Ḥabas̲h̲ al-Ḥāsib al-Marwazī
, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh , one of the most important and interesting figures in early Islamic astronomy, hailing from Marw, but living in Bag̲h̲dād. The sobriquet “Ḥabas̲h̲” (“the Abyssinian”) is nowhere explained; it may refer to the dark colour of his skin. While the Fihrist (p. 275) mentions only that he reached the age of 100, Ibn al-Ḳifṭī ( Taʾrīk̲h̲ , 170) gives more detailed information on his life and the various stages of his scientific activity. According to him, he lived in the reigns of al-Maʾmūn and al-Muʿtaṣim, which is confirmed by Ibn Yūnus (in his “Great Ḥākimitic Tables”, see Kennedy, Tables , 126), who reports observations made by Ḥabas̲h̲ in Bag̲h̲dād in 214/829 and 250/864. The limits for the year of his death (250/864-260/874) as given in Suter, No. 22, p. 13, and Sarton, Introduction , i, 565, are pure conjecture. Nallino ( al-Battānī , i, p. lxvi, and Raccolta , v, 55) states that Ḥabas̲h̲ completed the zīd̲j̲ , a copy of which is preserved in Berlin (Ahlwardt, 5750), in 300/912. If this is true, we would have to assume that he made his first observations as a young boy of no more than 15, which is not very probable. For this reason, Nallino ( Bull. du XIIe congr. int. d. orientalistes , no. 15, 11-2) excludes the possibility of his having collaborated in the Maʾmūnic observations; see Vernet, 505, note 31. Vernet’s surmise that there were two different individuals bearing the name Ḥabas̲h̲ al-Ḥāsib is extremely unlikely. The titles of his works listed in the Fihrist and by Ibn al-Ḳifṭī (differing with one exception only slightly) are the following: The Damascus tables; The Maʾmūnic tables; On the distances [of the planets] and [their] bodies ; On the construction of the astrolabe; On sundials and gnomons; On the three tangent circles and the properties of their junctions ( kayfiyyat al-awṣāl ); On the construction of horizontal, vertical , inclined ( māʾila ) and turned ( munḥarifa —“deviating from the main directions”) planes . In Ibn al-Ḳifṭī the last two titles are combined into one: On the tangent circles and the mode of their application (kayfiyyat al-ittiṣāl [better read istiʿmāl ]) to the construction of …. planes. If this is correct, the title would refer not to the construction of sundials but to stereographic projection and its practical application, the terms māʾil and munḥarif bearing on the ecliptic and on the horizon with the muḳanṭarāt respectively.
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Title:
- Ḥabas̲h̲ al-Ḥāsib al-Marwazī
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First-online:
- 24 Apr 2012
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ISSN:
- 1573-3912
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Publisher:
- Brill
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Table of Contents
, Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh , one of the most important and interesting figures in early Islamic astronomy, hailing from Marw, but living in Bag̲h̲dād. The sobriquet “Ḥabas̲h̲” (“the Abyssinian”) is nowhere explained; it may refer to the dark colour of his skin. While the Fihrist (p. 275) mentions only that he reached the age of 100, Ibn al-Ḳifṭī ( Taʾrīk̲h̲ , 170) gives more detailed information on his life and the various stages of his scientific activity. According to him, he lived in the reigns of al-Maʾmūn and al-Muʿtaṣim, which is confirmed by Ibn Yūnus (in his “Great Ḥākimitic Tables”, see Kennedy, Tables , 126), who reports observations made by Ḥabas̲h̲ in Bag̲h̲dād in 214/829 and 250/864. The limits for the year of his death (250/864-260/874) as given in Suter, No. 22, p. 13, and Sarton, Introduction , i, 565, are pure conjecture. Nallino ( al-Battānī , i, p. lxvi, and Raccolta , v, 55) states that Ḥabas̲h̲ completed the zīd̲j̲ , a copy of which is preserved in Berlin (Ahlwardt, 5750), in 300/912. If this is true, we would have to assume that he made his first observations as a young boy of no more than 15, which is not very probable. For this reason, Nallino ( Bull. du XIIe congr. int. d. orientalistes , no. 15, 11-2) excludes the possibility of his having collaborated in the Maʾmūnic observations; see Vernet, 505, note 31. Vernet’s surmise that there were two different individuals bearing the name Ḥabas̲h̲ al-Ḥāsib is extremely unlikely. The titles of his works listed in the Fihrist and by Ibn al-Ḳifṭī (differing with one exception only slightly) are the following: The Damascus tables; The Maʾmūnic tables; On the distances [of the planets] and [their] bodies ; On the construction of the astrolabe; On sundials and gnomons; On the three tangent circles and the properties of their junctions ( kayfiyyat al-awṣāl ); On the construction of horizontal, vertical , inclined ( māʾila ) and turned ( munḥarifa —“deviating from the main directions”) planes . In Ibn al-Ḳifṭī the last two titles are combined into one: On the tangent circles and the mode of their application (kayfiyyat al-ittiṣāl [better read istiʿmāl ]) to the construction of …. planes. If this is correct, the title would refer not to the construction of sundials but to stereographic projection and its practical application, the terms māʾil and munḥarif bearing on the ecliptic and on the horizon with the muḳanṭarāt respectively.