تاریخ علم

The first part of the paper describes the Persian translation of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr Kitāb Uqlīdis by Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, with a primary focus on his appendix to book i. Part of a larger encyclopedic collection, al-Shīrāzī’s translation continued to be read for centuries. As evidence of the work’s influence, al-Shīrāzī’s appendix to book i was included in a nineteenth century printed edition of Muḥammad Barakat’s commentary on book i of al-Ṭūsī’s treatise. I discuss this later use of al-Shīrāzī’s appendix in the second part of the paper.

Starting his intellectual life as a precociously young medical practitioner, Quṭb al-Dīn Shīrāzī (634-710 A.H.) was compelled to wander far and wide in his quest for knowledge. Recognized and admired as a savant, and enjoying the patronage of key political figures of his era, Shīrāzī's activities as a scholar continued even during his appointment as judge in Rūm, and while serving as ambassador on behalf of his Ilkhan patrons. This paper examines a number of early chronicles in order to shed more light on Shīrāzī's itinerant life as a well-known intellectual luminary of the period.

Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (634H/1236CE-710H/1311CE) wrote four major works on astronomy: Nihāyat al‐idrāk fī dirāyat al‐aflāk (“The utmost attainment in comprehending the orbs), in Arabic, first edition completed mid-Shaʿbān 680/November 1281); the Ikhtiyārāt‐i Muẓaffarī (“Selections for Muẓaffar al-Dīn Arslan” [a minor ruler in Qasṭamūnī (modern Kastamonu, Turkey)], in Persian, completed sometime between 680/1281 and 684/1285); al‐Tuḥfa al‐shāhiyya (“The imperial gift” dedicated to the Vizier Amīr Shāh ibn Tāj al‐Dīn Muʿtazz ibn Ṭāhir in Siwās, in Arabic, first edition completed last part of Jumādā I 684/ July or August 1285); and Faʿalta fa‐lā talum (“You’ve done it so don't blame [me]”), a supercommentary on the Tadhkira fī ʿilm al‐hayʾa by Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, in Arabic, completed sometime after the Tuḥfa, which, Shīrāzī claims in Faʿalta, was plagiarized by a certain al-Ḥimādhī, whence the need for this rather vituperative work). None of these works has been edited or translated, which is rather surprising given the importance of all these texts for an understanding of Islamic astronomy. As a small contribution toward the goal of giving Shīrāzī’s works the editions they deserve, an edition and translation of the introduction and conclusion of the Nihāya are presented below.