ISMI Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative

PERSON

Ibn al-Shāṭir: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm

Name (arabic)

ابن الشاطر: علاء الدين أبو الحسن علي بن إبراهيم
Name (translit)

Ibn al-Shāṭir: ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm
Alias

ʿAlāʾ al‐Dīn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm
ابو الحسن على بن ابراهيم المعروف بابن الشاطر
ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad al-Muṭʿim al-Anṣārī al-Falakī al-Dimashqī
Ibn al-Shatir
Born

699H/1300J
Flourished

Died

761H/1360J
Born in

Damascus
Lived in

Damascus
Teacher of

Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīl ibn Yūsuf al-Māridīnī
Notes

Ibn al-Shāṭir, the long-time chief muezzin (raʾīs al-muʾadhdhinīn) and timekeeper (muwaqqit) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, was one of the most important astronomers of pre-modern Islam, writing on a variety of topics and producing one of the most innovative astronomical systems prior to the advances of early modern Europe.
Number in MAMS

750
Biography URL

http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ibn_al-Shatir_BEA.htm
ismi_id

10017

Authored Works

36 works:

Astronomical Instruments

al-Ashiʿah al-lāmiʿah fī al-ʿamal bi-al-ālah al-jāmiʿah , الأشعة اللامعة في العمل بالآلة الجامعة
al-Barq al-lāmiʿ fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-jāmiʿ , البرق اللامع في العمل بالربع الجامع
al-Ishārāt , الإشارات
al-Ishārāt al-ʿimādiyyah fī al-mawāqīt al-sharʿiyyah , الإشارات العماديّة في المواقيت الشرعيّة
al-Nafʿ al-āmm fī ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-tāmm li-mawāqīt al-Islām , النفع الآمّ في عمل بالربع التامّ لمواقيت الإسلام
al-Rawḍāt ẓāhirāt fī al-ʿamal bi-rubʿ al-muqanṭarāt , الروضات ظاهرات في العمل بربع المقنطرات
Kashf al-mughayyab fī al-ḥisāb bi-al-rubʿ al-mujayyab , كشف المغيّب في الحساب بالربع المجيّب
Mukhtaṣar fī al-ʿamal bi-al-asṭurlāb wa-rubʿ al-muqanṭarāt wa-al-rubʿ al-mujayyab , مختصر في العمل بالأسطرلاب وربع المقنطرات والربع المجيّب
Nuzhat al-sāmiʿ fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-jāmiʿ , نزهة السامع في العمل بالربع الجامع
Risālat al-asṭurlāb (Ibn al-Shāṭir) , رسالة الأسطرلاب
Risālat al-rubʿ al-kāmil , رسالة الربع الكامل
Risālah fī al-rubʿ al-ʿAlāʾī , رسالة في الربع العلائي
Risālah fī al-ʿamal bi-al-murabbaʿah , رسالة في العمل بالمربّعة
Risālah fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-hilālī , رسالة في العمل بالربع الهلالي
Risālah fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-tāmm , رسالة في العمل بالربع التامّ
Risālah fī al-ʿamal bi-rubʿ al-shikkāziyyah , رسالة في العمل بربع الشكّازيّة
Risālah fī asmāʾ al-rusūm ʿalá al-ālah al-musammāt bi-al-asṭurlāb al-shamālī dhāt al-ṣafāʾiḥ , رسالة في أسماء الرسوم على الآلة المسمّات بالأسطرلاب الشمالي ذات الصفائح
Risālah fī uṣūl ʿilm al-asṭurlāb (Ibn al-Shāṭir) , رسالة في أصول علم الأسطرلاب
Risālah īḍāḥ al-mughayyab fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-mujayyab , رسالة إيضاح المغيّب في العمل بالربع المجيّب
Risālah mukhtaṣarah fī al-ʿamal bi-al-rubʿ al-tāmm , رسالة مختصرة في العمل بالربع التامّ
Takhbīr al-aḥbāb fī al-ḍarūrī min ʿilm al-asṭurlāb , تخبير الأحباب في الضروري من علم الأسطرلاب

Astronomical Tables/zījes

al-Zīj al-jadīd , الزيج الجديد

Astronomy: General

al-Mukhtaṣarah fī al-jayb , المختصرة في الجيب
al-Zand al-mūrī fī al-ʿamal bi-al-jayb bi-ghayr murī , الزند الموري في العمل بالجيب بغير مري
Jadwāl li-ʿarḍ 34˚ shimāl fī maʿrifat al-ghāyah wa-niṣf al-qaws al-ḥaḍīḍ , جدول لعرض ٣٤ شمال في معرفة الغاية ونصف القوس الحضيض
Risālah fī al-hayʾah al-jadīdah , رسالة في الهيئة الجديدة
Risālah fī al-ʿamal bi-daqāʾiq ikhtilāf al-āfāq al-marʾiyyah , رسالة في العمل بدقائق إختلاف الآفاق المرئيّة
Risālah fī istikhrāj al-taʾrīkh , رسالة في إستخراج التأريخ
Risālah jayb , رسالة جيب
Tuḥfat al-sāmiʿ fī mā yataʿallaqu bi-al-burūj wa-al-ṭawāliʿ , تحفة السامع في ما يتعلّق بالبروج والطوالع

