مجله تاریخ علم
سال هجدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 29، پاییز و زمستان 1399)

The treatise called “Kitāb al-Ṭīb” is a work composed by Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan b. Ibrāhīm al-Khāzin (living in 421/1030), dealing with aromatic substances. There are four known copies of this work, the oldest one (Princeton, Garrett, 174B) dated 590/1194 is incomplete and disorderly in its present situation. Rearranging this manuscript and clarifying the relationship between all extant manuscripts of the work seem necessary for a critical edition of it. Based on the repetition of a note referring to the contents and order of treatises in three codices, similarities in the colophon of them, different readings of same words in each of these manuscripts, as well as the text conflations, the most probable explanation is that the Princeton manuscript has been the basis of copying the other three manuscripts

Planets occasionally quit their prograde motions and go against their normal direction, said retrogression. Happening for differences in orbital velocities of planets and earth, retrogression loops not only are unequal at forms and scales but appear everywhere in the sky. Applying the concentric epicycle-deferent model makes the similar regular loops, but it does not correspond to observations; thus, employing eccentre deferent is needed. Description of the phenomenon is the subject of Book XII of the Almagest. Ptolemy explained some necessary lemmas for his geometrical explanations and examined his justifications by few specified positions for every planet. This paper studies contents of a treatise note on retrogression attributed to Muʾayyad al‐Dīn al‐ʿUrḍī, one of the invited scholars to founding Maragha observatory. Apart from his skills and achievements in designing and manufacturing astronomical instruments, he was a proficient theorist astronomer with educational experiences. The present treatise is an informative text similar to other known works of ʿUrḍī in precision and consideration of the matter’s geometrical aspects.He has attempted to encounter the phenomenon holistically instead of checking parameters in the case studies to present regulation using Apollonius’ theorem

The stick method is a common and easy way to estimate the object size or its distance to an observer. Today, painters, scouts, artillery observers, woodchoppers, etc. use this method when they have no special rangefinder instrument. We don’t know the exact origin of this method but Euclid has described a similar way in proposition 22 of his optics. Great astronomer of the 12th century, cAbd al-Raḥmān al-Khāzinī, has explained the stick method in his treatise named about the marvelous instruments (fī Ālāt al-cAjība). He dedicated his treatise to explain observatory instruments and amplified how to use these instruments and the information gathered by them. al-Khāzinī described 7 instruments used for observing the stars in 7 independent books and added their application as the surveying tools. He presented the geometrical arguments to show us why and how we can use his formulas to gain mathematical information about subjects from data gathered by these instruments. al-Khāzinī talked about the stick method in an appendix without the geometrical arguments. His main goal was to describe a simple way for soldiers and horsemen to calculate their distance from their enemies or estimate the strength of foes armies. Furthermore, he explained estimating the distance from an object by knowing its diameter or vice versa and finally estimating the distance and diameter of the object when they were both unknown. His method was easy and practical for anyone in the military campaign who didn’t know complicated mathematical relations. He used a wooden stick about 80 c.m long to do this job. In this paper, I briefly presented al-Khāzinī’s original treatise and four manuscripts available in the libraries and talked about how amended al-Khāzinī’s treatise in the first step. Secondly, I introduced the English translation of al-Khāzinī’s appendix about the stick method with its main Arabic text. Finally, I described his method by modern mathematics symbols and notations and then I tried to rebuild the geometrical arguments according to his previous book about the triquetrum.

The administrational body of Iranian governments affected the Architecture in various ways. We do not know much about the details of this relationship. But one of the channels of this relationship was the concept of Kharādj, the land tax, and its regulations. Kharadj was depended on the income of the property and the income of the property depended on the balance between prosperity and destruction. Basically they did not collect Kharadj from the ruins at all. The implementation of this simple law had technical and preliminary requirements. They should have had statistics on the country's properties in which the prosperous and ruinous part of each settlement was dealt with separately. But in Iran, the situation of properties was changing over time and the factors of destruction were constantly in place. The settlements were destroyed and the ruins were settled over and over again. Consecutive surveys and a broad surveying office were necessary with many learned surveyors. Some people showed their property in ruins to escape the tax. Hence, the recognition of prosperous and ruinous was one of the key issues of the Divān-e Kharādj. The government should train experts to identify and measure the ruins and update the accounts. In addition, the government exempted newly farmed lands in order to encourage the people to farm the barren lands. These exemptions had precise rules and special implications. Rewriting the tax books and considering barrens and ruined in the accounts were among the most important reforms of the governments. The accounts of these reforms are found in Iranian history and even in Iranian myths. But In times of hardship, Kharādj itself could be the cause of destruction, and the demand for taxes from barren lands drove people out of settlements. The relationship between kharādj and destruction and the direct impact it had on people's everyday life has caused this duality to find a lasting place in Iranian culture and mind. This duality found its way into the works of the speakers of Iranian culture; as they say "Kharādj on the ruins" like a proverb and used it to convey lyrical and mystical concepts. In this article, relying on the Persian texts from tenth to fourteenth centuries, we will explore different aspects of the relationship between Kharādj and ruins and its technical requirements. The insights obtained from these texts will be used in understanding the legal system of architecture in medieval Islamic Iran; an area that has been more or less neglected so far

