Athīr al-Dīn al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Mufaḍḍal al-Samarqandī al-Abharī (Persian: اثیرالدین مُفَضَّل بن عمر بن مَفَضَّل سمرقندی ابهری; d. 1265 or 1262[2], Shabestar, Iran)[1] also known as Athīr al-Dīn al-Munajjim (اثیرالدین منجم) was an Iranian muslim polymath, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer and mathematician. Other than his influential writings, he had many famous disciples.
Al-Abhārī | |
|---|---|
| Died | 1262–1265 |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Kūshyār ibn Labbān, Jābir ibn Aflaḥ |
| Academic work | |
| Era | Islamic Golden Age |
| School or tradition | Sunni Ashari |
| Main interests | Astronomy, Mathematics, Philosophy, Islam |
| Influenced | Ibn Khallikān, al-Kātibī, Shams al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, al-Samarqandī, al-Qazwīnī, Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī.[1] |
Life
His birthplace is contested among sources. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam[3] and the Encyclopaedia Islamica,[4] he was born in Abhar, a small town between Qazvin and Zanjan. Encyclopædia Iranica mentions that he was born in Mosul,[1][5] but according to Encyclopaedia Islamica, none of his oldest biographers mentioned Mosul as his birthplace.[4] Beside the city of Abhar, the epithet al-Abharī could suggest that he or his ancestors originally stem from the Abhar tribe.[1] He may have died of paralysis in Adharbayjan.[1]
He is said to have been a student or teacher in various schools in Greater Khorasan, and in Baghdad and Erbil, living for some time in Sivas.[1] Ibn Khallikān reports that he was a student of Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus, but other sources state that he worked as an assistant to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī.
Works
- Astronomy
- Risāla fī al-hayʾa (رساله الهیئة; lit. Treatise on astronomy).
- Mukhtaṣar fī al-hayʾa (مختصر فی علم الهیئة; lit. Epitome on astronomy).
- Kashf al-ḥaqāʾiq fī taḥrīr al-daqāʾiq (كشف الحقائق فی تحریر الدقائق), where he accepts the view that the celestial bodies do not change and maintains that stars have volition and it is the source of their motion.[1]
- Mathematics
- Several works on Iṣlāḥ (اصلاح; lit. Correction) of Euclid, one of which is an attempt to prove the parallel postulate, which was commented upon and criticized by Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī.[1]
- Philosophy
- Hidayah al-Hikmah (هدایةالحکمه; lit. Guide on Philosophy): a book dealing with the complete cycle of Hikmat, i.e., logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics.
- Isāghūjī fi al-Manṭiq (ایساغوجی فی المنطق; Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge), a treatise on logic. Latin Translation by Thomas Obicini; Īsāghūkhī, Isagoge. Id est, breve Introductorium Arabicum in Scientiam Logices: cum versione latina: ac theses Sanctae Fidei. R. P. F. Thomae Novariensis (1625).
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
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