Two Star Tables from Muslim Spain

Edited by Heiberg J. L. in Cl. Ptolemaei opera, ii (Leipzig, 1907), 227–59; German translation from the Latin, by Drecker J. , in Isis, ix (1927), 255–78. For the Arabic , cf. Krause M. , Stambuler Handschriften islamischer Mathematiker (Berlin, 1936; Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik Astronomie und Physik, Abt.B, Bd.3, Heft 4), 443; Sezgin F. , Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, v (Leiden, 1974), 170 (no. 1).

Cf. Krause , op. cit. (ref. 1), 482 (no. 255, 2); King D. , “On the early history of the universal astrolabe in Islamic astronomy”, Journal for the history of Arabic science, iii (1979), 244–57, p. 253, footnote 21.

“For the sake of precession since the epoch of his [= al-Battäni's] observation”, bi-qadr mā aqbala al-falak min waqt qiyāsihī.

Cf. the edition by Nallino C. , Al-Battāni sive Albatenii Opus astronomicum, trans. and comm. in vol. ii (Milan, 1907), 144ff. and 269ff.

Cf. Kunitzsch P. , Typen von Sternverzeichnissen in astronomischen Handschriften des zehnten bis vierzehnten Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1966), 15 with footnote 1, and 132f. (sub d). (This book will henceforth be cited as Kunitzsch [1].)

These were also translated into Latin and are found in some older editions of the Planisphaerium, cf. Heiberg , op. cit. (ref. 1), pp. clxxx–clxxxiii.

Also translated into Latin and edited in some older editions, cf. Heiberg , l.c., p. clxxxiii; see further ref. 8.

This section was not translated into Latin (except for the star table; see below). Sections ii and iii have been edited, and translated into Spanish, by Vernet J. and Catalá M. A. , in Al-Andalus, xxx (1965), 15–45 (with additional remarks on the star table by M. A. Catalá, ibid. , 46f.). The star table (in the Arabic version) was separately edited by Destombes M. , in Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, xv (1962), 26. Another edition of this star table, both in its Arabic text and in a Latin version, is in Kunitzsch [1], 15ff., as ‘Typ I’ and ‘Typ I A’.

With “al-Battāni's method”, Maslama seems to refer to the continuous counting of the longitudes from 0° to 360°, as against the usual system (following the Almagest) of attributing the longitudes to one of the 30 degrees within one of the twelve zodiacal signs (e.g., for α Leo: 135°40′, instead of Leo 15°40′).

See Kunitzsch [1], 17.

Sequence of the Istanbul numbers in the Paris table (Kunitzsch [1], ‘Typ I A’): 1, 2, 14, 3, 13, 4, 5, 16, 12, 20, 19, 7, 6, 17, 11, 8, 9, 21, 10, 15, 18.

The only exception is Istanbul no. 29 (al-rijl) which, in ‘Typ II’, is placed before Istanbul no. 24 (al-rukba). The ‘Typ II’-numbers are less by one against the Istanbul numbers because α Leo is missing in ‘Typ II’.

Cf. Vernet and Catalá , op. cit. (ref. 8 above), 16f.; Destombes , op. cit. (ref. 8), 20f.

The subsequent matters on ff. 150^v−151^r apparently do not belong to this treatise which clearly is declared to end at the bottom of f. 150^r. See also Krause , op. cit. (ref. 1), 525, no. 15.

See ref. 2, above.

“According to what results from the calculation of the movement of precession”, 'alā mā yakhruju min ḥisāb harakat al-iqbāl.

MS. m in Kunitzsch [1], ‘Typ XII’.

The Arabic sources now fix the date of ‘Typ XII’, with longitude = Ptolemy + 14°7′, to 459 H = ad 1066/7 which brings the discussion in Kunitzsch [1], 73, to a conclusion.

See King D. , as cited in ref. 2 above. The treatise in MS. Cairo , mīqāt 647 contains, in the preface, the same dedication to the amīr al-Mu'tamid ibn 'Abbād that is cited by King D. , op. cit., from a sixty-chapter version of the same treatise which also survives in several manuscripts.

I owe to the kindness of Prof. David King copies of the relevant pages from this MS. Unfortunately, the folio numbers are not visible in the copies so that I cannot here indicate the exact page where the star table is placed in the MS.

I am greatly indebted to my friend and colleague, Mme B. Atsiz of the University of Munich, for kindly putting her photographs of the relevant pages from the Istanbul MS. at my disposal.

Cf. Kunitzsch P. , Der Almagest. Die Syntaxis Mathematica des Claudius Ptolemäus in arabisch-lateinischer Überlieferung (Wiesbaden, 1974), 245f., esp. no. 155.

Cf. Peters C. H. F. and Knobel E. B. , Ptolemy's catalogue of stars (Washington, 1915), 167, no. 592.

Cf. Kunitzsch P. , Untersuchungen zur Sternnomenklatur der Araber (Wiesbaden, 1961), 50, no. 64a, and 91, no. 217 (henceforth quoted as Kunitzsch [2]). The word warik, ‘Hip’, originally does not occur in the Arabic versions of the Almagest; see Kunitzsch , Almagest (ref. 22 above), 260, no. 247.

Cf. Kunitzsch [2], 64, no. 114.

This would be the 5th lunar mansion, consisting of λø^1,2 Ori; cf. Kunitzsch [2], 64, no. 115a.

Cf. Kunitzsch [2], 52f., no. 75 a/b and 76 a/b.