Yahya ibn abi Mansūr Abū Ali Yahya ibn abi Mansūr; Persian Muslim astronomer who flourished in Baghdad under the patronage of al-Ma’mūn; died c. 831. He was one of the Asshāb al-Mumtahan (‘Companions of the Verified Tables’), the group of astronomers in Baghdad (with al-Khwārizmi and Sanad) who carried out the famous observations in 829–30.
Yuhanna ibn Māsawayh Abū Zakariyya Yuhanna ibn Māswayh, Latin, Mesuë (or Mesuë the Elder); Persian Christian physician, born in Gondēshāpūr; flourished in Baghdad; died 857. He wrote in Arabic but also translated medical works from Greek into Syriac. He was tutor to Hunayn ibn Ishāq. Famously, he carried out dissection of apes to study anatomy during the reign of al-Mu’tasim, c. 836.
Ibn Yūnus Abū al-Hassan Ali ibn Sa’īd ibn Ahmed ibn Yūnus (c. 950–1009); considered by many as the greatest Muslim astronomer; worked in Cairo in a well-equipped laboratory where he compiled astronomical tables called the Hakimite Tables (dedicated to the Fātimid Caliph al-Hākim). He made several contributions to trigonometry, though not as great as those made by Abū al-Wafā’ and al-Bīrūni.
Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwi Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn Abbās al-Zahrāwi, Latin, Abulcasis (or Albucasis) (c. 936–c. 1013); flourished in Medīnat al-Zahrā’, near Córdoba; greatest surgeon of Islam and the medieval world. He wrote a medical encyclopedia of which the most important sections were on surgery and described many new surgical instruments. It was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona, making al-Zahrāwi famous across Europe. He was influenced strongly by the physician Paulos Aegineta, a Greek from Alexandria, who flourished c. 640.
al-Zarqāli Abū Ishāq Ibrahīm ibn Yahya al-Naqqāsh al-Zarqāli, Latin, Arzachel (c. 1029–87); observational astronomer who flourished in Córdoba. He made important astronomical measurements and edited the Toledan Tables of planetary motion, which were very popular in Europe. He also invented an improved astrolabe, called a safīha (the saphaea Arzachelis).
Ziryāb Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Nāfi’ (c. 789–857), nicknamed Ziryāb (Blackbird); Iraqi (possibly Kurdish) poet, musician, singer, fashion designer, celebrity, trendsetter, as well as astronomer, botanist and geographer. He first achieved notoriety in his city of birth, Baghdad, as a performer and a student of the great musician and composer al-Mawsili. He flourished in Córdoba where he became a prominent cultural figure, creating a unique and influential style of musical performance, and writing songs that were performed in Andalusia for generations. He introduced the Persian lute, which became the Spanish guitar.
Ibn Zuhr Abū Marwān Abd al-Malik ibn abi-l-’Ala’ Zuhr, Latin, Avenzoar; born in Seville c. 1091; died 1161; most illustrious member of the greatest medical family of Muslim Spain and the world’s most famous physician of his time. Like al-Rāzi, he was mainly a clinician, with strong empirical tendencies, but did not quite have the Persian’s originality.
