Were the tables of Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī known in Paris <i>c.</i>1300?

Two Latin sources from the years around 1300 (John of Sicily’s commentary on the canons to the Toledan tables and a parchment slip documenting the astronomical activities and observations of Alard of Diest) contain brief references suggesting that Parisian scholars of this period had access to a set of astronomical tables for Tunis known as tabulae Benesac. According to the argument developed in this article, the tables in question probably corresponded to a Maghribī zīj originally created by Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī in c.1222. The article goes on to discuss the possible channels of transmission that could have brought these tables to Paris as well as the potential implications of this finding for the history of Latin astronomy in the late 13th and early 14th century. Attention is also drawn to the presence of eclipse-related material from the Muqtabas zīj by Ibn al-Kammād in a Northern French manuscript of the second half of the 13th century, which was independently translated from the Arabic and accordingly does not derive from the well-known translation by John of Dumpno (Palermo, 1260).

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Published
2024-10-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/00218286241269044
Primary Topic
Historical Astronomy and Related Studies
Type
article
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article

Were the tables of Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī known in Paris c.1300?

C. Philipp E. Nothaft
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Historical Astronomy and Related Studies
article

Were the tables of Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī known in Paris c.1300?

C. Philipp E. Nothaft
article en

Abstract

Two Latin sources from the years around 1300 (John of Sicily’s commentary on the canons to the Toledan tables and a parchment slip documenting the astronomical activities and observations of Alard of Diest) contain brief references suggesting that Parisian scholars of this period had access to a set of astronomical tables for Tunis known as tabulae Benesac. According to the argument developed in this article, the tables in question probably corresponded to a Maghribī zīj originally created by Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī in c.1222. The article goes on to discuss the possible channels of transmission that could have brought these tables to Paris as well as the potential implications of this finding for the history of Latin astronomy in the late 13th and early 14th century. Attention is also drawn to the presence of eclipse-related material from the Muqtabas zīj by Ibn al-Kammād in a Northern French manuscript of the second half of the 13th century, which was independently translated from the Arabic and accordingly does not derive from the well-known translation by John of Dumpno (Palermo, 1260).

Journal for the History of AstronomyVol. 55(4)
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Historical Astronomy and Related Studies
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Were the tables of Ibn Isḥāq al-Tūnisī known in Paris <i>c.</i>1300? — C. Philipp E. Nothaft · Journal for the History of Astronomy (2024) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS