-shaped astrolabe. In editing this work, Rezvani relied on the single known surviving copy, BN Arabe no. 2498. Kitāb Ikhrāj mā fī Quwwat al-Usṭurlāb ilā al-Fiʿl was an earlier work, probably written before 1018 A.D. when Bīrūnī was still in Khwārazm (or possibly in northern Iran). Written in 69 chapters and a preface, this treatise is described by Rezvani as more standard and more practical in approach. For this treatise Rezvani was able to rely on a number of surviving manuscripts under different titles, ultimately basing his critical edition on the copies from Diyarbakir (Il Halk Kütüphanesi, no. 2213) and Berlin (Staatsbibliothek-Petermann 672). In addition to mooring Bīrūnī’s two treatises to the timeline of their author’s considerale scholarly output, other notable features of the study include a comparison of the contents of the two treatises with that of the more elementary al-Tafhīm, as well as a discussion of all of Bīrūnī’s known compositions on the astrolabe.

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Kaveh Niazi, « Pouyan Rezvani (Editions, Translations and Commentary). Two Treatises on the Astrolabe by Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (d. ca. 1050) »Abstracta Iranica [En ligne], Volume 42-43 | 2021, document 9, mis en ligne le 30 décembre 2021, consulté le 17 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/55257 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.55257

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Kaveh Niazi

Stanford Online High School, Redwood City, CA

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Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-SA 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.

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