Timeline: The Islamic World from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Modern Period
Index
Abbāsid Empire
Baghdad 3, 7–9
buildings 253–4n5
coinage 27
defeat of Umayyads 26–7, 190
downfall 13
medicine 139
origin of name 255n4
scholarship 33–4
technology 42–4
translation movement 35–48
Abd al-Malik 25–6
Abd al-Rahmān I, amir of Andalusia 27, 190
Abd al-Rahmān II, amir of Andalusia, patronage of science 191
Abd al-Rahmān III, Caliph of Andalusia 192
Abū al-Abbās 26–7
Abū Bakr 23
Abulcasis see al-Zahrāwi, Abū al-Qāsim
Adelard of Bath 201, 223
Ahmed ibn Mūsa 73, 74
Albatenius see al-Battāni
Albumasar see al-Balkhi, Abū Ma’shar
alchemy 51, 54
al-Kindi 134
and chemistry 54–8
Umayyads 25–6
see also chemistry; Jābir ibn Hayyān; transmutation
Alexander the Great 45–6
Alexandria
Bibliotheca Alexandrina 69–70
Library 69, 77–8; Eratosthenes 85
Alfraganus see al-Farghāni
algebra 111–15
al-Khwārizmi 73, 77, 110–13
Diophantus 113, 115–17
Ibn al-Haytham 166
rhetorical 120, 121
symbolic 121
syncopated 121
use of zero 106
algorithm 73, 102
Alhazen see Ibn al-Haytham, Abū Ali al-Hassan
Alhazen’s Problem 166
Ali ibn abi Tālib 24
Ali ibn Sahl 45, 144
Allāh, in Islam 21
Almanzor see al-Mansūr, Abū Āmir
Alpetragius see al-Bitrūji
al-Amīn 6, 10
conflict with al-Ma’mūn and death 11–14
anaesthesia 197
Andalusia
philosophy 199–201
Taifa kings 194–5
Umayyad caliphate 189–94
Andalusian Revolt 198
Apollonius of Perga, Conics 166
Arabia, cultural identity 19
Arabic language xxiv
development of 19
Arabic names xxii–xxiv
Arabic science xxv–xxix
Archimedes, criticism of Aristarchus of Samos 207–8
Aristarchus of Samos, heliocentrism 207–8, 219–20
Aristotle
Categories, translation 61
concept of zero 105
cosmology 130–31, 208–9, 212
elements 51–2, 64
History of Animals 76
introduction by al-Kindi 75–6
optics 159, 160
philosophy 129–31, 132
vision by al-Ma’mūn 16, 37
arithmetic
work of Abū al-Hassan al-Uqlīdisi 107–9; The Book of Chapters on Hindu Arithmetic 107, 108
Āryabhata 100, 210, 211
Arzachel see al-Zarqāli
Āshūra 24
assassins see Hashashīn
Asshab al-Mumtahan see Companions of the Verified Tables
astrolabe 41, 198, 255–6n9, 259n5
astrology, and translation movement 40–42
astronomy 45, 47, 80
al-Haytham 166–9, 211–12
al-Tūsi 215–16
Copernican revolution 205
first observatory 80, 81–4
importance in Islam 206
India 41, 210–11
Ptolemy 80–83, 167–8, 206–7, 210
atmosphere, height of, Ibn Mu’ādh 164–5
Avempace see Ibn Bājja
Avenzoar see Ibn Zuhr
Averroës see Ibn Rushd
Averroism 200
Avicenna see Ibn Sīna
Avicennism 181
Bab al-Sharji 3
Babylonians
sexagesimal system 95–6, 99, 102
use of zero 103–6
Bacon, Francis, Novum Organum 170
Bacon, Roger 159, 162, 226
Baghdad
Abbāsid Empire 3, 7–9
Abū Nou’was Street 9
Bab al-Sharji 3
construction 27–32
destruction by Mongols 136, 233
first observatory 80, 81–4
hospitals 144–5
House of Wisdom 68–78
modern wars 9
population 253n4
Round City 12, 28–32
Siege of 12
Bakhshali Manuscript 96–7
al-Balkhi, Abū Ma’shar (Albumasar) 212
al-Balkhi, mapmaker 89
Banū Mūsa brothers 73–4, 77, 82
Book of Ingenious Devices 74
persecution of al-Kindi 135
Barmaki family 5, 6, 10, 46
al-Barmaki, Ja’far 7–8, 46
execution 10, 53, 254n8
al
-Battāni
astronomy 206
trigonometry 163
Bayt al-Hikma see House of Wisdom
Berbers 194–5
Bibliotheca Alexandrina 69–70
billiard-ball problem 166
bīmāristān 144–5
biology, work of al-Jāhith 76
