Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions

Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)

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 {{QualityScore|Lead=4|Structure=4|Content=4|Language=4|References=4}}
 [[File:Flat Earth The Wonders of Creation.jpg|right|thumb|175px|Taken from Zekeriya Kazvinî's "Acaib-ül Mahlûkat" (The Wonders of Creation). Translated into Turkish from Arabic. Istanbul: ca. 1553. <BR>This map depicts "a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf".<ref>[http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/world/earth.html Views of the Earth] - World Treasures of the Library of Congress, July 29, 2010</ref> ]]
-Islamic [[scriptures]] imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography ([[Geocentrism and the Quran|arranged in a geocentric system]]) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While some early Islamic authorities maintained that the earth existed in the shape of a "ball", such notions are entirely absent in the earliest Islamic scriptures.
+Islamic [[scriptures]] imply, adhere to, and describe a flat-Earth cosmography ([[Geocentrism and the Quran|arranged in a geocentric system]]) which conceives of the earth as existing in the form of a large plane or disk. While knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth has existed to a greater or lesser degree since at least the classical Greeks (4th Century BCE), such knowledge prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the Abbasid [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphate]].
-Nonetheless, as knowledge of the Earth's spherical form has existed to greater or lesser degree since at least classical Greek (4th Century BCE), it has been frequently argued in recent times that the early scholars of Islam, the first followers of Muhammad, and indeed Islamic scripture itself supported the spherical-earth model, although evidence for these claims is lacking.
+Today, some Islamic scholars still argue that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth. Evidence for these claims is lacking, despite oft-cited [[Islamic_Views_on_the_Shape_of_the_Earth#Classical_perspectives|statements from the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Hazm]]. Clear descriptions and assumptions made in the [[Qur'an]], [[hadith]], [[Tafsir|tafsirs]], and writings of early Islamic scholars demonstrate that Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical but in fact held it to be flat and disk like, and this is the framework within which the Qur'an operates.
-Knowledge of the spherical shape of the Earth prominently entered the Islamic milieu in the 9th century CE when many Greek texts were being translated into Arabic for the first time under the sponsorship of the of Abbasid [[Khilafah (Caliphate)|caliphate]]. While there may have been earlier exposure to these ideas among Muslims, the later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Clear descriptions and assumptions made in the [[Qur'an]], [[hadith]], [[Tafsir|tafsirs]], and writings of early Islamic scholars demonstrate that Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical and in fact held it to be flat and disk like.
+The later idea that Islamic scriptures themselves indicated a spherical Earth was a creative act of reinterpretation. Similarly, attempts to explain Quranic verses about the earth only in terms of local flatness at a human level are often challenged by contextual arguments.
-Today, some Islamic scholars still argue that Islamic scriptures and their first audiences were fully aware of the spherical shape of the Earth. However, other, often more senior scholars and the majority of educated Muslims today understand scriptures from a historical standpoint: Muhammad and his companions did not know the Earth was spherical, and so Islamic scriptures do not say as much. Rather, the Qur'an speaks from the perspective of its 7th-century contemporaries - to the unaided eye, the Earth is indeed flat, and this is the framework within which the Qur'an operates.
 ==Greek and Indian astronomical knowledge==
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 Others said: it disappears (تَغِيب) in a hot spring.}}
-Abu Salih, another companion of Ibn ‘Abbas, made a very similar report narrated through another chain recorded by al-Farra (d. 822 CE) in his Ma'ani al-Qur'an regarding this verse:
+This Ibn ‘Abbas narration from Sa'id ibn Jubayr has a trustworthy chain of narrators according to hadith scholars.<ref>[https://dorar.net/h/ec5da855d71296a764b516b57ca8e6d1 dorar.net]</ref> Abu Salih, another companion of Ibn ‘Abbas, made a very similar report narrated through another chain recorded by al-Farra (d. 822 CE) in his Ma'ani al-Qur'an regarding this verse:
 {{Quote|1=[https://al-maktaba.org/book/23634/679 al-Farra, Ma'ani al-Qur'an for verse 18:86]|2=حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو الْعَبَّاسِ قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا مُحَمَّدٌ قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا الْفَرَّاءُ قَالَ حَدَّثَنِي حِبَّانُ عَنِ الْكَلْبِيِّ عَنْ أَبِي صَالِحٍ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ (حَمِئَةٍ) قَالَ: تَغْرُبُ فِي عَيْنٍ سَوْدَاءَ<BR>