Al-qūhī Vs. aristotle: On motion

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Volumn 9, Issue 1, 1999, Pages 7-24

  Rashed, Roshdi ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 8444234861     PISSN: 09574239     EISSN: 14740524     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0957423900002587     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. “Combinatoire et metaphysique: Ibn Sina, al-Tusi et al-Halabi,” in R. Rashed and J. Biard (ed.), Les doctrines de la science (Leuven, 1999), pp. 61-86.
2. See R. Rashed, “Optique geometrique et doctrine optique chez Ibn al-Haytham,” Archive for the History of Exact Sciences, 6 (1970): 271-98 and “Lumiere et vision: l'application des mathematiques dans l'optique d'Alhazen,” in R. Taton (ed.), Roemer et la vitesse de la lumiere (Paris, 1978): 19-44; repr. in Optique et Mathematiques: Recherches sur I'histoire de la pensee scientifique en arabe, Variorum Reprints (Aldershot, 1992).
3. “Combinatoire et metaphysique: Ibn Sina, al-Tusi et al-Halabi,”. Cf. also M. Nazif, Ibn al-Haytham, Buhuthuhu wa-kushufuhu al-basariyya (Cairo, 1942), vol. I, pp. 121-35 and “Ara’ al-falasifa al-islamiyyin fi al-haraka,” Majallat al-Jam'iyya al-misriyya li-tarikh al-'ulum, n° 2 (1943): 45-64.
4. On the life and mathematical work of al-Quhi, see R. Rashed, Les mathematiques infi.nitesim.ales du IX’ au XIe siecle (London, 1995), vol. I, chap. 5.
5. R. Rashed, Geometrie et dioptrique au X’ siecle. Ibn Sahl, al-Quhi et Ibn al- Haytham (Paris, 1993).
6. Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi, al-Imta’ wa-al-mu'anasa, ed. A. Amin and A. al-Zayn (reprod. Bulaq, n.d.), vol. I, p. 38.
7. Aydin Sayili, “Al-Quhi on the possibility of infinite motion in finite time,” Belleten, 21 (1957): 489-95. The regretted Professor Sayili edited the text as well as an English and a Turkish translation, thereby attracting attention to this important document. On this occasion we honor the memory of our departed friend.
8. Physique, Book VI, 7, 238a, 20-37. Cf. the Arabic translation, ed. ‘A. Badawi, Aristutalls, al-TabVa (Cairo, 1964-1965), vol. II, p. 699. Cf. also the commentary of this passage by Abu al-Faraj ibn al-Tayyib as well as that of Yahya (probably Johannes Philoponus), pp. 697-8.
9. Physique 262a, 7-8; Arabic transl., vol. II, pp. 892-3.
10. Many sources underline the importance of this Karnib family, as much in mathematics as in philosophy. At present, aside from the citations reported by their successors such as Ibrahim ibn Sinan, none of their writings has come down to us. This one is Abu Ahmad ibn al-Husayn, the philosopher and contemporary of Thabit ibn Qurra, who was, as al-Nadim describes him “of great eminence, possessing a knowledge of and was familiar with the ancient physical sciences; among his books one finds Reply to Abu al-Hasan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra concerning the denial of the existence of rest between two contrary movements” (al-Nadim, Kitab al-fihrist, ed. R. Tajaddud [Tehran, 1971], p. 321). Al-Qifti cites this title in a way which is very probably faulty. Cf. also R. Morelon, “Les deux versions du traite de Thabit b. Qurra Sur le mouvement des deux luminaires,” MIDEO, 18 (1988): 9-44, p. 42.
11. It is precisely this experiment that the philosopher of the twelfth century, Abu al- Barakat al-Baghdadi mentions and attributes to “certain eminent scholars” (6a ‘d alfudala'), Kitab al-Mu'tabar (Hyderabad, 1358), vol. II, p. 97. See the citation below, pp. 23-24.
12. Implied: perpendicular to the plane ABC.
13. This word was added by Muhammad ibn Sartaq al-Maraghi, a mathematician of the first half of the 14th century, author of the book al-lkmal, commentator of Ibn Hud's Istikmal, and numerous glosses on the writings of al-Quhi contained in this collection.
14. In other words, the shadow of point E.
15. The text has been edited and summarised in English by J. Schacht and M. Meyerhof, The Medico-Philosophical Controversy Between Ibn Butlan of Baghdad and Ibn Ridwan of Cairo. A Contribution to the History of Greek Learning Among the Arabs (Cairo, 1937), pp. 65-6. The English summary includes some errors which hinder the understanding of al-Quhi's line of thought.
16. Persian festival in the first days of October.
17. I.e., without stopping and of the same movement throughout.
18. (Hyderabad, 1358), vol. II, p. 97.