al-Bīrūni, Abū Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmed 42, 172–6, 177, 181–8
The Chronology of Ancient Nations 176
circumference of the earth 184–6, 187
cosmology 183
Determination of the Coordinates of Cities 87, 102, 178, 184
earth sciences 187
The History of India 178
The Mas’ūdī Canon 177, 178, 182
mathematics 181–2
theology 184
al-Bitrūji, Abū Ishāq Nūr al-Dīn (Alpetragius) 226–7
blood circulation, Ibn al-Nafīs 235–7
bloodletting 147–8
book production 43, 62
see also printing
Brahmagupta 100
algebra 115, 117
astronomy 210, 211
Siddhanta 41–2, 100
Bukhtishū family, translation movement 46
Byzantine Empire 18–19
defeat by Muslim army 23–4
war with Abbāsid Empire 5
Cairo, Dar al-Hikma 155
calculus 182
calendar 262n7
Hijri 22
Jalali 123
camera obscura 161, 264n12
cartography 88–9
censorship 250
Charlemagne, trade with al-Rashīd 4–5
chemistry
and alchemy 54–8
classification 63; work of al-Rāzi 65
early 51–2
etymology 55–6
experimentation 64
industrial processes 62–3
work of Jābir ibn Hayyān 52–66
Christianity
conquest of Andalusian centres 195, 225–6
and translation movement 38–9
cleanliness, ritual 142
codices 43–4
coffee 227–8
Companions of the Verified Tables 84, 86
conic sections 166, 167
conservatism, religious 232
and modern science 244–6
Copernicus, Nicolaus
De revolutionibus 205, 207, 219, 220
heliocentrism 218–20, 221–2
and the Marāgha School 217–19, 218, 221–2
Córdoba
Berber seige of 194
growth of science and culture 191–2
library 192, 194
Umayyad caliphate 189–90
cosine rule 238–9
cosmology
al-Balkhi 212
al-Bīrūni 183
al-Kindi 133
Aristotle 129–31, 208–9, 212
counting 93–109
creation doctrine 131–2, 133
creationism, modern 245–6
cryptography, al-Kindi 133–4
Ctesiphon 18
Dar al-Hikma 155
Dar al-Khilāfa 8
Dayr Murran Observatory 83
debating see kalām
decimal fractions 107–9, 238
decimal system 95, 100, 102
Descartes, René
Discours de la Méthode 170
Cogito ergo sum 180
Diophantus, algebra 113, 115–17, 119–21
Ditch, battle of the 22
diwan al-Arab 19
Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem 25
duodecimal system 95
Earth, measurement of circumference 84–8, 184–6, 187
earth sciences, al-Bīrūni 187
economics, Ibn Khaldūn 237–8
Education City, Qatar 248
Egypt
mathematics 98–9
medicine 140
Egyptology, al-Ma’mūn 90–92
Einstein, Albert, relativity 220–21, 239, 240
elements, fundamental 51–2, 64
Elephant Clock 228–9
emission theory 159–61
equants 210, 211, 216
equations
Pell 117
quadratic 114–15, 120
quartic 166
Eratosthenes, size of the earth 85–6
ethics, medical 145, 250
Euclid
Elements: translation 48, 81, 107, 117; use of quadratic equation 114, 115
emission theory 159–61
Europe
arrival of Arabic science 201–3, 224–7
Dark Ages 18
scientific development 229–31
evolution, work of al-Jāhith 76
al-Fadl ibn Nawbakht, translator 71
al-Farābi, philosophy 136–7
al-Farghāni 82–3
al-Fāthl ibn Sahl 11, 14, 15
Fatimid Empire 154
al-Fazāri, translation of astronomical texts 41
Fermat, Pierre de, Last Theorem 116
Fibonacci, Leonardo 100, 113, 226
floating man thought-experiment 180
Florence, Renaissance 229–30
fractures, Ibn Sīna 179
free will, Mu’tazilites 126–7
freedom, intellectual 249
Galen 141–3
criticism of by al-Rāzi 148
emission/intromission theory 160
On the Anatomy of Nerves, translation 75
On the Anatomy of Veins and Arteries, translation 75
On the Natural Faculties, translation 75
Geber the Alchemist see Jābir ibn Hayyān; Pseudo-Geber
geocentrism 182–3, 207, 208–9, 211
