Al-Qushjī's Reform of the Ptolemaic Model for Mercury

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Saliba

In this article the author analyzes a fifteenth-century Arabic reform of the Ptolemaic model for Mercury. The author of the reform was the Central Asian – Ottoman astronomer ‘Alā” al-Dīn al-Qushjī (d. 1474 A.D.) who, in his youth, had been instructed in the mathematical sciences by none other than the famous Central Asian monarch Ulugh Beg (1394–1449). Although the astronomers of Ulugh Beg's circle are known to have produced extensive astronomical Persian tables, no one other than Qushjī has been yet identified to have produced a theoretical text devoted to the criticism, let alone the reform, of the Ptolemaic mathematical planetary models. The present article on Qushji's reform of the Ptolemaic model for Mercury includes a critical first edition of Qushji's Arabic text, an English translation, and a historical and technical commentary.

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELVIRA WAKELNIG

Textual evidence preserved in two still unpublished manuscripts strongly suggests that there once existed an alternative version of Miskawayh’s Fawz al-aṣghar, the Minor Book of Triumph. The article discusses possible explanations for why Miskawayh may have composed two recensions of his Fawz and compares structure and content of the alternative version with the edited standard version. The one passage which is contained in the alternative Fawz only is presented in Arabic with an English translation. Part of this additional material is parallel to al-Fārābī’s Iḥṣā’ al-‘ulūm, namely its division of natural sciences, and may ultimately derive from a no longer extant treatise by Paul the Persian. An appendix provides the Arabic text and English translation of a hitherto unknown fragment of al-Balkhī in which he discusses Plato’s saying that the world has a causative, but no temporal beginning.


2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 513-532
Author(s):  
Johannes van Oort

Abstract The present article deals with Roger Gryson’s reconstruction of Tyconius’ lost Commentary on the Apocalypse (CCL 107A), his subsequent French translation of this reconstructed Commentary (CCT 10), and the English translation Tyconius, Exposition of the Apocalypse by Francis Gumerlock, with long introduction and ample notes by David Robinson (FoC 134). After having reviewed the strenghths and weaknesses of each of these publications, the article concludes with a discussion of the significance of Tyconius’ Commentary for the question of the origin of Augustine’s two civitates doctrine.


2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger Arnzen

AbstractAlthough the existence of an Arabic translation of a section of Proclus' commentary on Plato's Timaeus lost in the Greek has been known since long, this text has not yet enjoyed a modern edition. The present article aims to consummate this desideratum by offering a critical edition of the Arabic fragment accompanied by an annotated English translation. The attached study of the contents and structure of the extant fragment shows that it displays all typical formal elements of Proclus' commentaries, whereas its conciseness and shortcomings raise certain doubts about its completeness. As a parergon, the article includes an analysis of a hitherto neglected letter by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, which is attached to the fragment in the manuscript transmission. In addition to providing some insight into the origins of the Proclian fragment, this letter sheds some light on the Syriac and Arabic reception of some works by Hippocrates and Galen, especially Hippocrates' On Regimen in Acute Diseases and the history of its Arabic translation.


Author(s):  
Soufiane Laachiri

The present article attempts to present a succinct and circumspect comparison between two different translations for Mourice Blanchot’s book « L’écriture du désastre ».The first translation was performed by Ann Smock in 1995 and was from French into English, while the other translation was skillfully produced by Azzedine Chentouf from French into Arabic in 2018. The contrast in attitudes and translational fertilization has provided us with ample opportunities to study, reflect on, and rethink the nexus of  Blanchot’s philosophy from different linguistic perspectives. However, in our attempt to formulate our judgments on the English and Arabic versions of the book, we can judge by an escapable logic and with analytical evidence that the English translation entitled « The writing of the disaster » has intensified the hold of a literal translation that makes the chances of being close to the original meaning of the source text depressingly small. Chentouf’s translation, on the other hand, remains profoundly meaningful; it is capable of going down into the marrow of  Blanchot’s thought to assert understanding of his intellectual complexities. In brief, despite the triviality of the advanced examples, we are certain that Azzedine Chentouf, through his Arabic translation, knows the hard philosophical portrait of Mourice Blanchot in its inclusiveness. Therefore, it is no surprise that every choice he makes in this translation explains his tremendous efforts as a philosopher first before being ranked as a translator.


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