Category Archives: Islamic Sciences

Tabsir Redux: Ibn Tufayl’s Fable

Books You Should Read, Islam in Europe, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Literature, Sufism


What would happen to a child growing up on an island outside any human society? In real life such a scenario would be absurd. No child could survive from birth on his or her own, despite exotic accounts of feral human babies being reared by animals. But as a thought experiment, it makes an intriguing story. Such is the philosophical fable spun by the Andalusian Muslim scholar Ibn Tufayl over eight centuries ago. I have just finished teaching this text and the lessons in it are fresh in my mind.

If you have never read this classic fable, it can be found online in the original 1708 translation into English by Simon Ockley. A more recent translation by Lenn Evan Goodman is available from Amazon. The author was a distinguished Muslim intellectual who borrowed from the earlier Greek icons Aristotle and Plato, as well as the commentaries by earlier Muslim philosophers like Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Farabi. His fable combines logical arguments, inductive scientific observation and a form of intuition that leads to a union with the One. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: Ibn Tufayl’s Fable →

11/11/11

Books You Should Read, Folklore and Proverbs, Islamic Sciences


Ah the magic of numbers. Today we can triple our numeratic pleasure as the 11s line up like a row of ducks. The esoteric knowledge of the symbolism of numbers stretches across time and cultures. Some numbers are wildly popular, such as the trinity (where three is not a crowd but a godhead), the dreaded three 6s (which Michele Bachman recently used to tax the imagination of Herman Cain), the nines (addressed to those who are well dressed), the decidedly decimal tens (from Moses to metrics), and the well disciplined 12s (for which the jury is never out). But, what about that rather odd dual digit number 11? Apart from a painting of The Last Supper with Judas out of the room, when was the last time you thought of 11 of anything? Well, if you like bad horror movies that stroke biblical demons to death, try out the film 11/11/11.

To the Kabbalists no stone can be left unturned and no number uninterpreted. In her fascinating book, The Mystery of Numbers (Oxford University Press, 1993), Annemarie Schimmel devotes only a mere three pages to the semiotics of 11. As she notes, “Larger than 10 and smaller than 12, it stands between 2 very important round numbers and therefore, while every other number has at least one positive aspect, 11 was always interpreted in medieval exegesis ad malam partem, in a purely negative sense.” For medieval Christians 11 was the number of sinners, not the total number of course, but the curse of going beyond the 10 commandments and not reaching the 12 disciples.

In Islamic texts Schimmel only notes that the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwan al-Safa) also thought of 11 as negative and as a “mute” number. But for those who love conspiracy theories, here is one that is too precious not to repeat:

1) New York City has 11 letters
2) Afghanistan has 11 letters.
3) Ramsin Yuseb (The terrorist who threatened to destroy the Twin Towers in 1993) has 11 letters.
4) George W Bush has 11 letters.

This could be a mere coincidence, but this gets more interesting:

1) New York is the 11th state.
2) The first plane crashing against the Twin Towers was flight number 11.
3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers. 9 + 2 = 11
4) Flight 77 which also hit Twin Towers , was carrying 65
passengers. 6+5 = 11
5) The tragedy was on September 11, or 9/11 as it is now known. 9 + 1+ 1 =
11
6) The date is equal to the US emergency services telephone number 911. 9 +
1 + 1 = 11

Sheer coincidence. .?! Read on and make up your own mind:

1) The total number of victims inside all the hi-jacked planes was 254. 2 +
5 + 4 = 11.
2) September 11 is day number 254 of the calendar year. Again 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
3) The Madridbombing took place on 3/11/2004. 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 = 11.
4) The tragedy of Madrid happened 911 days after the Twin Towers incident.

Now this is where things get totally eerie:

The most recognized symbol for the US , after the Stars & Stripes, is the Eagle. The following verse is taken from the Quran, the Islamic holy book:

“For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced: for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah and there was peace.” That verse is number 9.11 of the Quran.

Still unconvinced about all of this..?! Try this and see how you feel afterwards, it made my hair stand on end:

Open Microsoft Word and do the following:
1. Type in capitals Q33 NY. This is the flight number of the first plane to hit one of the Twin Towers.*
2. Highlight the Q33 NY.
3. Change the font size to 48.
4. Change the actual font to the WINGDINGS.

Nice try, but the real Quranic 9:11 flies in the face of this scenario: “And if they turn to God, keep up the prayer, and pay the prescribed alms, then they are your brothers in faith.” Oops, this hardly seems like a call for aerial jihad. But 11/11/11 mongers have even prompted Egyptian authorities to close the Khufu pyramid for fear of Masonic rites there.

