Said Al-Andalusi

Ṣāʿid al‐Andalusī (1029–1070) was an Andalusi Muslim Qadi. He was born at Almería and died at Toledo. Said Al-Andalusi was a historian, philosopher of science and thought, and mathematical scientist with a special interest in astronomy. He was highly interested in the science of Astronomy his claim to the recognition of the science largely rests on his encouragement and patronage. As an acclaimed Qadi in the functionary court at Toledo. He assembled a well educated group of young, precision instrument makers, astronomers and scientists, the most renowned of whom was Al-Zarqali. He was the author of the treatise Rectification of Planetary Motions and Exposition of Observers' Errors suggests the focus of his astronomical interests and of his contribution to the Tables of Toledo.

The only work of Said's to survive intact is what has often been called his “history of science”: Al‐tarif bi-tabaqat al-umm(Exposition of the generations of nations) of 1068. The “nations” here intended are those said to have had a disposition toward the cultivation of learning, such as, Indians, Persians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, Byzantines, Arabs and Jews (in contrast to others not so disposed such as Arabs, Norsemen, Chinese, Africans, Russians, Alains, Turks and Berbers). He wrote other works such as: Jawāmiʿ akhbār al‐umam min al‐Arab wa‐l Ajam (Compendious history of nations – Arab and non‐Arab) and Maqālāt ahl al‐milal wa-l-nihal (Doctrines of the adherents of sects and schools).

The Toledo jurist Said Al-Andalusi (died 1034) reasoned that the pagan Norsemen were affected by their wintry origins: "Because the sun does not shed its rays directly over their heads, their climate is cold and the atmosphere cloudy. Consequently their temperaments have become cold and their humors rude, while their bodies have grown large, their complexions light and their hair long."

Works

• Tabaqat al-'Umam - Ṣā'id, al-Andalusī ; translated and edited by Semaʻan I. Salem and Alok Kumar (1996). Science in the medieval world: "Book of the Categories of Nations". ISBN 978-0-292-70469-5. 

References

• Ṣāʻid al-Andalusī (1935). Livre des catégories des nations. Régis Blachère (trans.). Larose Éditions. 
• Said al-Andalusí, Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations" (trans. Sema'an I. Salem and Alok Kumar, 1991, University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-71139-5)

External links

• 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. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0.  (PDF version)