E. S.
New York, March, 1905.
INTRODUCTION
The knowledge of the Natural Sciences among the Greeks and Romans was derived principally from the Egyptians and Babylonians. The Phœnicians in their voyages, also, necessarily paid considerable attention to Astronomy. Their Cynosura consisted of the tail of the Little Bear, by which they steered. The great names in Greek Astronomy are Aratus, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy.
From the fancies of Astrology, in which the early Arabs largely indulged, and which, though discountenanced by Mahomet himself, have never been wholly abandoned by their descendants, a not unnatural transition, led to the study of Astronomy. Under the patronage of the Abbaside Caliph Al-Mamun (813-833 A. D.) this science made rapid progress.
Astronomy was zealously studied in the famous schools of Bagdad and Cordova.
The Almagest, or System of Astronomy, by Ptolemy, was translated into Arabic by Alhazi and Sergius as early as 812. In the Tenth Century, Albaten observed the advance of the line of the apsides in the earth’s orbit; Mohammed-ben-Jeber-al-Batani, the obliquity of the ecliptic; Alpetragius wrote a theory of the planets; and Abul-Hassan-Ali, on astronomical instruments. The obliquity of the ecliptic, the diameter of the earth, and even the precession of the equinoxes, were then calculated with commendable accuracy; and shortly after, Abul-Mezar’s Introduction to Astronomy and his Treatise on the Conjunction of the Planets, with the Elements of Al-Furjanee (though this last author was largely indebted to the Egyptian labors of Ptolemy), proved that the caliph’s liberality had been well bestowed. But Al-Batinee, a native of Syria (879-920 A. D.), surpassed all his predecessors in the nicety alike of his observations and computations. Geber, at Seville, constructed (1196 A. D.) the first astronomical observatory on record; and Ebn-Korrah in Egypt proved by his example that the Arabs could be even better astronomers than the Greeks.
Ulug Bekh, grandson of the great Tamerlane, was a diligent observer. He established an academy of astronomers at Samarcand, the capital of his dominions, and constructed magnificent instruments. Ulug Bekh, too, made a catalogue of the fixed stars—the only one that had been compiled since that of Hipparchus, sixteen centuries previously.
Gradually, by their intercourse with civilized nations, the Arabian conquerors were themselves subjected to the humanizing influence of letters, and, after 749 A. D., or during the reign of the Abassides, literature, arts, and sciences appeared, and were generously fostered under the splendid sway, first of Almansor (754-775), and afterward of the celebrated Harun-al-Raschid (786-808). Learned men were now invited from many countries and remunerated for their labors with princely munificence; the works of the best Greek, Syriac, and old Persian writers were translated into Arabic, and spread abroad in numerous copies. The Caliph Al-Mamun, who reigned from 813 to 833, offered to the Greek emperor five tons of gold and a perpetual treaty of peace on condition that the philosopher Leo should be allowed to give instruction to the former. Under the same Caliph the famous schools of Bagdad, Basra, Bokhara, and Kufa were founded, and large libraries were collected in Alexandria, Cairo, and Bagdad. The school of Cordova in Spain soon rivaled that of Bagdad, and in the Tenth Century the Arabs were everywhere the preservers and distributers of knowledge.