تاریخ علم

Here is an attempt to present the ideas concerning the Medieval Persian and Arabic calendars as offered in the works of the 7th century A.D. Armenian scientist Anania Shirakatsi. The calendars of Christian Persians and Arabs, as explained in Anania’s work, are of the Julian type, with 365.25 days per year. By Persian and Arabic Calendars, he means variants of the Julian calendar used by groups of Christians living in the Persian and Arabic lands. These calendars had a structure very different from what is generally known as Arabic or Islamic and the traditional Persian calendar.

This article sheds light upon a “Chinese” calendar described in the Z?j-i ?lkh?n?. In previous studies, some characteristics of the calendar were ascribed to the “Uighurs” However, I will show that it was not originally associated with the Uighur. This “Chinese” calendar was brought to Iran by the Chinese Taoist Fu Mengchi who accompanied his ruler Hülegü. Fu Mengchi informed Nas?r al-D?n T?s? of the Chinese calendrical system, which T?s? described in his Z?j-i ?lkh?n?. Soon afterward, the calendar was included in the z?j of Muhy? al-D?n Maghrib?, because it was only used among the Mongol ruling class and their Buddhist servants, who were called Uighur. Muhy? al-D?n labeled the “Chinese” calendar the “Chinese-Uighur” calendar, and this title was repeated in subsequent z?jes. Therefore, modern scholars have regarded the calendar as a product of the Uighurs. However, the title “Uighur” attached to the calendar in later z?jes does not reflect the characteristics of the calendar, but rather the circumstances in which it was utilized.