Page 75 - Arabian Studies (V)

Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen 65
Yemen and in Europe, especially the Bibliotcca Ambrosiana in Milan, was facilita­
ted by a grant from the Penrose Fund of the American Philosophical Society (1972-
4). This support is gratefully acknowledged. The text of this paper was delivered at
the Arabian Seminar, Cambridge, 1976.
I . For a brief account of Islamic astronomy see D. Pingree’s article ‘Ilm
al-hay’ah’ in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd cdn. Additional basic infor­
mation on Islamic astronomy is contained in the articles entitled Astrology,
Manazil (lunar mansions), MIqat (definitions of the prayer-times),
Mintaqah (zodiac), and Tayslr (aspects of mathematical astrology) in the
1st ed. of the Encyclopaedia; and Asturlab (astrolabe) and Kiblah (direc­
tion of Mecca) in the 2nd. edn.
2. The basic bibliographical works dealing with the manuscript sources
and the secondary literature relating to Islamic astronomy are H. Suter,
‘Die Mathematiker und Astronomcn der Araber und ihre Wcrkc’, Abhand-
lungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften, X, 1900; C.
Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 2nd edn., Leiden,
1943-9, Supplemcntbandc, 1937-42; and F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabis­
chen Schrifttums, Leiden, VI, Astronomie-Astrologie, to appear.
3. On Islamic astronomical handbooks and tables see E. S. Kennedy, ‘A
Survey of Islamic astronomical tables’, Transactions of the American
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, n.s. XLVI, 1956, 123-77, and D. A.
King, ‘On the Astronomical Tables of the Islamic Middle Ages’, Studia
Copernicana, XII, Wroclaw, 1975, 37-56. Kennedy lists three Yemeni zij
handbooks namely, those of al-Hamdani, Abu ’l-‘Uqul (described as
Egyptian), and ‘Abdullah al-Sarhl (not identified as Yemeni. The present
count is sixteen.
4. Brief notices on the topic of this paper are to appear in Bulletin de
ITnstitut d’Egypte, Cairo, 1976, and R. B. Serjeant ed., San‘a’: an Arabian
Islamic City, forthcoming. A more detailed survey of all the available manu­
script material entitled Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen is
currently being submitted for publication.
5. On pre-Islamic Arabian starcults see J. Henninger, ‘Uber Sternkunde
und Sternkult in Nord- und Zentralarabien’, Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie,
LXXIX, Berlin, 1954, 82-117. On modern South Arabian astronomical
folklore see R. B. Serjeant, ‘Star-Calendars and an Almanac from South-
West Arabia’, Anthropos, Posieux (Fribourg), XLIX, 1954, 433-59 (with a
valuable bibliography).
6. For an example of the importance of Yemeni sources for our know­
ledge of Ibn Yunus’ works see my article ‘A Double-Argument Table for the
Lunar Equation Attributed to Ibn Yunus’, Centaurus, XVIII, Copenhagen,
1874, 129-46.
7. A preliminary discussion is contained in my article ‘A fourteenth
century Tunisian sundial for regulating the times of Muslim Prayer’, in Y.
Maeyama and W. G. Saltzer, eds., Prismata: Festschrift fiir Willi Hartner,
Wiesbaden, 1977, 187-202 and especially 193-5. A more detailed study of the’
origin of the prayer times is in preparation.