khwāja naṣīr al-dīn ṭūsī is one of the greatest thinkers of the middle centuries (ah), who enjoys a high status in science and literature and has a worldwide reputation. naṣīr al-dīn ṭūsī did not suffice himself merely with science (‘ilm) and thought and was involved in practical politics, too. the last two decades of khwāja naṣīr’s life in ilkhanids courts was his period of scientific and prac...

the elements of euclid, sometimes knows as the “the book of euclid”, and in the mathematical texts of the islamic period often referred to as “the book of the elements”, is one of the main sources of islamic mathematics. this paper addresses the history of the translation of this book and its recension by naṣīr al-dīn ṭūsī. then, through a comparison of the first chapter of the fourth part of q...

quṭb al-dīn al-shīrāzī (634h/1236ce-710h/1311ce) wrote four major works on astronomy: nihāyat al‐idrāk fī dirāyat al‐aflāk (“the utmost attainment in comprehending the orbs), in arabic, first edition completed mid-shaʿbān 680/november 1281); the ikhtiyārāt‐i muẓaffarī (“selections for muẓaffar al-dīn arslan” [a minor ruler in qasṭamūnī (modern kastamonu, turkey)], in persian, completed sometime...

menelaus’ sphaerica can be considered as the most important classical text in the tradition of spherics books, written with the aim of the solution of problems arising in spherical astonomy. euclid’s elements is the the most important book on plane geometry. this article aims at a comparative study of menelaus’s sphaerica and euclid’s elements, to show that book i of sphaerica is an attempt to ...

quṭb al-dīn shīrāzī wrote several huge works not only on mathematical sciences and philosophy, but also on medicine: a commentary on volume 1 of ibn sīnā’s al-qānūn fī al-ṭibb entitled al-tuḥfa al-saʿdīya in nine volumes. this is not surprising because quṭb al-dīn came from a family of physicians and he received medical education in his youth by reading ibn sīnā’s qānūn. this enormous commentar...

the political approach of shaykh zāhid gīlānī paved the way for shaykh ṣafī al-dīn ardabīlī’s political thinking and his closeness to the power-holders of the time. in addition to acquiring the rules and manners of sufism, shaykh ṣafī al-dīn learned from his master the political approaches for expanding his sufi order, as well. these approaches turned into a political movement in the safavid or...

On the evening of Saturday, 5 Shawwāl 919 (4 December 1513), Ghars al-Dīn Khalīl, a Cairene Hanafi deputy qadi, left home for a night vigil at the Qarāfah cemetery in Cairo. 1 His wife, expecting her husband to be absent for the entire night, sent for her lover, a certain Nūr al-Dīn al-Mashālī, himself a Shafiʿi deputy judge. Unfortunately for the two, a neighbor gave notice to the husband, who...