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Abu Hanifa Dinawari

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Abu Hanifa Dinawari
Personal
BornEarly 9th-century
Dinawar,Jibal,Abbasid Caliphate
Died895
Dinawar, Jibal, Abbasid Caliphate
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age
Main interest(s)botanist,historian,geographer,metallurgy,astronomerandmathematician
OccupationMuslimscholar

Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd Dīnawarī(Arabic:ابوحنيفه دينوری;died 895) was anIslamic Golden Agepolymath:astronomer,agriculturist,botanist,metallurgist,geographer,mathematician,andhistorian.[1][2]

Life[edit]

OfPersianstock,[a]Dinawari was born in the (now ruined) town ofDinawarin modern-day westernIran.It had some importance due to its geographical location, serving as the entrance to the region ofJibalas well as a crossroad between the culture of Iran and that of the inhabitants on the other side of theZagros Mountains.The birth date of Dinawari is uncertain; it is likely that he was born during the first or second decade of the 9th-century.[11]He was instructed in the two main traditions of theAbbasid-eragrammarians of al-Baṣrahandof al-Kūfah.His principal teachers wereIbn al-Sikkītand his own father.[n 1]He studiedgrammar,philology,geometry,arithmetic,andastronomyand was known to be a reliable traditionalist.[12]His most renowned contribution is theBook of Plants,for which he is considered the founder of Arabicbotany.[13]

Dinawari'sKitāb al-akhbār al-ṭiwāl (General History),written from a Persian point of view,[14]is possibly the earliest apparent effort to combine Iranian and Islamic history.[15]While historians such asal-TabariandBal'amidevoted the introduction of their work to long discourses on the duration of the world, Dinawari attempted to establish the importance ofIranshahr( "land of Iran" ) as the centre of the world.[16]In his work, Dinawari notably devoted much less space to the Islamic prophetMuhammadcompared to that of Iran. Regardless, Dinawari was a devoted Muslim, as indicated by his commentary on the Qur'an. He concluded the history with the suppression ofBabak Khorramdin's rebellion in 837, and the subsequent execution of the Iranian generalKhaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin.[17]

Besides having access to early Arabic sources, Dinawari also made use of Persian sources, including pre-Islamic epic romances. Fully acquainted with the Persian language, Dinawari occasionally inserted phrases from the language into his work.[18]

Dinawari'sspiritual successorwasHamza al-Isfahani(died after 961).[17]

Works[edit]

The tenth centurybiographical encyclopaedia,al-Fihristwritten byAl-Nadim,lists sixteen book titles by Dinawari:[12]

Mathematics and natural sciences[edit]

  1. Kitâb al-kusuf( "Book of SolarEclipses")[n 2]
  2. Kitāb an-nabāt yufadiluh al-‘ulamā' fī ta’līfih(كتاب النبات يفضله العلماء في تأليفه), ‘Plants,valued by scholars for its composition'
  3. Kitāb Al-Anwā(كتاب الانواء) 'Tempest' (weather)
  4. Kitāb Al-qiblah wa'z-zawāl[n 3](كتاب القبلة والزوال) "Book of Astral Orientations"
  5. Kitāb ḥisāb ad-dūr(كتاب حساب الدور), "Arithmetic/Calculation of Cycles"
  6. Kitāb ar-rud ‘alā raṣd al-Iṣbhānī(كتاب الردّ على رصدٌ الاصفهانى) Refutation of Lughdah al-Iṣbhānī[n 4]
  7. Kitāb al-baḥth fī ḥusā al-Hind(كتاب البحث في حسا الهند), "Analysis of Indian Arithmetic"
  8. Kitāb al-jam’ wa'l-tafrīq(كتاب الجمع والتفريق); "Book of Arithmetic/Summation and Differentiation"
  9. Kitāb al-jabr wa-l-muqabila(كتاب الجبر والمقابلة), "Algebraand Equation "
  10. Kitāb nuwādr al-jabr(كتاب نوادرالجبر), "Rare Forms of Algebra"

Social sciences and humanities[edit]

  1. Ansâb al-Akrâd( "Ancestry of theKurds").[n 5]
  2. Kitāb Kabīr(كتاب كبير) "Great Book" [in history of sciences]
  3. Kitāb al-faṣāha(كتاب الفصاحة), "Book of Rhetoric"
  4. Kitāb al-buldān(كتاب البلدان), "Book of Cities (Regions) (Geography) "
  5. Kitāb ash-sh’ir wa-shu’arā’(كتاب الشعر والشعراء), "Poetryand the Poets "
  6. Kitāb al-Waṣāyā(كتاب الوصايا), Commandments (wills);
  7. Kitāb ma yulahan fīh al’āmma(كتاب ما يلحن فيه العامّة), How the Populace Errs in Speaking;
  8. Islâh al-mantiq( "Improvement of Speech" )[n 6]
  9. Kitāb al-akhbār al-ṭiwāl(كتاب الاخبار الطوال), "General History"[n 7][20]

Editions & translations[edit]

Dinawari'sGeneral History(Al-Akhbar al-Tiwal) has been edited and published numerous times (Vladimir Guirgass, 1888; Muhammad Sa'id Rafi'i, 1911;Ignace Krachkovsky,1912;[21]'Abd al-Munim 'Amir & Jamal al-din Shayyal, 1960; Isam Muhammad al-Hajj 'Ali, 2001), but has not been translated in its entirety into a European language. Jackson Bonner has recently prepared an English translation of the pre-Islamic passages of al-Akhbar al-Tiwal.[22]

