scholarly journals Observational Instruments in the Arab Scientific Heritage Perspective Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi | Al Alät Al Rosydiyyah fi At Thurost Al ‘Ilm Al ‘Aroby ‘Indä Ismäil ibn Hebä Allah al-Hämäwi

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Elkhayati Rifai
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
Astronomical Instruments ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
Astronomical Instrument ◽  
Observational Instruments ◽  
Ancient Texts

The article is an edited and critical study of an unpublished astronomical text entitled "The Astronomical Instrument Known as The Two-Pronged Machine" of a Damascene astronomer from the thirteenth century AD, Ismail ibn Heba Allah al-Hamawi. ancient scientific texts on this instrument are written by al-Kindi then Ibn Abbad and al-Nayrizi. Al-Kindi's text is the only text published from ancient texts, and today we present to researchers in the development of astronomical instruments a new text to contribute to enriching our knowledge of the scientific tradition of astronomical instruments in Islamic civilization.

A Critical Study of Violent Asphyxial Deaths with Ancient Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalpana Denge ◽  
Rupali Gatfane
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Modern Literature ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Contemporary Science ◽  
Ancient Literature ◽  
Modern Knowledge ◽  
Ancient Texts

Asphyxia is most commonly appearing as a major cause of unnatural deaths. Scattered references can be reviewed in ancient literature regarding asphyxial death. Description of various signs of asphyxial death is given briefly in ancient texts and it is worthwhile to study them with the help of modern science. In ancient literature these asphyxial deaths are described briefly as Kanthapeedan, Dhoomopahat and Udakahat. In modern literature asphyxial deaths are described as hanging, strangulation, suffocation and drowning which occur in homicidal or suicidal purpose or accidental. Viewing these references, asphyxial deaths are studied comprehensively with the object of highlighting it with the help of modern knowledge. Thus present article deals with exploration of ancient references of asphyxial death with the help of contemporary science.

scholarly journals BETWEEN SCORCHING HEAT AND FREEZING COLD: MEDIEVAL JEWISH AUTHORS ON THE INHABITED AND UNINHABITED PARTS OF THE EARTH

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Resianne Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Extreme Temperatures ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Human Habitation

The question of which areas of the earth are fit for human habitation and which ones are not is dealt with in several Hebrew scientific texts of the twelfth and thirteenth century. Medieval Jewish scholars such as Abraham bar [Hdotu]iyya, Samuel ibn Tibbon, and the three thirteenth-century Hebrew encyclopedists were familiar with theories of the oikoumene and its boundaries through Arabic sources. These Hebrew texts display a variety of views on the earth's habitability, all of which ultimately go back to antiquity. Whereas some texts adopted a division of the inhabited portion of the earth into seven climes, others divided the earth into five zones of temperature, of which two were habitable and three were not owing to extreme temperatures. Some of these Jewish authors also pay attention to the question of how climatological or astrological conditions in a given region influence the mental constitution of its inhabitants.

Kilwa Dynastic Historiography: A Critical Study

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 177-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Saad
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Arabic Version ◽  
Portuguese Version ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Dynastic Politics

One of the unresolved problems in African historiography concerns the Arabic and Portuguese versions of the so-called Kilwa Chronicle. Scholars who have used these sixteenth-century sources have tended to assume that the Portuguese version, which is essentially a list of the kings of Kilwa up to around 1500, is a transcription of the Arabic version known under the title of Kitab al-Sulwa. In the recent debate between Freeman-Grenville and Chittick, this assumption has created serious difficulties because the Portuguese account mentions kings who are omitted in the Kitab. Freeman-Grenville attempted to resolve the difficulty by hypothesizing that the work was defectively abridged in the extant nineteenth-century copy. Relying on the regnal durations in the Portuguese account, he computed the dynastic chronology of Kilwa backwards to the tenth century. Subsequently, Chittick's excavations did not show Kilwa important enough to have been the site of a kingdom prior to the thirteenth century. This became the basis for an alternative explanation which denied the existence of gaps or omissions in the Kitab. Chittick argued instead that the longer list of kings in the Portuguese account may have resulted from dovetailing two sources together and duplicating their information.The present paper calls on genealogical evidence overlooked by both scholars which demonstrates that the divergence between the two sources results from their varying perspectives on the dynastic politics and succession disputes. First, the Portuguese account, though occurring in João de Barros’ Da Asia written about 1552, may represent an impromptu composition given to the Portuguese during their occupation of Kilwa in 1505–12.

