مجله تاریخ علم
سال سوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 4، پاییز و زمستان 1384)

In the present paper we concern Henri Lebesgue’s famous article on definite integral presented in April 1901 to the Academy of Science in Paris. It has played an important role in the history of real analysis during the 20th century. Recent comments on it include a 2001 commemoration note by Bony, Choquet and Lebeau, as well as a detailed article of Jean-Paul Pier. We translate the Lebesgue’s original article into Persian and discuss other analytical comments.

Researchers of intellectual history of Islamic period count truly Ḥunayn b. ’Isḥāḳ (died 260 A.H.) as the representative of Greek-Roman culture in the first Abbasid age. He was considered as a strong translator, a skilled physician and as one familiar with Christian philosophy and theology. Undoubtedly Ḥunayn can be counted as the greatest translator of the translation movement in the Abbasid age, as the old sources have also named him “Shaykh al-Mutardjimīn” (the master of translators). He had his own style and school of translation. In Ḥunayn’s opinion each translation depends on the ability of translator and the taste and knowledge of one orders it. Therefore in translating different texts, somewhere he attempts to give an extensive account, but elsewhere provides an intensive summary; despite there are certain characteristics in Ḥunayn and his followers’ style of translation.This research considers episodes of Ḥunayn’s scientific life, his style of translation, his students and also the relation between his circle and the scientists and statesmen of that time.

This article examines the views of Greek, Muslim and Latin scientists -from Aristotle to Dietrich de Freiberg and Kamāl al-DīnFārsī- on the rainbow and their explanations in this regard. In Aristotle’s view, the rainbow is produced by the reflection of sunlight on very fine water droplets which make the cloud. In Islamic world, IbnHaytham, who made innovations in old optics, explained the rainbow by “empirical method”. Several centuries later, Kamāl al-DīnFārsī endeavored to interpret IbnHaytham’s works and made a model in order to simulate the rainbow.In Latin world, after translating Islamic scientific heritage in optics, Robert Grossetête and Albert le Grand were the first who study the rainbow; but in fact the Latin world owes the discovery of the rainbow’s reason to Dietrich de Freiberg. He presented his explanation in about 1305 AD/605 AH while Fārsī had also published the results of his studies separately.

In Cairo citadel, in front of Muhammad-Ali mosque,on a tower wall, there is a sundial which works very well. This sundial is certainly an exceptional one because of its furnitures, signs and also complexity of calculations which used for its design and structure (a cylindrical, with south-western inclination and four polar gnomons) and can be counted as an excellent evidence for Muslims extraordinary technical progress in making gnomons and sundials in 18th century.This article, for the first time, provides a consideration on this sundial relying on the bases of modern mathematics.

Al-Kāshī’s novel method for the determination of the sine of one degree is one of the most significant contributions to the Islamic mathematics. He explained this method in Risāla al-Watarwa al-Djayb (treatise on the chord and the sine) which no manuscript of it have yet been found; and therefore the attention of the history of sciences researchers has been attracted to Risāla fi IstikhrādjDjaybDaradjaWāḥida (treatise on the determination of the sine of one degree). This treatise is written by Ḳāḍizāda al-Rūmī, al-Kāshī’s friend and colleague, and provides a detailed commentary on al-Kāshī’s method.Presenting valid documents and evidences, this article aims to prove Ḳāḍizāda’s authorship of the aforementioned treatise.

During the 13 centuries from Galen’s death to the beginning of the 16th century, the world faced a drastic political change which resulted in changing the medical sciences status, therefore medical science papers were written in diverse languages such as Greek, Latin, Arabic and Persian.The Talmudic physicians, while accepting the Galen’s sphygmology could differentiate artery and vein and perhaps recognize the heart hypertrophy and failure.Rāzī writing his monographs in Arabic, described a patient with aortic insufficiency (not under this name) and perhaps to be claimed that he, before IbnNafīs, somehow had been familiar with pulmonary circulation and diseases with signs of myocardial infarction and MadjūsīAhwāzī was also familiar with this condition.IbnSīnā talking about the continuation of heart beat after animal’s death describes pericarditis. Gurgānī had similar ideas, and then IbnNafīs clearly disputed Galen’s ideas about the holes in the heart septum and correctly described the coronary and pulmonary circulations.

Exploring inner character of a person through his appearance is the subject of physiognomy which has been discussed by a group of scholars since past times up to now; for example Hippocrates -several centuries before Christ- paid attention to it. But physiognomy has not been counted as a known and independent science till Aristotle.Islamic sources mentioned Polemon of Greece as an expert in physiognomy. It was introduced to Islamic world through translation of Greek sources, especially medical books. Scholars like Rāzī, IbnSīnā, IbnRushd and others discussed in this field and some of them wrote independent treatises and books in this regard. Fakhr al-DīnRāzī’s treatise entitled Risāla fi al-Firāsat is an example of these works. This treatise has been translated into Persian by Lutfullāh ‘AzīzHirawī (7th century A.H.).