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The Contribution of Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi to the Transmission of Astrological Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Sergei Tourkin  and
Živa Vesel
Sergei Tourkin
Affiliation:
Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersbur
Živa Vesel
Affiliation:
Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, Paris
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Extract

Iranian Civilization Fostered an Interest in Astrology Starting from Pre-Islamic times. Thanks to the studies of David Pingree and R. Lemay and, more recently, of George Saliba, Charles Burnett, A. Panaino, and E. Raffaelli, we are on firm ground regarding the development of astrological knowledge in the Islamic world, and specifically the contribution to it of pre-Islamic Iranian civilization. As for the Persian texts in the field, even though they have been studied to a much lesser extent than those written in Arabic, they contain rich materials which shed further light on the socio-cultural context of science in the Iranian world during the Islamic period.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 4: Husayn Vaᶜiz-i Kashifi , December 2003 , pp. 589 - 599
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Iranian Studies 2003

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References

1. The aim of this article is not to reproduce the rich bibliographies of Pingree, Lemay, Saliba, and Burnett, whose works are available in English. Two recent publications in Italian are worth noting, however: Panaino, A., Tessere il cielo (Rome, 1998)Google Scholar, and Raffaelli, E. G., L’oroscopo del mondo (Milan, 2001)Google Scholar.

2. All references to dates of dynastic reigns are given according to Bosworth, C. E., The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual (Edinburgh, 1996)Google Scholar.

3. Cf. Vesel, Živa, Tourkin, Sergei, and Porter, Yves, eds., Images of Islamic Science: Illustrated Manuscripts from the Iranian World, with the collaboration of N. Pourjavady and Francis Richard (Tehran, forthcoming), ills. 119–22Google Scholar.

4. Maria Szuppe, “The Female Intellectual Milieu in Timurid and Post-Timurid Herāt: Faxri Heravi's Biography of Poetesses, Javāher al-ᶜAjāyeb,” Oriente Moderno, n.s. 25 (76) (1996): 132. For her name, see also Navoii, Alisher, Mazholisun nafois (Chaghatay text), ed. Ganieva, Suiima (Tashkent, 1961), 189Google Scholar.

5. For copies of this work see C. E. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey, 2/1: 78–79, no. 116; Matvievskaia, G. P. and Rozenfel’d, B. A., Matematiki i astronomi musul’manskogo srednevekov’ia i ikh trudy (VIII-XVIII vv.) (Moscow 1983), 2: 530Google Scholar, no. 449c.

6. He was the son of the well-known statesman of the time of Shahrukh, Ghiyas al-Din Pir Ahmad Khwafi. See Bartol’d, V. V., “Mir Ali-Shir i politicheskaia zhizn’,” in his Sochineniia (Moscow, 1964), 2/2: 233Google Scholar, 234, 240–49, and 251.

7. Saliba, George, “The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society,” Bulletin d’études orientales 44 (1992): 58Google Scholar; and T. Fahd, “Ikhtiyārāt,” EI 2, 3: 1063–64.

8. The study is based on two copies of the work preserved at the Institute of Oriental Studies in St. Petersburg (Ms., B 1639, dated after Rabiᶜ I 980/July 1572, henceforth St. Petersburg Ms.) and at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (Ms., Suppl. persan 1742, dated 20 Shavval 1002/9 July 1594, henceforth Paris Ms.) These are the two oldest known copies of the work. The main aim of the study is to demonstrate the nature of the treatise as a compilation through its structure, rather than to give a detailed account of its contents. See Ž. Vesel, “Le Lavâ’eḥ al-Qamar, un traité d’astrologie de Ḥoseyn Vâ’eẓ Kâšefi,” in Proceedings of the Second European Conference of Iranian Studies held in Bamberg, 30th September to 4th October 1991, by the Societas Iranologica Europaea, ed. Bert G. Fragner et al. (Rome, 1995), 711–18.

9. Published in facsimile by J. A. Zanjani (Tehran, 1989).

10. Edited in facsimile by J. A. Zanjani (Tehran, 1999). The reference given by Kashifi is verbum 8 of the Karpos (12–13 of the edition by Zanjani).

