Abū aṣ‐Ṣalt Umayya ibn ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz ibn Abī aṣ‐Ṣalt ad‐Dānī al‐Andalusī () (October 23, 1134), known in Latin as Albuzale, was an

Andalusian Andalusia is a region in Spain. Andalusian may also refer to: Animals *Andalusian chicken, a type of chicken *Andalusian donkey, breed of donkey *Andalusian hemipode, a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds *Andalusian horse, a breed of ho ...

- Arab polymath who wrote about

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

, geometry, Aristotelian physics, and astronomy. His works on astronomical instruments were read both in the Islamic world and Europe. He also occasionally traveled to

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

and worked in the court of Roger I of Sicily as a visiting physician. He became well known in Europe through translations of his works made in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France. He is also credited with introducing

Andalusi music Andalusi classical music ( ar, طرب أندلسي, ṭarab ʾandalusī; es, música andalusí), also called Andalusi music or Arab-Andalusian music, is a genre of music originally developed in al-Andalus by the Muslim population of the region ...

to Tunis, which later led to the development of the Tunisian ma'luf.

Life

Abu as-Salt was born in Dénia, al-Andalus. After the death of his father while he was a child, he became a student of al‐Waqqashi (10171095) of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

(a colleague of Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm az-Zarqālī). Upon completing his mathematical education in Seville, and because of the continuing conflicts during the reconquista, he set out with his family to Alexandria and then Cairo in 1096. In Cairo, he entered the service of the Fatimid ruler

Abū Tamīm Ma'add al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh Abū Tamīm Maʿad al-Mustanṣir biʾllāh ( ar, أبو تميم معد المستنصر بالله‎; 2 July 1029 – 29 December 1094) was the eighth Fatimid Caliph from 1036 until 1094. He was one of the longest reigning Muslim rulers. ...

and the Vizier Al-Afdal Shahanshah. His service continued until 1108, when, according to

Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa Muʾaffaq al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Al-Qāsim Ibn Khalīfa al-Khazrajī ( ar, ابن أبي أصيبعة‎; 1203–1270), commonly referred to as Ibn Abi Usaibia (also ''Usaibi'ah, Usaybea, Usaibi`a, Usaybiʿah'' ...

, his attempt to retrieve a very large

Felucca A felucca ( ar, فلوكة, falawaka, possibly originally from Greek , ) is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in the eastern Mediterranean—including around Malta and Tunisia—in Egypt and Sudan (particularly along the Nile and in protect ...

laden with copper, that had capsized in the Nile, ended in failure. Abu as-Salt had built a mechanical tool to retrieve the Felucca, and was close to success when the machine's silk ropes fractured. The Vizier Al-Afdal ordered Abu as-Salt's arrest, and he was imprisoned for more than three years, only to be released in 1112. Abu al-Salt then left Egypt for Mahdia in Tunisia, the capital of the Zirids in

Ifriqiya Ifriqiya ( '), also known as al-Maghrib al-Adna ( ar, المغرب الأدنى), was a medieval historical region comprising today's Tunisia and eastern Algeria, and Tripolitania (today's western Libya). It included all of what had previously ...

where he entered the service of king Yaḥyā ibn Tamīm as‐Ṣanhājī and where his son, ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz was born. He also occasionally traveled to

and worked in the court of Roger I of Sicily as a visiting physician. He also sent poems to the Palermitan poet Abū ḍ-Ḍawʾ. He died, probably of dropsy, in Béjaïa, Algeria. He is buried in the

Ribat of Monastir The Ribat of Monastir ( ar, رباط المنستير) is a ribat, an Islamic defensive structure, located in Monastir, Tunisia. It is the oldest ribat built by the Arab conquerors during the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb.

Works

Abu as-Salt wrote an encyclopedic work of many treatises on the scientific disciplines known as quadrivium. This work was probably known in Arabic as ''Kitāb al‐kāfī fī al‐ʿulūm''. His poetry is preserved in the anthology of

Imad al-Din al-Isfahani Muhammad ibn Hamed Isfahani (1125 – 20 June 1201) ( fa, محمد ابن حامد اصفهانی), more popularly known as Imad ad-din al-Isfahani ( fa, عماد الدین اصفهانی) ( ar, عماد الدين الأصفهاني), was ...

. His interests also included alchemy as well as the study of medicinal plants. He was keen to discover an elixir able to transmute copper into gold and tin into silver.

Astronomy

* ''Risāla fī al-amal bi‐l‐astrulab'' ("On the construction and use of the

astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...

") * A description of the three instruments known as the Andalusian equatoria. * ''Ṣifat ʿamal ṣafīḥa jāmiʿa taqawwama bi‐hā jamīʿ al‐kawākib al‐sabʿa'' ("Description of the construction and Use of a Single Plate with which the totality of the motions of the seven planets"), where the seven planets refer to

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, Venus, earth, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

. * ''Kitāb al‐wajīz fī ʿilm al‐hayʾa'' ("Brief treatise on cosmology") * ''Ajwiba ʿan masāʾil suʾila ʿan‐ha fa‐ajāba or Ajwiba ʿan masāʾil fī al‐kawn wa‐ʾl‐ḥabīʿa wa‐ʾl‐ḥisāb'' ("Solution to questions on cosmology, physics, and arithmetic"). * An introduction to astronomy. * A Summary of Ptolemy's ''

Almagest The ''Almagest'' is a 2nd-century Greek-language mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy ( ). One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it canoni ...

.''

Music

* ''Risāla fī l-musiqa'' ("Epistle about music") - a manuscript translated in Hebrew is kept in Paris

Medicine (pharmacobotany)

* Kitab al-adwiya al-mufrad - this book know both by a 1311 Latin translation by Almado de Vilanova and a Hebrew translation by Yehuda Nathan is unique as drugs are organized not by alphabetical order of the medicinal plants they are made of, but by the part of the body they are used to cure.

Description of Egypt

* ''Risāla al-misriyya'' (Epistle about Egypt) a report written for the Zirid prince Yahya, precious for its description of 13th century Egypt

Logic

* ''Taqwim al-dhikr'' (assessing memory) a summary of Porphyry's Isagoge and the first four books of Aristotles' Organon. The manuscript has been translated in Spanish by C. Angel GONZALEZ PALENCIA.

Notes

*
PDF version

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abu Al-Salt 1060s births 1134 deaths 11th-century Al-Andalus people 12th-century people of Ifriqiya People from Marina Alta Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world Inventors of the medieval Islamic world Astronomers of Al-Andalus Medieval Egyptian astronomers Physicians of Al-Andalus Mathematicians of Al-Andalus Philosophers of Al-Andalus Scholars from the Fatimid Caliphate 12th-century astronomers