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Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth: Difference between revisions
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Islamic Views on the Shape of the Earth (view source)
Revision as of 22:17, 9 January 2024
, 9 January→Greek astronomical knowledge: I have added in another section from an Islamic scholar on Greek astronomical knowledge being advanced upon and gaining traction with caliph sponsorship, highlighting one of Al-Ma'mun's accomplishments and patronaging, which can explain how later tafsir/commentators gained this knowledge.
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m (→The spring where the sun sets: I've also added in an article from a scholar on this topic with a link to an excellent article discussing this issue.) |
(→Greek astronomical knowledge: I have added in another section from an Islamic scholar on Greek astronomical knowledge being advanced upon and gaining traction with caliph sponsorship, highlighting one of Al-Ma'mun's accomplishments and patronaging, which can explain how later tafsir/commentators gained this knowledge.) |
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Michael Hoskin and Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University<ref>{{cite web| url=https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/owen-gingerich | title=Owen Gingerich | author= | publisher=Harvard University | date= | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528204925/https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/owen-gingerich | deadurl=no| accessdate= December 11, 2020| quote=Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1992-93 he chaired Harvard's History of Science Department.}}</ref>, write: | Michael Hoskin and Owen Gingerich, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University<ref>{{cite web| url=https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/owen-gingerich | title=Owen Gingerich | author= | publisher=Harvard University | date= | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528204925/https://histsci.fas.harvard.edu/people/owen-gingerich | deadurl=no| accessdate= December 11, 2020| quote=Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard University and a senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1992-93 he chaired Harvard's History of Science Department.}}</ref>, write: | ||
{{Quote|{{citation| last=Hoskin| first=Michael| last2=Gingerich| first2=Owen| chapter=Islamic Astronomy| title=The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy| ISBN=9780521576000| url=https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/history-philosophy-and-foundations-physics/cambridge-concise-history-astronomy?format=PB&isbn=9780521576000| pages=50-52| year=1999| publisher=Cambridge University press| location: Cambridge| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201226174539/https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/history-philosophy-and-foundations-physics/cambridge-concise-history-astronomy?format=PB&isbn=9780521576000}}|In 762 [Muhammad’s] successors in the Middle East founded a new capital, Baghdad, by the river Tigris at the point of nearest approach of the Euphrates, and within reach of the Christian physicians of Jundishapur. Members of the Baghdad court called on them for advice, and these encounters opened the eyes of prominent Muslims to the existence of a legacy of intellectual treasures from Antiquity - most of which were preserved in manuscripts lying in distant libraries and written in a foreign tongue. Harun al-Rashid (caliph from 786) and his successors sent agents to the Byzantine empire to buy Greek manuscripts, and early in the ninth century a translation centre, the House of Wisdom, was established in Baghdad by the Caliph al-Ma’mun. […] Long before translations began, a rich tradition of folk astronomy already existed in the Arabian peninsula. This merged with the view of the heavens in Islamic commentaries and treatises, to create a simple cosmology based on the actual appearances of the sky and unsupported by any underlying theory.