The classification of sciences based on the subject of sciences and their similarities and differences with each other makes their teaching and learning easier. This science has been considered in ancient civilizations in general terms, including the classification of books, living things and natural phenomena, and in ancient Greek civilization, in a specialized way. In the Islamic period, that special attention was paid to the explanation, education and classification of various sciences, this science was defined and its goals were enumerated, and even the classification of sciences among the sciences of the Islamic period was mentioned and sources have also been written in this regard. Given the importance of the natural sciences to scientists and scholars of the Islamic period, they defined and explained the place of these sciences in the hierarchy of the classification of sciences as well as the subdivisions of its types; The sources that have dealt with this science are not limited to the sources related to natural phenomena, but have also dealt with various works, from philosophy to cosmographical texts including wonders of creation and general encyclopedias written in the Islamic period. Of course, various factors influenced the type of classifications; For example, Aristotle's criteria for classifying the sciences were followed more or less by the scholars of the Islamic period, especially the Peripatetics. This influence is evident in the treatises of Ikhwān Al-Ṣafā', the works of Ibn Sina, Naṣīr al-dīn Ṭūsī, and even earlier scholars of the Islamic period, including Ibn al-Muqaffa' and Ibn Behrīz. Religious views, sometimes mixed with philosophical and mystical thought, were another influential factor. This issue is evident in the works of Ġazzālī and Naṣīr al-dīn Ṭūsī. Sometimes the environmental conditions of the authors or their expertise and employment in government positions influenced their criteria in the classification of sciences. Ibn Sina and Anṭākī, for example, classified the natural sciences more accurately than other scholars because they were physicians and pharmacists. Ibn Farīġūn and Qalqashandī also had a general and practical approach to the courtiers in their writings due to the need of the rulers of the time and their position in the government apparatus. The practical, simple and even superstitious approach in encyclopedias and texts related to the wonders of creation caused the divisions of science in these works not to follow certain principles

In addition to the development of new sciences and technologies, the teachings of the Dār al-Funūn School influenced the attitude towards painting and its teaching in Iran. Iranian painting in the process of transition from traditional methods to realistic representation such as the Kamāl al-Mulk method is linked to the teachings of the Dār al-Funūn school. In re-reading the activities of the school, especially in the early years, we encounter painting in a faint and transient way; but it is not known what role painting was taught in the Dār al-Funūn, and why painting was also taught in a school that had opened to teach sciences and thechnology? Knowing that painting, based on contemporary narratives from the Dār al-Funūn, was a stage and part of the study of higher geometry adds to the importance of this question. The forthcoming research, based on scattered reports from the teaching of painting at the Dār al-Funūn, leads to the following questions: What is the painting in Dār al-Funūn? And what was the position of painting among the branches of science and technology? And what changes has the concept of painting undergone in its work process? The search for answers in contemporary scientific sources and in the correlation of painting with science, forms the basis of the present study. The research is carried out in a historical way by reflecting on the transformation of the meanings of words and the application of sciences, and by searching the tendencies and teachings of teachers and graduates of Dār al-Funūn, especially with a delay in the concepts of geometry, cartography and optics. This article answers that the common denominator of these branches is dealing with sizes, lines, surfaces, and objects. Findings show that the meaning of painting art in geometry is optics. Optics in the process of transition to a new perspective were first part of geometry and then, separating from geometry and old optics, became the basis of scientific studies in painting. The transformations of optics in Europe and the emergence of perspective as well as the geometric rules of representation have been the basis of the Dār al-Funūn's teachings on the approach to science as well as the formation of realistic painting in Iran.

This article concerns two treatises by Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (973 - ca. 1050 A.D.) entitled the Book on Bringing what is in the Potentiality of the Astrolabe into Actuality (Arabic: Kitāb Ikhrāj mā fī Quwwat al-Usṭurlāb ilā al-Fiʿl) and the Treatise on Opening the Way towards Using the Different Kinds of Astrolabes (Arabic: Maqāla fī al-Taṭrīq ilā Istiʿmāl Funūn al-Usṭurlābāt). The two treatises are user manuals for the astrolabe. In the first treatise, al-Bīrūnī deals with the applications of the standard astrolabe and in the second one, which is more advanced than the first one and was written for the readers with a higher level of knowledge in this field, treats the applications and structure of standard as well as some non-standard astrolabes. Both treatises contain technical and historical information some of which cannot be found in any other work with the same subject. In this article, after a glance at al-Bīrūnī՚s biography, I give some explanations on the stereographic projection as the principle of the astrolabe, then explain the difference between the standard and non-standard astrolabes (including mixed ones) mentioning those non-standard astrolabes which are discussed in the Taṭrīq by al-Bīrūnī. After that I give an overview of both treatises. This part is followed by a special attention to the reconstruction of the “crescent-shaped” astrolabe based on al-Bīrūnī՚s explanations in the Taṭrīq. The crescent-shaped astrolabe is a non-standard astrolabe and was discussed only in the Taṭrīq and al-Sijzī՚s Book on the Operation of the Astrolabe (Arabic: Kitāb fī ʿAmal al-Usṭurlāb; which contains brief explanations on the construction of this astrolabe) among the medieval sources. Then, I analyze what al-Bīrūnī wrote on the “boat-shaped astrolabe” in the Taṭrīq. The boat-shaped astrolabe is another example of non-standard astrolabes on which, unlike the standard astrolabes, the projected image of the ecliptic doesn՚t move, but it is equipped with a movable boat-shaped piece simulating the movement of the horizon. I then discuss al-Bīrūnīʼs authorship and the dates of these two texts, as well as the place of these two treatises among the other astrolabe works by al-Bīrūnī. I also describe the available manuscripts of these two texts.

