Solar and Lunar Eclipse Measurements by Medieval Muslim Astronomers,I: Background

Newcomb S. , Washington observations for 1875 (Washington, D.C., 1878), App. II, 1.

Newton R. R. , Ancient astronomical observations and the accelerations of the Earth and Moon (Baltimore, 1970).

Yūnus Ibn , Abū al-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Raḥmān, al-Zīj al-Kabīr al-Ḥākimī (1008). For a biography of Ibn Yūnus and a discussion of this work and other works by him, see King D. A. “Ibn Yūnus”, Dictionary of scientific biography , xiv, 574–80. In this article, we find the following details about the zīj of Ibn Yūnus. It contains 81 chapters; the Leiden ms. (Cod. Or. 143) contains chaps. 1–22; the Oxford ms. (Hunt, 331) contains chaps. 21–44; and the Paris ms. (B.N. ar. 2496) is an anonymous abridgement containing some additional chapters up to 57 and chaps. 77–81.

de Perceval Caussin A. P. , Le Livre de la grande Table Hakemite par Ebn Iounis (Paris, 1804). This is part of the Leiden ms. (Or. 143) containing the text of Ibn Yūnus's observational reports (chaps. 4, 5 and 6), along with the introduction to the zīj, which includes the titles of the 81 chapters. In the Leiden ms., eclipse records are included in pp. 94–96, 100–2 and 110–13. However, in the Caussin edition, the appropriate pages are 81–95, 112–26 and 163–79.

For a biography of al-Māhānī (Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn 'Isā) and a discussion of his work, see Dold-Samplonius Yvonne , “al-Māhānī”, Dictionary of scientific biography, ix, 21–22.

Amājūr Banū : This is a title literally meaning “the sons of Amājūr”. The title is actually given to a group of persons each with the surname Ibn Amājūr (“the son of Amājūr”). In the present case, these persons are the father, Abū al-Qāsim 'Abd Allāh ibn Amājūr, the son, Abū al-Ḥasan 'Alī ibn Amājūr, and a freedman of the son, Mufliḥ ibn Yūsuf, who collaborated with them. Although Ibn Yūnus quoted the subtitle of the father (“Abū al-Qāsim”) in certain parts of his treatise, he used the first name 'Alī (not 'Abd Allāh) for the father, as he correctly did for the son. His reason is not apparent and there is the possibility of confusion here. For a biography and list of works of these astronomers, see Vernet J. , s.v. “Ibn Amādjūr”, Encyclopedia of Islam, new edn (Leiden, 1971), 702–3.

al-Battānī , Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān, al-Zīj al-Ṣābi' (c. 910), published in its original Arabic and translated into Latin by Nallino C. A. , al-Battānī sive Albatenii opus astronomicum (3 vols, Milan, 1899–1907). For the eclipse records (in Arabic), see vol. iii, pp. 84–86.

al-Bīrūnī, Abū al-Raiḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Kitāb Taḥdīd Nihāyāt al-Amākin li-Taṣḥīḥ Masāfāt al-Masākin (1025), ed. by Tanjī M. T. (Ankara, 1962); also ed. by Bulgakov P. G. (Cairo, 1962). For the eclipse record, see Ṭanjī , 271–2, also Bulgakov , 291.

al-Bīrūnī, Abū al-Raiḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, al-Qānūn al-Mas'ūdī (1031), ed. by 'd-Dīn Nizamu M. (3 vols, Hyderabad-Deccan, 1955). For the eclipse records, see vol. ii, pp. 740–2 and p. 632.

'Alī J. , English title The determination of the co-ordinates of positions for the correction of distances between cities (Beirut, 1967).

Bulgakov P. G. , al-Bīrūnī's al-Qānūn al-Mas'ūdī, translated into Russian (Publications of the Institute for the History of the Natural Sciences and Technology, Moscow, v; Part 1, 1973, Part 2, 1976).

King D. A. , “Ibn Yūnus' Very useful tables for reckoning time by the Sun”, Archive for history of exact sciences, x (1973), 342–94. This article has been reprinted in idem, Islamic mathematical astronomy (London, 1986).

Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr, al-Zīj al Ma'mūnī al-Mumtaḥan (The verified astronomical tables for the Caliph al-Ma'mūn), facsimile edn, ed. by Sezgin Fuat (Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, series C, vol. xxviii; Frankfurt, 1986). For a biography of this astronomer and a discussion of his works, see Vernet J. , “Yaḥyā Ibn Abī Manṣūr”, Dictionary of scientific biography, xiv, 537–8.

Toomer G. J. , Ptolemy's Almagest: A translation and annotation (London, 1984).

For a biography of Ḥabash al-Ḥāsib (Aḥmad ibn 'Abd Allāh al-Marwazī) and a discussion of his works, see Sekeli S. , “Habash al-Ḥāsib”, Dictionary of scientific biography, v, 612–20.

Strabo , Geography, I, 1, 13; transl. by Jones H. L. (London, 1917), 23–25.

Neugebauer O. , A history of ancient mathematical astronomy (Berlin, 1975), 667.

al-Bīrūnī , Kitāb Taḥdīd (ref. 8), see Ṭanjī (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 135 and Bulgakov (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 167.

See for example the details in Said S. S. Stephenson F. R. , and Rada W. , “Records of solar eclipses in Arabic chronicles”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, lii, Part 1 (1989), 38–64.

al-Bīrūnī , Kitāb al-Tafhīm li Awā 'il Ṣinā 'at al-Tanjīm, printed in facsimile and translated by Wright R. R. [English title: The book of instruction in the elements of the art of astrology] (London, 1934), 172.

Freeman-Grenville G. S. P. , The Muslim and Christian calendars (Oxford, 1977).

Newton R. R. , “The Earth's acceleration as deduced from al-Bīrāunī's solar data”, Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, lxxvi (1972), 99–128.

Neugebauer O. and Sachs A. J. , “Some atypical astronomical cuneiform texts, I”, Journal of cuneiform studies, xxi (1967), 183–218.

Toomer , Almagest (ref. 14), VI, 8, p. 308.

Stephenson F. R. , and Fatoohi L. J. , “Accuracy of early estimates of eclipse magnitude”, Quarterly journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, xxxv (1994), 81–94.

King , “Ibn Yūnus' Very useful tables” (ref. 12), esp. pp. 377–8.

al-Bīrūnī , Kitāb Taḥdīd (ref. 8), see Ṭanjī (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 135 and Bulgakov (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 168.

al-Bīrūnī , Kitāb Taḥdīd (ref. 8), see Ṭanji (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 135–6 and Bulgakov (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 8), 168.

Stephenson F. R. and Morrison L. V. , “Long-term fluctuations in the Earth's rotation: 700 b.c. to a.d. 1990”, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A, xxxli (1995), 165–202.

Stephenson F. R. and Said S. S. , “Precision of medieval Islamic eclipse measurements”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxii (191), 195–207.