Athir al-Din al-Abhari

Athīr al‐Dīn al‐Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar ibn al‐Mufaḍḍal al‐Samarqandī al‐Abharī, also known as Athīr al‐Dīn al‐Munajjim (d. in 1265 or 1262^[2] Shabestar, Iran)^[1] was an Iranian muslim polymath, philosopher, astronomer, astrologer and mathematician. Other than his influential writings, he had many famous disciples.

Life

His birthplace is contested among sources. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam^[3] and the Encyclopaedia Islamica,^[4] he was born in Abhar, a small town between Qazvin and Zanjan. Encyclopædia Iranica mentions that he was born in Mosul,^[1][5] but according to Encyclopaedia Islamica, none of his oldest biographers mentioned Mosul as his birthplace.^[4] Beside the city of Abhar, the epithet al-Abharī could suggest that he or his ancestors originally stem from the Abhar tribe.^[1] He may have died of paralysis in Adharbayjan.^[1]

He is said to have been a student or teacher in various schools in Greater Khorasan, and in Baghdad and Erbil, living for some time in Sivas.^[1] Ibn Khallikān reports that he was a student of Kamal al-Din ibn Yunus, but other sources state that he worked as an assistant to Fakhr al‐Dīn al‐Rāzī.

Works

Astronomy

• Risāla fī al‐hayʾa (Treatise on astronomy).
• Mukhtaṣar fī al‐hayʾa (Epitome on astronomy).
• Kashf al‐ḥaqāʾiq fī taḥrīr al‐daqāʾiq, where he accepts the view that the celestial bodies do not change and maintains that stars have volition and it is the source of their motion.^[1]

Mathematics

• Several works on Iṣlāḥ (Correction) of Euclid, one of which is an attempt to prove the parallel postulate, which was commented upon and criticized by Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī.^[1]

Philosophy

• Hidayah al-Hikmah (Guide on Philosophy): a book dealing with the complete cycle of Hikmat, i.e., logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics.
• Isāghūjī fi al-Manṭiq (Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge), a treatise on logic. Latin Translation by Thomas Obicini; Īsāghūkhī, Isagoge. Id est, breve Introductorium Arabicum in Scientiam Logices: cum versione latina: ac theses Sanctae Fidei. R. P. F. Thomae Novariensis (1625).

Notes

References

• Sarıoğlu, Hüseyin (2007). "Abharī: Athīr al‐Dīn al‐Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar ibn al‐Mufaḍḍal al‐Samarqandī al‐Abharī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 7–8. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Masjid Darus Salam. "al- Abharī, At̲h̲īr al-Dīn Mufaḍḍal b. ʿUmar." A Brief Biographical Sketch of Imām Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī By Mohammad Mustafa Ali (4th Year Alim Student, DarusSalam Seminary).

Further reading

• Calverley, Edwin E. (1933). "Al-Abharī's "Isāghūjī fi l-Manṭiq"". Macdonald.

External links

• Isagoge of al-Ahbārī with Latin translation and a theological treatise by Thomas Obicini (Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France).