Author
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī
Publication Date
Rabī‘ I 570 (AH, Hijri)
Publication Place
Baghdad -
Subject
1
Type
Book
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
1
Physical Dimensions
334 x 215 mm
Library
Qatar Digital Library
Library Asset ID
Or 1997
Record ID
vdc_100022880536.0x000001
Library Location
British Library: Oriental Manuscripts
Date
Rabī‘ I 570 (AH, Hijri)
Notes
An early and complete copy of the comprehensive astronomical work, or
Canon
, by Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (Abu al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī, ca 973-1048). The
al-Qanūn al-M
asʿūdī
was dedicated to Sultan Mas‘ūd of Ghaznī (reg. 1030-1040), and summarizes the astronomy of the
Almagest
(Kitab al-Mujasti) of Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus; c 90-c 168) and brings it up to date by adjusting stellar longitudes to account for the almost nine centuries elapsed between the two authors, and by adding astronomical advances drawn from Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit sources.
The copy was completed in Rabī‘ I 570/Sept.-Oct. 1174 in Baghdad by an anonymous scribe.
The text is divided into 11 treatises (articles) subdivided into chapters (chapters) and then sections (sections). A detailed table of contents is found on ff. 2r-5r.
Contents:
Treatise One (First Treatise), eleven introductory chapters (ff. 5v-17v);
Treatise Two, twelve chapters on calendars and chronologies (ff. 18r-51r);
Treatise Three, ten chapters on trigonometry (ff. 52r-65v);
Treatise Four, twenty-six chapters on spherical astronomy (ff. 66r-91r);
Treatise Five, eleven chapters on geodesy (ff. 91v-109r);
Treatise Six, eleven chapters on solar motion and time (ff. 109v-131r);
Treatise Seven eleven chapters on lunar motion. (ff. 131v-158r);
Treatise Eight seventeen chapters on eclipses (ff. 158v-179r);
Treatise Nine chapters on the fixed stars (ff. 179v-211v);
Treatise Ten thirteen chapters on the planets (ff. 212r-242r);
Treatise Eleven (Treatise Eleven) eleven chapters on astrology (ff. 242v-262r).
Begins (f. 1v, lines 2-5):
The Massoudi Law
The work of Abi al-Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bayruni (may Allaah have mercy on him).
Al-Mas'ood from Sa'd by Allah and one of his verses about the shapes and likenesses
Islam is the east of the conquered earth and the west of it and the end of the news to its followers after the west of it.
Ends (f. 262, lines 10-12):
... وإن توكل متوكله عليه (أمرًا حاحًا بين ؟) Hawle andbin be open to the number and number of injured
Falberul to whom he is able in the art (?) and what is the secure victory with Allah, for whom Allah's victory is not invincible in the obligation of Allah
For them is victory and consequence for the righteous
Colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 262, lines 13-18):
The eleventh article is over
I said the entire Massoudi classification law
Abu al-Rihan al-Bayruni, praise be to Allah
In the city of peace Baghdad in the month of Rabi
The first of the seventh and fifth months of the Hijri calendar
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds
Collation note next to
colophon
Section at the end of a manuscript text.
(f. 262)
Receive the price of what (?) transfer me
Muharram Sunnah One and Seven
and the fifth month of the Arab Hijri (?) and peace
Erişim Koşulları
Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
Bulma Yardımcıları
Rieu, Charles,
Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts
(London: The British Museum 1894), Item 756, pp. 513-19
Edinme Kaynağı
Purchased from the son of Sir Henry M. Elliot 13 April 1878
Köken
Sir Henry Miers Elliot, K.C.B., his bookplate (front paper iii
recto
The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'.
);
Semi-legible seal, accomanying inscription dated Dhū al-Qa‘dah 1064/September-October 1654 (f. 1r, upper left-hand corner);
Semi-legible seal, undated (f. 1r, middle left-hand margin);
Semi-legible seal, undated, with inscription of ‘Ināyat Mawlānā Nīyār Aḥmad Ṣāḥib (عنايت مولانا نيار أحمد صاحب; f. 1r, middle left-hand margin);
Muḥammad Ghāzī (محمد غازي), chief architect (معمور خان), his seal dated 1125 (AD 1713-14), with inscription dated 1 Dhū al-Qa‘dah 1126/8 November 1714 (f. 1r, lower left-hand margin);
Semi-legible seal, undated (f. 262v).
Seçilmiş kaynakça
Edition:
Bīrūnī, Abū Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad,
Kitāb al-Qānūn al-Mas‘ūdī
, 3 vols (Ḥaydar Ābād al-Dakan: Maṭbaʻat Majlis Dāʾirat al-Maʻārif al-ʻUthmānīyah, 1954-56)
Studies:
Kennedy, Edward Stewart, 'Al-Bīrūnī's Masudic Canon',
al
-
Abhāth
, 24 (1971), 59–81 (Reprinted in David A. King and Mary Helen Kennedy (eds.),
Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences by E.S. Kennedy, Colleagues, and Former Students
[Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1983] pp. 573–95)
Sezgin, Fuat,
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
, vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 1978). pp. 265-66
Yano, Michio, 'Bīrūnī: Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī' in Thomas Hockey et al. (eds.),
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers
, Springer Reference. New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 131-33