Some Features of the Old Castilian Alfonsine Translation of ʿAlī Ibn Khalaf’s Treatise on the Lámina Universal

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-5) ◽  
pp. 106-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Technical Vocabulary ◽  
Scientific Circle ◽  
Astronomical Instrument ◽  
Technical Terms

Abstract The aim of the paper is to present some features of the treatise on the lámina universal, an astronomical instrument devised by ʿAlī ibn Khalaf, an eleventh-century Andalusi mathematician and astronomer who belonged to the scientific circle of Ṣāʿid al- Andalusī. ʿAlī ibn Khalaf was a contemporary of Ibn al-Zarqālluh (al-Zarqālī, Azarquiel), also a mathematician and astronomer working under Ṣāʿid’s patronage, and the inven- tor of the instrument known as azafea. Both instruments, the lámina universal and the azafea, are universal instruments devised to overcome the limitations of the standard astrolabe. The only text describing ʿAlī ibn Khalaf’s instrument is the thirteenth- century old-Castilian Alfonsine translation, which has not been studied in detail up to now, although some preliminary studies have been published. The present study deals with some linguistic and technical difficulties of the text. In many passages, it seems to follow literally the grammatical structure of the Arabic language while in others, the lack of technical terms forced the translators to resort either to a literal transcription of the original Arabic terminology or, in some cases, to approximate translations that make the text somewhat difficult to follow. The paper provides additional information related mainly to the astronomical parameters and the technical vocabulary used in the translation.

scholarly journals The Conference of the Birds

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-147
Author(s):  
Chad G. Lingwood
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
English Translation ◽  
French Translation ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Literal Translation ◽  
Mystical Literature ◽  
Islamic Civilization

In medieval Islamic civilization, poetry was widely acknowledged to be themost intimate vessel for conveying Sufism’s hidden truths. The spiritualstates and stations traversed by adepts along an ascending path to the realityof God’s unity largely defies simple descriptions into ordinary prose oreveryday language. The subtleties necessary to evocatively describe a spiritualjourney that is, by its very essence, ineffable, necessitates a linguisticmedium that could at once reveal secrets of inner contemplation and mysticalperception while simultaneously concealing such information from the“uninitiated” behind the exoteric understanding of the same work of literature.Persian poetry, with its unique capacity for metaphorical symbolism,puns, and paradoxes, thus emerged by the seventh/thirteenth century as anunparalleled vehicle for expressing the mystical experience.The most dramatic expression in all of Persian mystical literature of thisspiritual journey is the allegorical poem Mantiq al-Tair (best translated as“The Speech of the Birds”) by Farid al-Din `Attar (d. 627/1229), whichrecounts the initiatory voyage of a group of birds through seven valleys tothe palace of the mythical king-bird Simurgh, symbol of the Divine,enthroned atop the cosmic mountain Qaf.In addition to the book currently under review, `Attar’s masterpieceinspired other renditions into English, including an abbreviated and freelyreworked edition by Edward FitzGerald, The Bird-parliament (1903); R. P.Masani’s prose translation of half the original poem’s 4,600 lines, TheConference of the Birds (1924); the incomplete prose version by C. S. Nott,The Conference of the Birds (1954), which was prepared from Garcin deTassy’s nineteenth-century French translation, Le Langage des oiseaux, and,as such, is obscured by an intervening third language; Afkham Darbandi andDick Davis’ Penguin Classics edition The Conference of the Birds (1984),which represents the poem’s first complete English translation (minus theinvocation and epilogue), is based on the oldest extant manuscripts, and isskillfully rendered into heroic couplets pleasingly faithful to the letter andspirit of `Attar’s allegory; and Peter Avery’s determinedly literal translation,The Speech of the Birds (1998), whose 560-page opus includes 120 pages ofenriching endnotes on `Attar’s use of Qur’anic imagery and the hadith ...

scholarly journals LINGUOPOETIC BASES OF "ILMU-L-MAANI" ("SCIENCE OF MEANINGS") IN QURAN