The manuscript collection number 772 of La Bibliothèque Nationale de France mostly known for its geometric content. This collection includes several mathematical treatises written in Persian, among them the treatise titled Tarjuma-i Kitāb al-Aʿmāl al-Handasiyya (Translation of the Book on Geometrical Constructions), the translation of the famous book of Abū al-Wafā Būzjānī on practical geometry, and Fī tadākhul al-ashkāl al-mutashābiha aw al-mutawāfiqa (On Similar and Complementary Interlocking Figures) are already studied by different scholars. There are three anonymous Persian geometrical treatises in this collection: The treatise A (we mention it under the title Mukhtaṣar fī al-Handasa) (fols. 71r -81v); The treatise B (fols. 81r -89r); The treatise C (fols. 90v-100r). The treatise A is a single distinguish one and the survey to find some similar treatise to it or its origin was not successful. In this paper, the critical edition of this treatise is included, and its mathematical problems are discussed. On the other hand, The studies showed that treatises A and B are similar partly to four other mathematical treatises: Lubb al-Ḥisāb (the Gist of Arithmetic) by ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf Munshī from 12th century, Ghunyat al-Ḥussāb fī ʿIlm al-Ḥisāb by Qāḍī al-Himāmīyya Abū al-ʿAbbās Jamāl al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Thābit, Manāzil al-Sabʿ by Būzjānī and al-Badiʿ fi al-hisāb by Karajī. The study of these treatises and detecting their origins is crucial to identify the history of Persian mathematical texts.

The study of agronomy heritage of the Islamic period, focusing on the two issues of soil and the methods of soil fertilization and tracing it to find classical Greek and Roman roots, illuminates the efforts of Islamic agricultural scholars to promote and diversify the pedology. In addition to repeating a large part of the earlier works, the Filāḥa texts in those chapters contain new data consisting of inductive and theoretical explanations, along with agricultural experiences and personal observations. As that field can be considered one of the most important aspects of innovation in the Filāḥa texts of Islamic period. Among them, the treatises compiled in Al-Andalus and specifically the works of Ibn Baṣṣāl and Ibn al-ʿAwwām paved the way for defining new criteria for determining soil quality and the introduction of new categories of it. So that the decuple common classifications in Roman texts for different types of soils were upgraded to at least 25 types. In the next step, these criteria were developed and presented in Iran in Persian agronomy with a completely innovative approach and focused on their practical application. However, these different interpretations were incomplete and were not followed in the Islamic world and even in the Latin West, and even for contemporary researchers of the history of Islamic science remains unknown. The purpose of this article is to study the evolution of agricultural texts by focusing on that minor issue and to trace the possible reasons for its changes.

The fourth and fifth centuries AH is the period of the domination of the Buwayhīd dynasty over the caliphate of Baghdad. This dynasty of Shiites was very interested in spreading knowledge in the countries under their control and devoted all their efforts to supporting scientists and promoting science. The most important examples of their support for science can be seen in Baghdad, as the center of the Islamic Caliphate. The kings and ministers of this government were very interested in promoting knowledge in all the known fields and areas of that time and were able to accelerate the scientific endeavors made in the time of Hārūn and Maʾmūn with more power. With the spirit of religious and scientific tolerance, to turn the “Dār al-ʿIlm”s as a historical continuation of the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Ḥikma), into a safe place for research, study and teaching of scientists. In the meantime, some centers such as “Dār al-ʿIlm Shāpūr” became a suitable place for gathering the most important scientists of that time due to the efforts of the honorable founder and the trustees of its scientists. In addition to scientific discussions and debates, valuable works by scientists were made available to science seekers in the center’s extensive library. One of the sciences that was able to develop with the help of the administrative and scientific structure of “Dār al-ʿIlm Shāpūr” is medical knowledge. The large number of books preserved in that center, and especially the dedication of the important medical works of the great physicians of that time, had given it double importance. The present study is an attempt to analyze the prominent role of the library of “Dār al-ʿIlm Shāpūr” in the spread of knowledge -especially medicine- in the fourth and fifth centuries AH.