al-Zīj al-Shāmil الزيج الشامل [Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar أثير الدين الأبهري، المفضّل بن عمر]

Content

Astronomical handbook in ten bābs (أبواب), each subdivided into fuṣūl (فصول) in the tradition of Abū al-Wafāʾ al-Būzjānī and his colleagues at the Bāb al-Tibn Observatory in Baghdad (أبو الوفاء البوزجاني, d. 998, see f. 52v, line 3). The incipit also mentions the earlier work carried out under caliph al-Maʼmūn (المأمون, reg. 813-33), and the attempt by the author of al-Zīj al-ʻAlāʼī to pass al-Būzjānī's observational data off as his own

The present text is identical with the first ten bāb s of a zīj attributed to al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar al-Abharī (أثير الدين مفضّل بن عمر الأبهري, d. 1265; see, e.g., Dublin, Chester Beatty Library, Ar 4076), although the present manuscript lacks the tables.

The text is followed by two pages (f. 67v-68r) of verse in Persian, in a different hand, beginning:

جواجه درياب كه جان در تن انسان ادبست

خواجه انوار دل وديده مردان ادبست

Begins (f. 52v, lines 2-7):

أحمد الله على تواتر الآية وأشكره على تظاهر نعمائه حمدا يحق بعظمته

وشكرا يليق بكبريائه وأصلي على محمد خير رسله وأنبيائه وبعد فهذا

زيج وضعته على مقتضي أوساط صححها الشيخ أبو الوفاء محمد ابن أحمد البوزجاني

وأصحابه بأرصاد متواليته وإمتحانات صدرت منهم بعد رصد المأمون

وقد أوردها صاحب الزيج العلأي مدعيا لقلة أنصافه بأنها مرصودة

بآلات اتخذها هو بنفسه من غير اشتهارة بالرصد ...

Ends (f. 66v, lines 3-7):

...إن كان العرض المعدل شماليا حينئذ فالانحراف غربي شمالي

فنأخذ من محيط الدائرة التي سبقت بمدار الانحراف

ونصل من طرفه إلى مركز الدائرة خطا و

نخرجه على الإستقامة فعليه

القبلة والله أعلم

بالصواب

Extent and format

Ff. 52v-67v

It is part of

Four treatises on astronomy and calendrics

162 images

Ref: Add MS 7492

Written in

Arabic, Persian and Farsi in Arabic script

Type

Manuscript item

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: Oriental Manuscripts

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

Add MS 7492, ff 52v-66v

History of this record

Date(s)

16th century (CE, Gregorian)

Related material

Finding aids

Cureton, William and Charles Rieu, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars secunda, codices arabicos amplectens (London: The British Museum, 1846-71), Item 395 (III), p. 188-89

Select Bibliography

Studies:

• Hashemipour, Behnaz, 'Abū al‐Wafāʾ Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al‐Būzjānī', in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , ed. by Thomas Hockey et al., (New York: Springer, 2007), pp. 188-189
• Kennedy, David, 'A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , 46 (1956), pp. 123-77 [see p. 129, item 29 and p. 133, item 56]
• Rosenfeld, B. A. and Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.) , (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2003): al-Abharī: p. 209 (no. 595); al-Būzjānī: p. 97 (no. 256), A1
• Sarıoğlu, Hüseyin, 'Athīr Al‐Dīn Al‐Mufaḍḍal Ibn ʿUmar Ibn Al‐Mufaḍḍal Al‐Samarqandī Al‐Abharī', in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , ed. by Thomas Hockey et al., (New York: Springer, 2007), pp. 7-8

People & organisations

Abū al-Wafāʾ al-Būzjānīal-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī

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al-Zīj al-Shāmil الزيج الشامل [Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar أثير الدين الأبهري، المفضّل بن عمر], British Library: Oriental Manuscripts, Add MS 7492, ff 52v-66v, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100143915509.0x000001> [accessed 26 August 2024]

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