References

al‐Shāṭir, Ibn. 9999. “Al‐Zīj al‐jadīd”. Oxford, Bodleian Library.
Nikfahm-Khubravan, Sajjad, and F. Jamil Ragep. 2019. “Ibn Al-Shāṭir”. In Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Leiden: Brill.
Nikfahm-Khubravan, Sajjad, and F. Jamil Ragep. 2019. “The Mercury Models of Ibn Al-Šāṭir and Copernicus”. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 29: 1-59.
King, David. 2007. “Ibn al‐Shāṭir: ʿAlāʾ al‐Dīn ʿAlī Ibn Ibrāhīm”. In The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, 569-70. New York: Springer.
King, David. 2004. In Synchrony With the Heavens: Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. 2 vol. Leiden; Boston: E. J. Brill.

Vol. 1 (2004): The Call of the Muezzin (Studies I-IX), II-9.3. Vol 2 (2005): Instruments of Mass Calculation, XIVb-4 and 8.

Rozenfeld, Boris, and Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu. 2003. Mathematicians, Astronomers and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and Their Works (7th-19th c.). Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture.

Pp. 254-56 (no. 750).

King, David, Sophie Cluzan, Eric Delpont, and Jeanne Mouliérac. 1993. “L’astronomie En Syrie à l’époque Islamique”. In Syrie : Mémoire Et Civilisation. Paris: Institut du monde arabe; Flammarion.

Pp. 391-92, 435, 439.

Saliba, George. 1987. “Theory and Observation in Islamic Astronomy: The Work of Ibn Al-Shāṭir of Damascus”. Journal for the History of Astronomy 18 (1): 35-43.

Reprinted in: "A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories during the Golden Age of Islam." New York: New York University Press, 1994, pp. 233-41.

King, David. 1986. A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns; The American Research Center in Egypt.

Pp. 61-3 (no. C30).

Kennedy, Edward, David King, and Mary Kennedy. 1983. Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences. Beirut: American University of Beirut.

Contains reprints of all of the early studies of Ibn al‐Shāṭir's planetary theory.

King, David. 1983. “The Astronomy of the Mamluks”. Isis 74 (4): 531-55.

Reprinted in: "Islamic Mathematical Astronomy," III. London: Variorum Reprints, 1986; 2nd revised edition, Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.

King, David, and Louis Janin. 1977. “Ibn Al-Shāṭir’s Ṣandūq al‐Yawāqīt: An Astronomical ’Compendium’”. Journal for the History of Arabic Science 1: 187-256 (& 23 plates).

Reprinted in: "Islamic Astronomical Instruments," XII. London: Variorum Reprints, 1987. Reprinted again in: Aldershot: Variorum, 1995.

Kennedy, Edward, and Imad Ghanim. 1976. The Life and Work of Ibn Al-Shāṭir: An Arab Astronomer of the Fourteenth Century. Aleppo: Institute for History of Arabic Science; University of Aleppo.
Gillispie, Charles, and David King. 1975. “Ibn Al-Shāṭir”. In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 12:357-64. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Janin, Louis. 1972. “Le Cadran Solaire De La mosquée Umayyade à Damas”. Centaurus 16: 285-98.

Reprinted in: Kennedy, Edward Stewart and Imad Ghanim, eds. The Life and Work of Ibn al-Shāṭir: An Arab Astronomer of the Fourteenth Century. Aleppo: Institute for History of Arabic Science; University of Aleppo, 1976, pp. 107-121.

Hartner, Willy. 1971. “Trepidation and Planetary Theories: Common Features in Late Islamic and Early Renaissance Astronomy”. In Oriente E Occidente Nel Medioevo: Filosofia E Scienze, 609-29. Rome: Accademia nazionale dei Lincei.

Fondazione Alessandro Volta, Atti dei convegni, Vol. 13.

Kennedy, Edward. 1956. “A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables”. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 46, pt. 2: 121-77.
Schmalzl, Peter. 1929. Zur Geschichte Des Quadranten Bei Den Arabern. München: Druck der Salesianischen Offizin.

Partly reprinted in: Kennedy, Edward Stewart and Imad Ghanim, eds. The Life and Work of Ibn al-Shāṭir: An Arab Astronomer of the Fourteenth Century. Aleppo: Institute for History of Arabic Science; University of Aleppo, 1976, pp. 27-35.