Book of Plants[edit]

Al-Dinawari is considered the founder of Arabic botany for hisKitab al-Nabat(Book of Plants), which consisted of six volumes. Only the third and fifth volumes have survived, though the sixth volume has partly been reconstructed based on citations from later works. In the surviving portions of his works, 637 plants are described from the letterssintoya.He describes the phases ofplant growthand the production of flowers and fruit.[13]

The first part of theBook of Plantsdescribes astronomical and meteorological concepts as they relate to plants, including theplanetsandconstellations,thesunandmoon,thelunar phasesindicatingseasonsandrain,anwa,and atmospheric phenomena such as winds, thunder, lightning, snow, and floods. The book also describes different types of ground, indicating which types are more convenient for plants and the qualities and properties of good ground.[13]

Al-Dinawari quoted from other early Muslim botanical works that are now lost, such as those ofal-Shaybani,Ibn al-Arabi, al-Bahili, andIbn as-Sikkit.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^Flügeltranslates the al-Fihrist as “son" but theBeattyMS has “father”.
  2. ^Omitted in al-Fihrist
  3. ^Al-qiblahthe direction faced in prayer; here perhaps with astronomical meaning.Al-zawāl"sunset", perhaps also the sun’s absence. See “Kibla,” Enc. Islam, II, 985–89.
  4. ^FlügelafterYāqūt,Irshād,VI (1), 127 n.2, hasraṣd,“observation" (Astronomical), but in theBeattyMS “Lughdah” is probably correct. Abū ‘Alī al-Ḥasan al-Iṣbahānī was called "Lughdah".[19]
  5. ^Omitted in al-Fihrist
  6. ^Omitted in al-Fihrist
  7. ^Dodgehas "Legends in theṬiwālMeter ". Title omitted in Beatty MS.Ṭiwāli.e. “long”.
  1. ^[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

References[edit]

  1. ^Pellat, Charles."DĪNAVARĪ, ABŪ ḤANĪFA AḤMAD".ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA.Retrieved27 April2016.
  2. ^Clarke, Nicola (2018). "al-Dinawari". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity.Oxford University Press. p. 484.ISBN978-0192562463.
  3. ^Nadim (al-) 1970,p. 981, II.
  4. ^Cahen 2006,p. 198.
  5. ^Pellat, Charles."DĪNAVARĪ, ABŪ ḤANĪFA AḤMAD".ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA.Retrieved27 April2016.
  6. ^Cahen, Claude(2006). Young, M.J.L.; Latham, J.D.; Serjeant, R.B. (eds.).Religion, learning, and science in the ʻAbbasid period(1. publ. ed.). Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.p. 198.ISBN978-0521028875.Abu Hanlfah al-DInawarl was a Persian of liberal outlook, who took an interest in botany among other sciences.
  7. ^Clarke, Nicola (2018). "al-Dinawari". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity.Oxford University Press. p. 484.ISBN978-0192562463.
  8. ^Brill Publishers (2014).Iran in the Early Islamic Period: Politics, Culture, Administration and Public Life between the Arab and the Seljuk Conquests, 633-1055.Bertold Spuler. p. 225.ISBN9789004282094.
  9. ^Esposito, John L. (1999).The Oxford History of Islam.New York: Oxford University Press. p. 211.ISBN9780195107999.At the same time, these treatises were being translated, the Persian botanist Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari (ca. 815-95) was compiling his botanical lexicon Kitab al-Nabat (The book of plants), which represented the culmination of a tradition in which autonomous botanical writings were part of the sciences of the Arabic language.
  10. ^Davaran 2010,p. 160.
  11. ^Pezeshk & Khaleeli 2017.
  12. ^abNadim (al-), Abū al-Faraj M. i. Isḥāq(1970).Dodge,Bayard (ed.).Al-Fihrist.New York & London: Columbia University Press. p. 172.
  13. ^abcFahd, Toufic,Botany and agriculture,p. 815,inMorelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996),Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science,vol. 3,Routledge,pp. 813–852,ISBN978-0-415-12410-2
  14. ^Pellat, Charles."DĪNAVARĪ, ABŪ ḤANĪFA AḤMAD".ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA.Retrieved27 April2016.
  15. ^Herzig & Stewart 2011,p. 61.
  16. ^Herzig & Stewart 2011,pp. 61–62.
  17. ^abHerzig & Stewart 2011,p. 62.
  18. ^Bosworth, C. E."AḴBĀR AL-ṬEWĀL, KETĀB AL-".ENCYCLOPÆDIA IRANICA.
  19. ^Nadim (al-) 1970,p. 1015, II.
  20. ^Nadim (al-) 1970,p. 172, I.
  21. ^Dinawari (al-) (1912).Krachkovsky,Ignace (ed.).Kitāb al-Aḥbār aṭ-Ṭiwāl(in Arabic and French).Leiden:E. J. Brill.
  22. ^"Abu Hanifa Ahmad ibn Dawud ibn Wanand al-Dinawari (A.D. 828–895) – Michael Richard Jackson Bonner".mrjb.ca. Archived fromthe originalon 2018-11-11.Retrieved2013-11-07.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

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