2020 ◽  
pp. 143-148
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
World Science ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Science And Culture ◽  
Islamic Science ◽  
Islamic Civilization

By the 21st century, the spiritual and material monuments of Islamic civilization, the scientific heritage of scientists are evaluated all over the world as a sign of incomparable greatness. In particular, “the invaluable contribution of great scientists and thinkers to the development of world science and culture in the Middle Ages and beyond, the first Eastern Renaissance in world history - the Muslim Renaissance - is rightfully recognized by the world scientific community”. One of the most important branches of Islamic science is the science of meaning ( علم المعاني ). An attempt to understand the charm of the Quranic language in the reality of language and speech means the word “xabar”, “inshāʼ”, “musnad”, “musnad ilayhi”, “qaṣr”, “faṣl”, “vaṣl”, “iyjāz”, “iṭnāb”, “musāva” such as grammatical, lexical, semantic, stylistic, artistic and aesthetic indicators, the social nature of language, ways of expression, language features of the word. The science of meaning is a set of linguo-poetic views, and it is important to show its place in the classification of modern linguistics.

SAVARIC, GLASTONBURY AND THE MAKING OF MYTHS: A REAPPRAISAL

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 101-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Stout
Keyword(s):  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Recent History ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Ancient Texts

Historians have long been aware that the vicious feud between the monastery of Glastonbury and its bishop in the early thirteenth century was responsible for turning Glastonbury’s scriptorium into the most astonishing and inventive manufacturer of forged documents. In what Julia Crick has memorably termed ‘the marshalling of antiquity’, new documents were produced and older ones annotated, all tending to demonstrate the antiquity of Christian Glastonbury, and its right to self-government and autonomy, free from external interference. The monastery’s chroniclers were equally partisan, but historians and archaeologists alike have tended to accept their account of Glastonbury’s more recent history at face value. Correcting the chroniclers’ anti-Savaric bias allows for some fresh thinking on the construction of both the Glastonbury mythos and of the abbey building itself. It also raises questions about the remarkable reverence with which scholars continue to treat Glastonbury’s ancient texts.

scholarly journals Equilibrio y realización: William Chittick sobre el sí y el cosmos

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Rustom
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
State University ◽  
Islamic Philosophy ◽  
Islamic Thought ◽  
Islamic Civilization ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
The Universe

Resumen: William Chittick, actualmente profesor distinguido en la Universidad de Nueva York (Stony Brook), es un experto y reconocido especialista en Pensamiento islámico. Sus contribuciones al campo del Sufismo y la Filosofía islámica han contribuido a pintar un cuadro claro del paisaje espiritual e intelectual de la civilización islámica desde el siglo VII/XIII en adelante. Aunque, Chittick no está solo preocupado por las discusiones sobre pensamiento islámico como reliquias de la historiaintelectual premoderna. Su vasto conocimiento de la tradición intelectual moderna sirve como base desde la cual busca abordar una amplia variedad de asuntos contemporáneos. En este breve ensayo, destacaré los escritos de Chittick que versan sobre el sí dentro del contexto de su tratamiento de la cosmología. Más allá de emplear métodos obsoletos para mirar al universo y nuestra relación con él, Chittick sostiene que las enseñanzas cosmológicas tradicionales islámicas son justamente tan relevantes para la cuestión del sí hoy en día como lo fueron en el pasado. Abstract: William Chittick, currently professor of religious studies at the State University of New York (Stony Brook), is an internationally renowned expert on Islamic thought. His contributions to the fields of Sufism and Islamic philosophy have helped paint a clearer picture of the intellectual and spiritual landscape of Islamic civilization from the seventh/thirteenth century onwards. Yet Chittick is not simply concerned with discussions in Islamic thought as artifacts of premodern intellectualhistory. His vast knowledge of the Islamic intellectual tradition serves as the platform from which he seeks to address a broad range of contemporary issues. In this short essay, I will outline Chittick’s writingson the self within the context of his treatment of cosmology. Rather than being outdated ways of looking at the universe and our relationship to it, Chittick argues that traditional Islamic cosmological teachings are just as pertinent to the question of the self today as they were yesterday.  

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