geography 88–9
Gerard of Cremona 113
translator 202, 223
Gerbert d’Aurillac 202, 225
al-Ghazāli
contribution to decline in Islamic science 232
criticism of Ibn Sīna 181, 232
glass-making 63
Greece
mathematics: number systems 105: use of zero 105
medicine 45, 46, 141–3
science and philosophy, and translation movement 38, 39, 44–5
Hadīth 38, 126
al-Hajjāj, ibn Yūsuf 48, 117
al-Hakam, Caliph of Andalusia, Córdoba library 192, 194
al-Hākim bi’amr Illāh, Caliph 154–5
Hashashīn 213–14
al-Haytham see Ibn al-Haytham
heliocentrism 182–3, 207–8, 212, 218–20, 221–2
Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium 23
hieroglyphs 91–2
Hijra 22
hikma 72
Hipparchus, astronomy 208, 209
Hippocrates 141, 147
Hisham, Caliph of Andalusia 193–4
hospitals, Abbāsid Empire 144–5
House of Wisdom
Baghdad 68–78; destruction by Mongols 136, 233
Cairo 155
Hūlāgū Khan 42, 214, 215
Humanism, parallel with Mu’tazilism 231
humours 142, 148
Hunayn ibn Ishāq
Ten Treatises on the Eye 75
translation 46, 48, 72, 74–5, 196
Hussein, grandson of Muhammad 24
Ibn al-Haytham, Abū Ali al-Hassan 153–6, 158–71
astronomy 166–9
Book of Optics 156, 158–64, 170, 226
criticism of Ptolemy 167, 168, 211–12
moon illusion 161–2
Nile dam project 154, 155
scientific method 170–71
Ibn al-Nadīm 54
Fihrist 16; on al-Rāzi 143, 150
Ibn al-Nafīs, blood circulation 235–7
Ibn al-Shātir 217–19
Ibn Bājja (Avempace) 168, 199
Ibn Battūta 89
Ibn Firnās, Abbās 196–7
Ibn Hazm 199
Ibn Khaldūn 89, 237–8
Muqaddima 237–8
height of atmosphere 164–5
Liber de crepusculis 164
Ibn Rushd, Abū al-Walīd Muhammad ibn Ahmed (Averroës) 137, 199–200
defence of Ibn Sīna 181
Ibn Sahl, optics 156–8, 162–3, 163
Ibn Sīna, Abū Ali al-Hussein ibn Abdullah (Avicenna) 137, 172–4, 176–81
Book of Healing 180
Canon of Medicine 172, 177, 179–80
floating-man thought-experiment 180
light 164
philosophy 180–81
Ibn Wahshiyya, Egyptian hieroglyphs 91–2
Ibn Yūnus, astronomy 155, 206
Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) 198
al-Idrīsi, geographer 89, 202–3
Tabula Rogeriana 203, 226
Ilkhānī Tables 215
India
mathematics 41, 45, 96, 99–100, 106, 133; The Book of Chapters on Hindu Arithmetic 107, 108
medicine 140–41
Islam xxvi–xxviii
beginnings 20–21
decline of science 213, 231–5
growth 21–7
and modern science xxvii–xxviii, 241–51
Sunnism v. Shi’ism 14
and translation movement 38
Jābir ibn Hayyān 52–66
attitude to transmutation 53
chemical techniques and processes 61–3
doubts about authenticity 58, 59–61
‘Jābir Problem’ 58, 59–61
Jabirian Corpus 58–61
The Book of Chemistry 56
The Book of Seventy 59
The Chest of Wisdom 62, 64
The Great Book of Mercy 53, 54
Ja’far, Palace of 7–8
al-Jāhith, Abū Uthmān 76–7
Book of Animals 15–16, 76
al-Jawhari, al-Abbās 81–2, 86
al-Jazari, Ibn Isma’il, Elephant Clock 228–9
Jews
Andalusia 200–201
philosophy and science 44–5
‘Jiddu’ 138–9
Job of Edessa 132
Jordan, SESAME research centre 248–9
Ka’ba, Mecca 21
kalām 6–7, 67, 125, 126
al-Kāshi, Jamshīd 238–9
cosine rule 238–9
decimal fractions 109, 238
Kepler, Johannes 161, 165, 226
Khadija, wife of Muhammad 20, 21
Khālid ibn al-Walīd 23
Khalil, Merza 49
al-Khalīli family 49–50
Merza Hussein 50
Muhammad 50
Khayyām, Omar, on algebra 122–3
khizanat 70–71
Khowārij 24
Khurasan, al-Ma’mūn as ruler 10–11
al-Khwārizmi, Muhammad ibn Mūsa 42, 82
on algebra 110–13, 117–22; Kitab al-Jebr 73, 77, 110–12, 117–19, 224
cartography 89, 111
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