Abū al-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad ibn Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid ibn ʿUthmānal-Taghlibi al-Qūrtūbi (صاعِدُ بنُ أحمدَ بن عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن صاعدٍ التَّغْلِبيُّ)
Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī (Arabic:صاعِدُ الأندلسي), in fullAbū al-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Abū al-Walīd Aḥmad ibn Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid ibn ʿUthmānal-Taghlibi al-Qūrtūbi (صاعِدُ بنُ أحمدَ بن عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن صاعدٍ التَّغْلِبيُّ) (1029 – July 6, 1070 AD; 420 – 6 Shawwal, 462 AH),[1] was anArabqadi ofToledo inal-Andalus, who wrote on the history of science, philosophy and thought. He was a mathematician and scientist with a special interest inastronomy and compiled a famousbiographic encyclopedia of science that quickly became popular in the empire and the Islamic East.[2]
Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī was born inAlmería inal-Andalus during theDhulnunid dynasty[1] and died inToledo. His Arab origins came from the tribe ofTaghlib and his family had fled Cordova to take refuge in Almería during the civil war.[3][4] His grandfather had beenqadi (judge) ofSidonia and his father was qadi of Toledo until he died in 1057 when Ṣāʿid succeeded him.
The early biographersibn Bashkuwal,Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Dabbi,al-Safadi andAhmad al-Maqqari tell us Ṣāʿid's teachers in Toledo wereibn Hazm, al-Fataḥ ibn al-Qāsim (الفَتْح بن القاسم), and Abū Walīd al-Waqshi (أبو الوليد الوَقّشِي). He was educated infiqh (Islamic law) first in Almería, thenCórdoba, before graduating, it seems, in Toledo[5] in 1046, aged eighteen. Toledo was then a great centre of learning and Ṣāʿid studiedfiqh (law),tafsir (Qu'ranic exegesis), Arabic, andArabic literature. His teacher, Abū Isḥaq Ibrāhīm ibn Idrīs al-Tajibī, directed him towards mathematics and astronomy, in which he excelled.
While qāḍi of Toledo under GovernorYaḥyā al-Qādir, he continued this work and produced several scholarly works that contributed to theToledan Tables.[1] He taught and directed astronomical research to a group of young scholars, precision-instrument-makers, astronomers and scientists – including the renownedal-Zarqali – and encouraged them to invent. Their research also contributed to the Toledan Tables.[6]
Iṣlāh Ḥarakāt an-Najūn (اصلاح حركات النجوم) on the correction of earlier astronomical tables;[1]
Jawāmiʿ akhbār al‐umam min al‐Arab wa‐l Ajam (جوامع أخبار الأمم من العرب والعجم; 'Universal History of Nations – Arab and Non‐Arab')[n 1]
Ṭabaqāt al-‘Umam (طبقات الأمم), a classification of the sciences and of the nations (The only extant work), written in 1068 two years before his death.
Rectification of Planetary Motions and Exposition of Observers' Errors; An astronomical treatise.
Maqālāt ahl al‐milal wa-l-nihal (مقالات أهل الملل والنحل; 'Doctrines of the Adherents of Sects and Schools'),[7]
Kitāb al-Qāsī (كتاب القاصى), 'Book of Minor'[n 2][8]
TheṬabaqāt al-ʼUmam (Tabaqāt) composed in 1068 is an early "history of science"[9] that comprises biographies of the scientists and scientific achievements of eight nations. In the field of nations are theIndians,Persians,Chaldeans,Egyptians,Greeks,Byzantines,Arabs andJews (in contrast to others not disposed, such asNorsemen,Chinese,Africans,Russians,Alains andTurks). Ṣāʿid offers an account of the individual contribution each nation makes to the various sciences ofarithmetic,astronomy, andmedicine, etc., and of the earliest scientists and philosophers, from the Greeks, –Pythagoras,Socrates,Plato andAristotle[n 3] – to the Roman and Christian scholars of the 9th and 10th centuries in Baghdad. The second half of the book contains Arab-Islamic contributions to the fields oflogic, philosophy, geometry, the development of Ptolemaic astronomy, observational methods, calculations intrigonometry and mathematics to determine the length of the year, the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit, and the construction of astronomical tables, etc.[10]
TheṬabaqāt al-ʼUmam has been transcribed and translated into many different languages in many periods and cultures. The original document is not extant and discrepancies in the translations creates problems for historians, including variations in the title of the book.[9] Discrepancies in the content of the editions appear with some versions omitting words, sentences, paragraphs or entire sections. Some omissions or variations may have arisen through scribal error, or difficulties of direct translation, while others arose, perhaps deliberately, out of the political, religious, or nationalistic sensibilities of the translators.
^De Weever, Jacqueline (1988).Chaucer name dictionary : a guide to astrological, Biblical, historical, literary, and mythological names in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Garland.ISBN9780815323020.OCLC26673949.
^Richter‐Bernburg, Lutz (2007). "Ṣāʿid al‐Andalusī: Abū al‐Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn abī al‐Walīd Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid al‐Taghlibī al‐Qurṭubī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 1005–6.
^abAndalusī, Ṣāʻid ibn Aḥmad (1991).Science in the medieval world : book of the Categories of nations. Salem, Semaʻan I., 1927-, Kumar, Alok, 1954- (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press.ISBN0292704690.OCLC23385017.
^abScott, Bruce L. (1997). "Review of Science and the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations" by".Journal of Near Eastern Studies.56 (3):218–220.doi:10.1086/468562.JSTOR545654.
Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1912). Cheikho, Louis (ed.).Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-'Umam (in Arabic).Bayrūt: al-Maṭbaʻah al-Kāthūlīkīyah.
Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (2000). Llavero Ruiz, Eloísa; Martínez Lorca, Andrés (eds.).Historia de la filosofía y de las ciencias o Libro de las categorías de las naciones (Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-'Umam) (in Spanish). Madrid: Trotta, D.L.ISBN9788446010920.OCLC803658443.
Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1999). Maíllo Salgado, Felipe (ed.).Libro de las categorías de las naciones : vislumbres desde el Islam clásico sobre la filosofía y la ciencia (in Spanish).Tres Cantos,Madrid: Akal.OCLC1024023889.
Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1996). Kumar, Alok; I Salem, Semaan (eds.).Science in the medieval world: "Book of the categories of nations". Austin: University of Texas Press.OCLC911294124.
Andalusī (al-), Ṣā'id ibn Aḥmad (1975). Khan, M Saber (ed.).India in Hispano-Arabic literature: an eleventh century Hispano-Arabic source for ancient Indian sciences and culture.Calcutta: N. I.
Joshua, Finkel (1927).An eleventh century source for the history of Jewish scientists in Mohammedan land (Ibn Ṣāʻid) (Microfilm ed.). Philadelphia: Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning.