And you thought 11 was a rather harmless number… But, perhaps the last word about 11 should be the most sporting one. A soccer team, anyone? And, to top the hat trick, German goalkeepers are said to call the penalty kick an Elfmeter (11 meters).

Tabsir Redux: Ibn Abī Bakr al-Azraq on Massage Oils: #1

Islamic Sciences, Scholars


The Arab physician Ibrāhīm ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Abī al-Azraq, wrote an important medical text near the end of the 9th century A.H./fifteenth century C.E. This is his Tashhīl al-manāfi‘ fī al-ṭibb wa-al-ḥikma, which was published in Cairo in the late 19th century and has been republished many times since then. One of his chapters deals with adhān, that is oils and lotions that were rubbed on the body either in the hot bath or just for general health. Here is my translation of his account on oils.

Section on the Benefit and Influence of Oils (adhān)

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, said: “Eat olive oil (zayt) and rub it on the body.” It is a remedy for seventy illnesses, one of these being leprosy (judhām). He said: “For forty nights, Satan will not come near anyone who has olive oil applied.” Zayt is the extraction of the olive, according to al-DÄ«wān. Cold and wet, but said to be hot. It softens (yadbughu) the stomach, strengthens the body, energizes movement, and there is benefit for one in old age in applying it to the eyes against dimming of vision. According to Ibn ‘Amr the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, said: “Use it to season bread and rub it on the body, because it comes out of the blessed tree (al-shajara al-mubāraka). Continue reading Tabsir Redux: Ibn AbÄ« Bakr al-Azraq on Massage Oils: #1 →

History of Islamic Cartography Online

Environment, Islamic History, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Maps, Miniatures, Teaching Resources


Al-Idrisi’s map of the world, 1154 CE

A very useful volume on Islamic cartography is now online. Below is the table of contents, each chapter available in pdf.

Volume Two, Book One
Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies
Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward

Volume 1

Front Matter
Gallery of Color Illustrations (Plates 1–24)
Gallery of Color Illustrations (Plates 25–40)

Preface
J. B. Harley and David Woodward

Part One – Islamic Cartography

Chapter 1. Introduction to Islamic Maps
Ahmet T. Karamustafa

Chapter 2. Celestial Mapping
Emilie Savage-Smith

Chapter 3. Cosmographical Diagrams
Ahmet T. Karamustafa

Early Geographical Mapping

Chapter 4. The Beginnings of a Cartographic Tradition
Gerald R. Tibbetts Continue reading History of Islamic Cartography Online →

Wellcome Library Arabic Manuscripts Online

Calligraphy, Islamic History, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Languages, Literature, Maps, Miniatures, Teaching Resources

Historic Arabic medical manuscripts go online

Researchers may now search and browse the Wellcome Library’s Arabic manuscripts using groundbreaking functionalities in a new online resource that brings together rich descriptive information and exceptionally detailed images.

Arabic medicine was once the most advanced in the world, and now digital facsimiles of some of its most important texts have been made freely available online. The unique online resource, based on the Wellcome Library’s Arabic manuscript collection, includes well-known medical texts by famous practitioners (such as Avicenna, Ibn al-Quff, and Ibn an-Nafis), lesser-known works by anonymous physicians and rare or unique copies, such as Averroes’ commentaries on Avicenna’s medical poetry.

The Wellcome Arabic Manuscript Cataloguing Partnership (WAMCP) combines the efforts of the Wellcome Library, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and King’s College London Digital Humanities Department and is funded by JISC and the Wellcome Trust. It offers a rich digital manuscript library available online for free, which represents a significant resource for a wide range of researchers – including Arabic studies scholars, medical historians and manuscript conservators – to aid and enhance their work.

The resource is now available online. Continue reading Wellcome Library Arabic Manuscripts Online →

The State of Agriculture in Late 13th Century Rasulid Yemen, 5

Agriculture, Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Languages, Plants, Rasulids, Yemen


Tax document of al-Malik al-Afḍal, mid 14th century CE

By Daniel Martin Varisco

[In 2003 I attended a conference in Rome and gave a paper which was eventually published in Convegno Storia e Cultura dello Yemen in età Islamica, con particolare riferimento al periodo Rasûlide (Roma 30-31 ottobre 2003 (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Fondazione Leone Caetani, 27, pp. 161-174, 2006). As this publication is virtually inaccessible, I am reprinting the paper here (with page numbers to the original indicted in brackets). For the previous part of this article, click here. The references are provided at the end of the first entry.]

