مجله تاریخ علم
سال دوازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 16، بهار و تابستان 1393)

It is known that contaminated water contains many bacteria and harmful viruses that cause many diseases such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery, meningitis and poliomyelitis, etc. Water-related diseases are the most critical health problems in the world now, therefore the mechanisms of sterilize water and its development gained the attention of governments and scientists. This attention makes many people believe that water sterilization technology is a modern technology. Perhaps the reason for this belief is that ancient people were not able to see those microorganisms. In this research, we have found that ancient scholars realized the existence of these objects and tried to get rid of them in several ways. Some of these ways were successful, and could be considered as a basis for modern techniques. Polluted water passes through several stages of processing to become pure clear drinkable water. In this research, we will mention a summary of each procession stage (sedimentation-filtration-sterilization), then we will refer to the history of the evolution of this stage in various ancient civilizations, and finally we will explain it in Arab civilization.

The first proposition of the tenth book of Euclid's Elements is the basis of Archimedes’ “method of exhaustion”, which is used by Euclid himself in book XII. Euclid proves this proposition for variable proportion. Ibn al-Haytham (4th AH) claims that in his ḥall-i shukūk he has proved this proposition for a fixed proportion as the general solution, whereas Euclid had done it just for particular cases. Ṭūsī (597-672 AH) in his recension of Euclid’s Elements, in which seems has been used fī ḥall-i shukūk a lot, repeats the same idea as Ibn al-Haytham’s. Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ al-Ḥamadanī (d. 548 AH) has a treatise in which he criticizes Ibn al-Haytham’s idea and brings three main objections. Muḥammad Bāqir Yazdī (alive in 1047 AH) in his commentary on tenth book of Euclid’s Elements criticizes Ṭūsī’s idea and explains that the general condition which Ṭūsī applies disrupts the proof of second proposition of the tenth book.

In the Medieval Islamic medicine texts climatic plans for systematizing accommodation and healthy housing environments has been proposed. Ancient physicians viewed the human health protection as the genuine goal of medicine pertinent to man's interaction and consistency with climatic environment, relying on ingredient adaptation of human temperament with the four natural elements. In this article the history of the ancients’ climatic knowledge concerning the human interaction with artificial and natural environments is surveyed based on the historical interpretation approach of medical texts. The findings of this study indicate that climatic life method and organization of housing environments based on geographic features and climatic alterations of locations have been the most salient treatments of physicians for human temperament moderation, health, and climatotherapy. From this perspective, human health dependens on dynamic participation and coordination of a human being with climatic variable conditions via changing in the way and place of life (shift) and the existence of physical backgrounds of these changes in architecture. A brief survey of Iranian housing architecture shows that weather status (wind) regarding temperature, humidity and purity rate– as the most conspicuous indispensable factor for health and cli matotherapy – has the key role in localization and organization of the cities and housing spaces.

Hayʾa works is a general name for the astronomical works which provide a geometrical description of the configuration of the world. Most of this kind of astronomical works were written by Islamic scholars probably under the influence of Ptolemy’s Planetary Hypotheses. Most of Islamic hayʾa works have a similar structure and order of chpters and have been written in 6AH/12AD century. Nevertheless, we have some astronomical works in 3-4AH/9-10AD centuries which have some similarities with the hayʾa works so that we can call them the “predecessors of hayʾa works”. Al-Farghānī’s Jawāmiʿ Ilm al-Nujūm and the third chpter of Kūshyār’s al-Zīj al-Jāmiʿ are two important works among these predecessors. Concidering the four chpter organization for Hayʾa works, i.e. mathematical and physical introduction, configuration of the heavens, mathematical geograpgy and masses and distances (Abʿād wa Ajrām), we compare in this article these two treatises with each other and other hayʾa works. This article claims that the third chapter of Kūshyār’s al-Zīj al-Jāmiʿ is more similar to the next Hayʾa works and probably it is more impressive.

Shahīd-i ʾAwwal is one of the great jurists of 14th century AD. His works are still part of the Islamic seminaries’ curriculum. One of his most famous book is Ghāyat al-Murād, which includes several topics on Islamic law. One of these topics is the problem of the daily prayers which have not been done at they proper time and ought to be done again. The solution of that problem needs some knowledge of mathematics, especially combinatorics. It is necessary prayers exactly in the same sequence as the original prayers. Shahīd-i ʾAwwal has solved the problem by inventing a mathematical method, the function that is called today Factorial. Other great jurist, Shahīd-i Thānī, also has solved the problem, but not exactly in the same way. He wrote a commentary on Shahīd-i ʾAwwal’s Lomʿa. There is no doubt that the concept of this function is well understood.

In this paper, the contents of Heron’s treatise and the Persian manuscripts on lifting heavy weights have been investigated as a means to make preparations for comparing the Persian manuscripts to each other and to Heron’s treatise, and to evaluate the originality of the Persian manuscripts. The somewhat 22 manuscripts preserved in various libraries in Iran have been written during the 9AH/15AD to 13AH/19AD centuries. They have not yet been investigated. Some of them are attributed to Ibn Sīnā and some others to Ḥazīn Lāhījī. Abū Alī bin ʻabd al-Jalīl Khārazmī has also been named as an author. In the present paper it would be verified that these manuscripts are not independent from each other and can neither be attributed to Ibn Sīnā and Ḥazīn Lāhījī. The contents of these manuscripts are comparable to the second book of Heron’s treatise but independent of it.

Jām-e gītī-namā is a late instrument for determining qibla introduced in a treatise by Muḥammad Riḍā Yazdī (fl. Yazd, ca. 1867) entitled On Finding Qibla and Some Other Instruments. The author wrote it to investigate some earlier scientific instruments found at that time including a qibla-indicator. Although he did not describe the instrument in detail, his method of expressing its function leads us to consider it as a Mecca-centered world-map for finding the direction and distance to Mecca. As he found it impossible to determine the direction to Mecca through projecting, he devised jām-e gītī-namā to use its numerical results regardless of its spherical representation. This paper examines Muḥammad Riḍā’s approach on devising a new instrument for determining qibla inspired by an old one, in order to shed more light on qibla-indicators, more especially, Mecca-centered world-maps.