11. For more details on the table of cases, see Vesel, “Le Lavâ’eḥ,” 715, n. 6.

12. A special astrological term, for which see The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology by Abu’l-Rayhân Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Bîrûnî…, trans. Wright, R. R. (London, 1934), 303Google Scholar, question No. 489. Among his sources, Kashifi mentions a separate work on the subject, namely Risāla-i ittiṣālāt [author unknown], at the end of chapter one.

13. See Carboni, Stefano, “The Illustrations in the Muᵓnis al-aḥrār,” in Illustrated Poetry and Epic Images: Persian Painting of the 1330s and 1340s, ed. Swietochowski, Marie and Carboni, Stefano (New York, 1994), 9–48Google Scholar.

14. For a brief summary of this compendium by Razi of Sabean beliefs and practices, cf. Ž. Vesel, “The Persian translation of Fakhr al-Dîn Râzî's al-Sirr al-Maktûm…for Iltutmish,” in Confluence of Cultures: French Contributions to Indo-Persian Studies, ed. F. N. Delvoye (New Delhi, 1994), 14–22.

15. For him see Sezgin, Fuat, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS) (Leiden, 1979), 7: 50–58Google Scholar. This work is indeed mentioned among the works of Hermes, GAS, 7: 57 (no. 27).

16. For him see Sezgin, GAS, 7: 32–38.

17. Among the works compiled by Sijzi is one entitled Kitāb Zardusht fī ṣuwar darajāt alfalak [The Book of Zoroaster on the Depictions of the Degrees of the Sky]; cf. Pingree, David, The Thousands of Abû Maᶜshar (London, 1968), 22Google Scholar; Ullmann, Manfred, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), 294–95Google Scholar. This brings the tradition to a much earlier date.

18. Five unequal parts of the zodiacal sign. See The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, 265 (question no. 453).

19. Equal parts (thirds) of the zodiacal signs. See The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, 262 (question no. 449).

20. On Jaᶜfar al-Sadiq see Sezgin, GAS, 4: 128–31.

21. The Arabic poem is also found in manuscripts on its own. For example, it is included in the voluminous fourteenth-century manuscript recently published in Tehran. See Abu’l Majd Muhammad ibn Masᶜud Tabrizi, Safineh-ye Tabriz: A Treasury of Persian Literature and Islamic Philosophy, Mysticism, and Sciences: Facsimile Edition of a Manuscript Compiled and Copied in 721–3/1321–23, ed. A.-H. Haeri and N. Pourjavadi (Tehran, 2003), 727.

22. For this influential author on astrology, see D. Pingree, “Abū Maᶜšar Balḵī,” EIr, 1: 337–40.

23. See Tourkin, S., “Compositions Attributed to Abu Ma‘shar Balkhi in the Manuscript Collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd Series, 9 (1999): 389–401CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24. See Karimov, U. I., Neizvestnoe sochinenie al-Razi “Kniga tainy tain” (Tashkent, 1957)Google Scholar.

25. King, David, Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library, (Cairo, 1986), 2: 1100–02Google Scholar, no. 5.3.17 (1), and idem, A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library (Winona Lake, Indiana, 1986), 159, no. G57.

26. This same title is found in King, Catalogue, 1101 and 1102.

27. Vil’danova, A. B. comp., Sobranie vostochnykh rukopisei Akademii Nauk Respubliki Uzbekistan. Tochnye i estestvennye nauki (Tashkent, 1998), 98Google Scholar, nos. 353 and 354.

28. Mirzoev, A. M. and Bertel’s, A. E., eds., Katalog vostochnykh rukopisei Akademii Nauk Tadzhikskoi SSR (Dushanbe, 1988), 6: 250Google Scholar, no. 2324.

29. Unlike the Tashkent copies, the Dushanbe copy of the abridgement is said to include an introduction, three parts (maqāla), and a conclusion.

30. Vil’danova, Sobranie vostochnykh rukopisei., 109 no. 393; Semenov, A. A. et. al., eds., Sobranie vostochnykh rukopisei Akademii Nauk UzSSR (Tashkent, 1964), 7: 266–67Google Scholar, no. 5424.

31. King, Catalogue, 2: 1162, no. 5.3.17.