ARCHIVING AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

Al-Ashraf’s Milh al-malāḥa provides a textbook survey of the mechanics of the agricultural system, but there is nothing on production costs, yields or the marketing system. Fortunately, some microeconomic details can now be filled in with information from the Muẓaffar archive, compiled from field reports sent to the Rasulid court between 691-95/1292-96 at the very end of al-Muẓaffar’s reign. Particularly valuable is a survey made in Ramadan 692/1293 from the lands of a shaykh Muḥammad ibn IbrāhÄ«m al-Ḥawm (?) of Ta‘izz and shaykh RashÄ«d al-DÄ«n Manṣūr ibn Ḥasan in Mikhlāf Ja‘far, as well as some data from ‘Abadān. (26) Details are provided on fees and shares for ploughing and virtually every agricultural activity with special emphasis on the obligations in sharecropping agreements and regional differences.

For the Ta‘izz case, the grain yields of sown sorghum are said to be up to 400 fold (i.e. one zabadī of seed will yield a crop of 400 zabadī) on good land, 150 fold on middle-range land and only 90-100 fold on poor land. Sorghum is also important in Yemen for its stalk (‘ajūr), used as fodder and fuel. The stalk yield for the sowing on good or medium land will be three camel (?) loads, but reaches five loads on land of poor quality; the reason given for this is that such sorghum is grown mainly for its stalk value. [p. 171]

For wheat in Ta‘izz, the increase is 15 fold on good land, 10 fold on medium land and only 3 fold on poor land. Emmer wheat (‘alas), on the other hand, yields 10 fold on good land, 4 fold on medium land and 2 fold on poor soil. Barley is said to yield 10 to 1; this is sown only in the mountain areas and not usually on the best land. Information is also provided on the straw (tibn) yields. Continue reading The State of Agriculture in Late 13th Century Rasulid Yemen, 5 →

The Politics of Ramadan

Islam in America, Islamic Rituals, Islamic Sciences, Qur'an, Zaydi


Religion and politics have always been intertwined, even though some rituals would seem to be above the fray. Consider the fasting month of Ramadan, which has just ended. The Islamic hijra calendar is lunar with arbitrary 30-day months for a lunation which is not exactly 30 days. So determining when a month begins is linked to the sight of the new moon. Before the age of mechanical clocks it was also necessary to fix dawn by observation of the sunrise and decide at what point it was possible to say the sun had risen. In the early days of Islam the timing of Ramadan and the prayer times was based on visible signs. Scholars devised scientific and folk scientific means of telling time, but the basic premise is that a pious individual must make the call.

The Fiqh Council of North America advocates a fixed date based on modern astronomical calculation. Here is how Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Shah states it:

People have landed upon the Moon and Muslims are still fighting about the moon sighting. Islamic Shari’ah is not static. It responds to people of all times and differing circumstances. Actual moon sighting is a mean to determine Ramadan and not an objective in itself. Islam requires certainty regarding the sacred timings. During Prophetic era this certainty was achieved either through physical moon sighting or through estimation or completion of thirty days. Currently the astronomical calculations about the birth of new moon are so accurate that astronomers can determine moon birth dates years in advance. The Qur’an in Surah Yunus authenticates calendar based upon such precise astronomical calculations. “It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light, and measured out stages for it (moon); that you might know the number of years and the calculations. (10:5) There is absolutely nothing in the Qur’an which categorically mandates actual moon sighting for confirmation or negation of Ramadan. The Qura’nic exegetes universally agree that the verse of Surah al-Baqarah (2:185) “So whosoever witnesses the month among you should fast in it” does not require physical moon sighting but mandates residential presence and knowledge of Ramadan as the legal cause of fasting. The original linguistic meanings of the word hilal revolve around announcement with loud voice, cry of joy and sharing news publicly by raising voices. The new moon was metaphorically called al-hilal because the Arabs at its first sight used to express joy and publicly announce coming of the new month. Therefore, there is absolutely nothing in the Qur’an that requires actual moon sighting as the only means of determining Ramadan. The supposed Prophetic supplications (Dua’s) at first glance of the new moon are based upon weak Ahadith. Moreover these supplications can be recited at any time the person sees the new moon first time.

A nice idea, but one that depoliticizes the timing and thus is bound to run into opposition. A case in point is Yemen. Continue reading The Politics of Ramadan →