}} | {{Quote|{{citation| last=Hoskin| first=Michael| last2=Gingerich| first2=Owen| chapter=Islamic Astronomy| title=The Cambridge Concise History of Astronomy| ISBN=9780521576000| url=https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/history-philosophy-and-foundations-physics/cambridge-concise-history-astronomy?format=PB&isbn=9780521576000| pages=50-52| year=1999| publisher=Cambridge University press| location: Cambridge| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201226174539/https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/physics/history-philosophy-and-foundations-physics/cambridge-concise-history-astronomy?format=PB&isbn=9780521576000}}|In 762 [Muhammad’s] successors in the Middle East founded a new capital, Baghdad, by the river Tigris at the point of nearest approach of the Euphrates, and within reach of the Christian physicians of Jundishapur. Members of the Baghdad court called on them for advice, and these encounters opened the eyes of prominent Muslims to the existence of a legacy of intellectual treasures from Antiquity - most of which were preserved in manuscripts lying in distant libraries and written in a foreign tongue. Harun al-Rashid (caliph from 786) and his successors sent agents to the Byzantine empire to buy Greek manuscripts, and early in the ninth century a translation centre, the House of Wisdom, was established in Baghdad by the Caliph al-Ma’mun. […] Long before translations began, a rich tradition of folk astronomy already existed in the Arabian peninsula. This merged with the view of the heavens in Islamic commentaries and treatises, to create a simple cosmology based on the actual appearances of the sky and unsupported by any underlying theory.}}Ahmed Dallal, president of the American University in Cairo, writes in regards to scientific astronomical knowledge advancing across the early caliphate:<ref>Dallal, Ahmad. ''[https://yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300177718/islam-science-and-the-challenge-of-history/ Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History (The Terry Lectures Series)]'' . Yale University Press. 2012.</ref> | ||
{{Quote|Dallal, Ahmad. Islam, Science, and the Challenge of History (The Terry Lectures Series) . Yale University Press. 2012. 9780300177718. Kindle Edition. Location 425-440|...mathematics and astronomy were partly integrated into the curricula of religious schools, through the disciplines of farā’iḍ (algebra of inheritance) and ilm al-mīqāt (timekeeping). And while we have some evidence for the teaching of theoretical astronomy in religious schools after the thirteenth century, we are much more informed about the institutional framework for the practice of the science of astronomy. One such institution where it was practiced was the observatory. The earliest planned and programmed astronomical observations were produced during the last years of the reign of Al-Ma’mūn (r. 813-33), at the outset of the translation movement. Under al-Ma’mūn, a program of astronomical observation was organized in Baghdad (Shammāsiyya) and Damascus (Mount Qāsiyūn). Like any organized research project, this one endowed astronomical activity in the Islamic world with formal prestige. It also set a precedent for future support of scientific activity by other rulers and established patronage as one of the modes of supporting scientific activity. The professed purpose of the program was to verify and correct the Ptolemaic observations for the sun and the moon by comparing the results derived by calculation, based on the Ptolemaic models, with actual observations conducted in Baghdad and Damascus some seven hundred years after Ptolemy...}} | |||
Mohammad Ali Tabatabaʾi and Saida Mirsadri of Tehran University note in their paper surveying Qur'anic cosmography that the Qur'an "takes for granted" the flatness of the earth, a common motif among the scientifically naive people at that time, while it has "not even one hint of a spherical earth"<ref>{{citation |last1=Tabatabaʾi |first1=Mohammad A. |last2=Mirsadri |first2=Saida |date=2016 |title=The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24811784 |journal=Arabica |volume=63 |issue=3/4 |pages=201-234}} p. 211; also available on [https://www.academia.edu/23427168/The_Quranic_Cosmology_as_an_Identity_in_Itself academia.edu]</ref> They also note that the pre-Islamic poet Umayya ibn Abī al‐Ṣalt (d. 5 / 626) described the earth as a carpet (bisāṭan, like {{Quran|71|19}}) and likened it to the uplifted heavens. | Mohammad Ali Tabatabaʾi and Saida Mirsadri of Tehran University note in their paper surveying Qur'anic cosmography that the Qur'an "takes for granted" the flatness of the earth, a common motif among the scientifically naive people at that time, while it has "not even one hint of a spherical earth"<ref>{{citation |last1=Tabatabaʾi |first1=Mohammad A. |last2=Mirsadri |first2=Saida |date=2016 |title=The Qurʾānic Cosmology, as an Identity in Itself |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24811784 |journal=Arabica |volume=63 |issue=3/4 |pages=201-234}} p. 211; also available on [https://www.academia.edu/23427168/The_Quranic_Cosmology_as_an_Identity_in_Itself academia.edu]</ref> They also note that the pre-Islamic poet Umayya ibn Abī al‐Ṣalt (d. 5 / 626) described the earth as a carpet (bisāṭan, like {{Quran|71|19}}) and likened it to the uplifted heavens. | ||