The ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ'' () is a name given to manuscripts from eastern and western parts of the arab civilization, essentially about astronomy, weather and agriculture, with no proven relation between the manuscripts. The book of
Abu Hanifa Dinawari of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
was written more than a century earlier than the book of
ʿArīb ibn Saʿīd al-Qurṭūbī of
Córdoba (d. 980 CE). This latter is a particularly influential example of the form. The work was adapted and translated several times.
[Miquel Forcada, 'Calendar of Córdoba', in ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 3rd edn, ed. by Kate Fleet and others (Leiden: Brill, 2007-), .]
Origins and contents
ʿArīb ibn Saʿīd was a physician and scholar associated with the Córdoban Umayyad court of
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III
ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil () or ʿAbd al-Rahmān III (890 - 961), was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba from 912 to 92 ...
. He based the ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ'' on such eastern-style calendars as the ''Kitāb al-Azmina'' by
Ibn Māsawayh (d. 857). He finished the work in 973, and it is principally attested today in the manuscript Tehran, Malik Millī, MS 2049.
The work contains discourses on meteorological and astronomical topics, including astronomical tables, discussion of bodily health and hygiene, agricultural treatises and calendars. It describes a curious meteorological forecasting system based on the position of the sun and the hiding of certain stars, associating these positions with certain repetitive phenomena experienced at that time.
In the assessment of Miquel Forcada, 'the author also includes materials from everyday life, thus providing an invaluable documentary record of his times.'
Adaptations
''Calendar of Córdoba''
ʿArīb ibn Saʿīd's work was adapted, in Córdoba, under the title''Kitāb fī tafṣīl al-zamān wa-maṣāliḥ al-abdān'', a text that has been known in English as ''The Calendar of Córdoba'' since the name was Europeanised by its first modern editor,
Reinhart Dozy, in his 1873 edition. This was composed in the tenth century CE, after the completion of ʿArīb ibn Saʿīd's work in 973. The ''Calendar of Córdoba'' differs from the ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ'' in being greatly simplified, while including more information specific to Christian ritual, principally by listing the feasts and Mozarab saints associated with each day of the calendar.
The ''Calendar'' survives in the manuscripts Paris,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, MS Héb. 1082 (Arabic in Hebrew script) and MS Ar. 2521 (Arabic).
The ''Calendar of Córdoba'' was twice translated into Latin during the Middle Ages. The earlier of the two is very literal, at times to the point of incomprehensibility, but adds further information relating to the Christian community of Córdoba and its hinterland. This is entitled ''Liber Anoe'' (taking its title from the source-text of the ''Calendar'', the ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ'' It may be by the Christian bishop Rabīʿ b. Zayd, who, like ʿArīb b. Saʿīd, was associated with the Umayyad court at Córdoba, has been posited as the translator. It was once attributed to
Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187). This translation survives in the manuscripts Madrid,
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos.
History
The library was founded by ...
, MS 6036 and Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS Lat. Qu. 198.
The second Latin translation is from the thirteenth century. It survives in the manuscript Barcelona, Museu Episcopal, MS Vic 167.
Other adaptations
The ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ'' was also the source of the anonymous, Andalusian text ''Risāla fī awqāt al-sana'', found in Rabat, al-Ḥasaniyya, MS 6699,
[''Risāla fī awqāt al-sana. Un calendario anónimo andalusí'', ed. María Angeles Navarro (Granada 1990).] and of the as yet unedited ''Tafṣīl al-azmān wa-maṣāliḥ al-abdān'' found in the manuscript Alexandria, al-Baladiyya, MS 2918.
See also
*
Al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl
Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Naḍr ibn Shumayl ibn Kharasha al-Māzinī al-Tamīmī (; 740–819/820) was an Arab scholar and poet from central Asia active in Iraq.
Al-Naḍr belonged to the Banū Māzin branch of the Banū Tamīm. He was born in Marw al ...
(d. 820) also wrote a ''Kitāb al-Anwāʾ''
Editions and translations
* Charles Pellat (ed.), ''Le calendrier de Cordoue publié par R. Dozy. Nouvelle edition accompagnee d'une traduction française annotée'' (Leiden: Brill 1961) [first published as Dozy, Reinhart P. A.,
Le calendrier de Cordoue: de l'année 961; texte arabe et ancienne traduction Latine' (Leiden: Brill, 1873)]
* José Martínez Gázquez and Julio Samsó (trans.), 'Una nueva traducción latina del Calendario de Córdoba (siglo XIII)', in ''Textos y estudios sobre astronomía española en el siglo XIII'', trans. by Juan Vernet (Barcelona 1981), pp. 9–78
* José Martínez Gázquez, El texto del Calendario de Córdoba en el manuscrito Berlín Lat. Qu. 198, in Studia in honorem prof. M. de Riquer (Barcelona 1991), 4:657–68 (from Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS Lat. Qu. 198).
* Daniel Varisco, “The Anwāʾ Stars According to Abū Isḥāq al-Zajjāj.” Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften (1989).
Further reading
* Christys, Ann, ''Christians in al-Andalus (711–1000)'' (Richmond, 2002), pp. 108–34.
* Forcada, Miquel, 'Ibn Zayd', in ''Biblioteca de al-Andalus'', ed. by Jorge Lirola (Almería 2009), 6:282–6
* Koningsveld, Peter S. van,
Christian-Arabic manuscripts from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. A historical interpretation, ''Al-Qanṭara'', 15 (1994), 423–51.
* López, Ángel C., 'Estudio particular de las especies botánicas que se citan en el ''Calendario de Córdoba''
', in ''Ciencias de la naturaleza en al-Andalus III'', ed. by E. García Sánchez (Granada 1994), pp. 44–78.
* Samsó, Julio, 'La tradición clásica en los calendarios agrícolas hispanoárabes y norteafricanos', in ''Actas del II Congreso Internacional de Estudios sobre las Culturas del Mediterráneo Occidental'' (Barcelona 1978), pp. 177–86
* Samsó, Julio and J. Martínez Gázquez, 'Algunas observaciones al texto del Calendario de Córdoba', ''al-Qanṭara'' 2 (1981), 319–44
* Samsó, Julio, 'Sobre los materiales astronómicos en el Calendario de Córdoba y en su versión latina del siglo XIII', in ''Nuevos estudios sobre astronomía española en el siglo de Alfonso X'', ed. by Juan Vernet (Barcelona 1983), pp. 125–38.
* Samsó, Julio, ''Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus'' (Madrid 1992), pp. 71–5.
* Viré, François, 'La volerie dans l'Espagne du Xe siècle à travers le ''Calendrier de Cordoue''
', ''Arabica'', 12 (1965), 306–14.
References
{{reflist
10th-century books
Astronomical works of the medieval Islamic world
Scientific works of Al-Andalus