Said al-Andalusi

Life

Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī was born in Almería in al-Andalus during the Dhulnunid dynasty and died in Toledo. His Arab origins came from the tribe of Taghlib and his family had fled Cordova to take refuge in Almería during the civil war. His grandfather had been qadi (judge) of Sidonia and his father was qadi of Toledo until he died in 1057 when Ṣāʿid succeeded him.

The early biographers ibn Bashkuwal, Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Dabbi, al-Safadi and Ahmad al-Maqqari tell us Ṣāʿid's teachers in Toledo were ibn Hazm, al-Fataḥ ibn al-Qāsim (الفَتْح بن القاسم), and Abū Walīd al-Waqshi (أبو الوليد الوَقّشِي). He was educated in fiqh (Islamic law) first in Almería, then Córdoba, before graduating, it seems, in Toledo in 1046, aged eighteen. Toledo was then a great centre of learning and Ṣāʿid studied fiqh (law), tafsir (Qu'ranic exegesis), Arabic, and Arabic literature. His teacher, Abū Isḥaq Ibrāhīm ibn Idrīs al-Tajibī, directed him towards mathematics and astronomy, in which he excelled.

While qāḍi of Toledo under Governor Yaḥyā al-Qādir, he continued this work and produced several scholarly works that contributed to the Toledan Tables. He taught and directed astronomical research to a group of young scholars, precision-instrument-makers, astronomers and scientistsincluding the renowned al-Zarqaliand encouraged them to invent. Their research also contributed to the Toledan Tables.

Works

• Iṣlāh Ḥarakāt an-Najūn (اصلاح حركات النجوم) on the correction of earlier astronomical tables;
• Jawāmiʿ akhbār al‐umam min al‐Arab wa‐l Ajam (جوامع أخبار الأمم من العرب والعجم; 'Universal History of Nations – Arab and Non‐Arab')
• Ṭabaqāt al-‘Umam (طبقات الأمم), a classification of the sciences and of the nations (The only extant work), written in 1068 two years before his death.
• Rectification of Planetary Motions and Exposition of Observers' Errors; An astronomical treatise.
• Maqālāt ahl al‐milal wa-l-nihal (مقالات أهل الملل والنحل; 'Doctrines of the Adherents of Sects and Schools'),
• Kitāb al-Qāsī (كتاب القاصى), 'Book of Minor'

Tabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Categories of Nations)

The Ṭabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Tabaqāt) composed in 1068 is an early "history of science" that comprises biographies of the scientists and scientific achievements of eight nations. In the field of nations are the Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs and Jews (in contrast to others not disposed, such as Norsemen, Chinese, Africans, Russians, Alains and Turks). Ṣāʿid offers an account of the individual contribution each nation makes to the various sciences of arithmetic, astronomy, and medicine, etc., and of the earliest scientists and philosophers, from the Greeks,Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotleto the Roman and Christian scholars of the 9th and 10th centuries in Baghdad. The second half of the book contains Arab-Islamic contributions to the fields of logic, philosophy, geometry, the development of Ptolemaic astronomy, observational methods, calculations in trigonometry and mathematics to determine the length of the year, the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit, and the construction of astronomical tables, etc.

The Ṭabaqāt al-ʼUmam has been transcribed and translated into many different languages in many periods and cultures. The original document is not extant and discrepancies in the translations creates problems for historians, including variations in the title of the book. Discrepancies in the content of the editions appear with some versions omitting words, sentences, paragraphs or entire sections. Some omissions or variations may have arisen through scribal error, or difficulties of direct translation, while others arose, perhaps deliberately, out of the political, religious, or nationalistic sensibilities of the translators.

Notes

References

Bibliography

References

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3. Selin, Helaine. (2008-03-12). "Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures". Springer Science & Business Media.
4. Khan, M.S.. (17 August 1995). "Tabaqat Al-Umam of Qadi Sa-id Al-Andalusi (1029-1070)". Indian Journal of History of Science.
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6. De Weever, Jacqueline. (1988). "Chaucer name dictionary : a guide to astrological, Biblical, historical, literary, and mythological names in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer". Garland.
7. Richter‐Bernburg, Lutz (2007). "Ṣāʿid al‐Andalusī: Abū al‐Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn abī al‐Walīd Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid al‐Taghlibī al‐Qurṭubī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 1005–6.
8. Andalusī, Ṣāʻid ibn Aḥmad. (1991). "Science in the medieval world : book of the Categories of nations". University of Texas Press.
9. Scott, Bruce L.. (1997). "Review of Science and the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations" by". Journal of Near Eastern Studies.