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Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī (Arabic: صاعِدُ الأندلسي), in full Abū al-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad ibn Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid ibn ʿUthmān al-Taghlibi al-Qūrtūbi (صاعِدُ بنُ أحمدَ بن عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن صاعدٍ التَّغْلِبيُّ) (1029 – July 6, 1070 AD; 420 – 6 Shawwal, 462 AH), was an Arab qadi of Toledo in al-Andalus, who wrote on the history of science, philosophy and thought. He was a mathematician and scientist with a special interest in astronomy and compiled a famous biographic encyclopedia of science that quickly became popular in the empire and the Islamic East.

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 scientists – including the renowned al-Zarqali – and 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 Aristotle – to 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

1. These three titles on history and astronomy are mentioned among his works in Tabaqāt.
2. Mentioned by al-Qifṭī in the account of the astronomer al-Battānī in his Ta’rīkh al-Ḥukamā’ .
3. Ṣāʿid singles out Aristotle for particular praise saying of him: "No one can object if Allāh/Assembled the world in one individual".

References

1. ^ Khan, M.S. (17 August 1995). "Tabaqat Al-Umam of Qadi Sa-id Al-Andalusi (1029-1070)" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 30: 2–4.
2. Selin, Helaine (2008). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9781402045592.
3. Martinez-Gros, Gabriel, ed. (1995). "Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī". The Encyclopedia of Islam (New Edition). Vol. VIII. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 867–8.
4. Selin, Helaine (2008-03-12). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4020-4559-2. As his name indicates, he was a member of the tribe of Taghlib, one of the largest tribes of Arabia.
5. Khan, M.S. (17 August 1995). "Tabaqat Al-Umam of Qadi Sa-id Al-Andalusi (1029-1070)" (PDF). Indian Journal of History of Science. 30: 2–4.
6. De Weever, Jacqueline (1988). Chaucer name dictionary : a guide to astrological, Biblical, historical, literary, and mythological names in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Garland. ISBN 9780815323020. OCLC 26673949.
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. Qifṭī 1903, p. 280.
9. ^ Andalusī, Ṣāʻid ibn Aḥmad (1991). Science in the medieval world : book of the Categories of nations. Salem, Semaʻan I., 1927-, Kumar, Alok, 1954- (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292704690. OCLC 23385017.
10. ^ Scott, Bruce L. (1997). "Review of Science and the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations" by". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 56 (3): 218–220. doi:10.1086/468562. JSTOR 545654.

Bibliography

• Andalusí (al-), Said (1991). Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations. Translated by Sema'an I. Salem; Alok Kumar. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-71139-5.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1912). Cheikho, Louis (ed.). Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-'Umam (in Arabic). Bayrūt: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Kāthūlīkīyah.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (2000). Llavero Ruiz, Eloísa; Martínez Lorca, Andrés (eds.). Historia de la filosofía y de las ciencias o Libro de las categorías de las naciones (Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-'Umam) (in Spanish). Madrid: Trotta, D.L. ISBN 9788446010920. OCLC 803658443.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1999). Maíllo Salgado, Felipe (ed.). Libro de las categorías de las naciones : vislumbres desde el Islam clásico sobre la filosofía y la ciencia (in Spanish). Tres Cantos, Madrid: Akal. OCLC 1024023889.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1996). Kumar, Alok; I Salem, Semaan (eds.). Science in the medieval world: "Book of the categories of nations". Austin: University of Texas Press. OCLC 911294124.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1999). Cheikho, Louis; Blachère, Regis; Sezgin, Fuat (eds.). Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-'Umam. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften. OCLC 912195495.
• Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1975). Khan, M Saber (ed.). India in Hispano-Arabic literature: an eleventh century Hispano-Arabic source for ancient Indian sciences and culture. Calcutta: N. I.
• Ibn Bashkuwāl, ibn ʻAbd al-Malik (1966). Kitāb al-ṣilah (in Arabic). Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣrīyah lil-Taʼlīf wa-al-Tarjamah. p. 321.
• Ibn ʻAmīrah, Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyá (1967), Bughyat al-multamis fī tārīkh rijāl ahl al-Andalus, Turāthunā Maktabah al-Andalusīyah (in Arabic), al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Kātib al-ʻArabī
• Joshua, Finkel (1927). An eleventh century source for the history of Jewish scientists in Mohammedan land (Ibn Ṣāʻid) (Microfilm ed.). Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning.
• Qifṭī, Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Yūsuf (1903). Lippert, Julius (ed.). Ta'rīkh al-Ḥukamā' (in Arabic). Leipzig: Theodor Weicher.
• Ṣafadī (al-), Khalīl ibn Aybak (1962). Kitāb al-wāfī bi-al-wafayāt (in Arabic). Vol. 17. Wiesbaden: In Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 135.
• Sa`id al-Andalusi (1 March 1996). Science in the Medieval World ('Tabaqat al-'Umam'). Translated by Sema`an I. Salem; Alok Kumar. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-70469-5.
• Ṣāʻid al-Andalusī (1935). Livre des catégories des nations. Régis Blachère (trans.). Larose Éditions.

External links

• 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. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 1005–6. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)

v t e Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world
Mathematicians	9th century 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk Sanad ibn Ali al-Jawharī Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf Al-Kindi Qusta ibn Luqa Al-Mahani al-Dinawari Banū Mūsā brothers Hunayn ibn Ishaq Al-Khwarizmi Yusuf al-Khuri Ishaq ibn Hunayn Na'im ibn Musa Thābit ibn Qurra al-Marwazi Abu Said Gorgani 10th century Abu al-Wafa al-Khazin Al-Qabisi Abu Kamil Ahmad ibn Yusuf Aṣ-Ṣaidanānī Sinān ibn al-Fatḥ al-Khojandi Al-Nayrizi Al-Saghani Brethren of Purity Ibn Sahl Ibn Yunus al-Uqlidisi Al-Battani Sinan ibn Thabit Ibrahim ibn Sinan Al-Isfahani Nazif ibn Yumn al-Qūhī Abu al-Jud Al-Sijzi Al-Karaji al-Majriti al-Jabali 11th century Abu Nasr Mansur Alhazen Kushyar Gilani Al-Biruni Ibn al-Samh Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi Avicenna al-Jayyānī al-Nasawī al-Zarqālī ibn Hud Al-Isfizari Omar Khayyam Muhammad al-Baghdadi 12th century Jabir ibn Aflah Al-Kharaqī Al-Khazini Al-Samawal al-Maghribi al-Hassar Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi Ibn al-Yasamin 13th century Ibn al‐Ha'im al‐Ishbili Ahmad al-Buni Ibn Munim Alam al-Din al-Hanafi Ibn Adlan al-Urdi Nasir al-Din al-Tusi al-Abhari Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi al-Hasan al-Marrakushi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi Ibn al-Banna' Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī 14th century Nizam al-Din al-Nisapuri Ibn al-Shatir Ibn al-Durayhim Al-Khalili al-Umawi 15th century Ibn al-Majdi al-Rūmī al-Kāshī Ulugh Beg Ali Qushji al-Wafa'i al-Qalaṣādī Sibt al-Maridini Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi 16th century Al-Birjandi Muhammad Baqir Yazdi Taqi ad-Din Ibn Hamza al-Maghribi
Mathematical works	The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing De Gradibus Principles of Hindu Reckoning Book of Optics The Book of Healing Book on the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity Toledan Tables Tabula Rogeriana Zij
Concepts	Alhazen's problem Islamic geometric patterns
Centers	Al-Azhar University Al-Mustansiriya University House of Knowledge House of Wisdom Constantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Din Madrasa Maragheh observatory University of al-Qarawiyyin
Influences	Babylonian mathematics Greek mathematics Indian mathematics
Influenced	Byzantine mathematics European mathematics Indian mathematics
Related	Hindu–Arabic numeral system Arabic numerals (Eastern Arabic numerals, Western Arabic numerals) Trigonometric functions History of trigonometry History of algebra

• 1029 births
• 1070 deaths
• 11th-century Arab people
• 11th-century historians from al-Andalus
• 11th-century astronomers
• 11th-century biographers
• 11th-century mathematicians
• Arabic-language writers
• Astronomers from al-Andalus
• Bibliographers
• Muslim chroniclers
• Historians of science
• Mathematicians from al-Andalus
• Encyclopedists of the medieval Islamic world
• Encyclopedists from al-Andalus