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The Emergence of Scientific Modernity in Iran: Controversies Surrounding Astrology and Modern Astronomy in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Kamran Arjomand
Kamran Arjomand*
Affiliation:
Orientalisches Seminar, Universität zu Köln
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Extract

In a sense, the history of science deals with the creation and development of scientific ideas and theories concerning scientific discoveries or even failures. Its focus is on scientific discovery and its forerunners, and it generally ignores areas where two methodologically divergent and geographically separate scientific traditions clash, especially when no new discoveries have resulted therefrom.

One such area is the clash between modern European and traditional Islamic sciences. For this reason, the introduction of modern science into the Islamic world and its challenge to traditional scholars has not attracted the attention of historians of science either from within or without. Books on the history of science dealing with the Islamic world, and more particularly with Iran, rarely cover the field beyond medieval times, thus showing a tangible research deficit.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1-2 , Spring Winter 1997 , pp. 5 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1997

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Footnotes

*

This is an enlarged version of a paper entitled “Iсtiḍād-as-Salṭana und die Anhänger der alten Wissenschaften. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Unwissens im Iran des 19. Jahrhunderts,” which was read at the “XXVI. Deutscher Orientalistentag” held in Leipzig 25–29 September 1995. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for Iranian Studies for making helpful suggestions and Dr. Peter Andrews, Universität zu Köln, for straightening out the English.

References

1. Danishpazhuh, Muhammad Taqi points out: “History books and catalogues suggest that in the 19th/20th centuries Western science and philosophy were increasingly received. Unfortunately there is, to this date, no accurate investigation in this field” (Nashr-i dānish 2, no. 2 [1982]: 88)Google Scholar. In a recent publication entitled Transfer of Modern Science and Technology in the Muslim World. Proceedings of the International Symposium on “Modern Science and the Muslim World“: science and technology transfer from the West to the Muslim world from the Renaissance to the beginning of the XXth century, Istanbul 1987, ed. E. Ihsanoglu (Istanbul, 1992), some aspects of the introduction of the modern sciences have been considered. This pioneer effort, however, fails to consider in any detail the very important sphere of reaction of traditional scholars in Islamic countries to these sciences.

2. I have in mind the apologetic view, attempting to account for what it describes as the “wholesale uncritical swallowing of Western science,” which is supposedly brought about as a result of the “abdication of the ulama” when confronting Western science. This view is expressed by Nasr, Seyyed Hossein in “Islam and the Problem of Modern Science,” in Sardar, Ziauddin, ed., An Early Crescent (London and New York, 1989), 127–39Google Scholar. Nasr maintains that in contrast to the Islamic reception of Greek, Persian and Indian sciences in the eighth and ninth centuries and their critical examination and further development within the Islamic framework, there have been no serious efforts on the part of Islamic scholars to examine modern science according to Islamic norms. He writes: “The traditional class of Muslim scholars, therefore, preserved the faith against many of the onslaughts of Western thought, but was not able to provide a critical examination of modern science on the basis of Islamic criteria” (ibid., 129). What these Islamic criteria are is not at all clear, and how “the traditional [my emphasis] class of Muslim scholars” is to be understood is also problematic.

3. Cf. Winter, H. J. J., “Persian Science in Safavid Times,” in The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 6, ed. Jackson, Peter & Laurence, Lockhart (Cambridge, 1986)Google Scholar, 591 f.

4. See Valle, Pietro della, Viaggi di Pietro della Valle (Brighton, 1843), 326–28Google Scholar. I have used the German translation in Bietenholz, Peter G., Pietro Della Valle, Studien Ziir Geschichte der Orientkenntnis und des Orientbildes im Abendlande, Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft 85 (Basel, 1962), 192 fGoogle Scholar. I have not been able to find any information relating to Lari in Persian sources.

5. Two autograph copies of this letter are kept in the Vatican Library (Vat. Pers. 9 and 10). It is currently being edited by the present author. Some information regarding its content is given by Sayili, Aydin, & #x201C;An Early Seventeenth Century Persian Manuscript on the Tychonic System,” Anatolia 3 (1958): 84–87Google Scholar. My references are to the MS Vat. Pers. 9.

6. The original MS, according to Delia Valle (fol. 5b), was lost in a storm as Borri was traveling by sea from the South Vietnamese province of Cochin China to Goa. Apparently, this treatise was later rewritten and published by its author in Lisbon in 1629 and 1631, entitled De Tribus Coelis. See Rossi, Ettore, Elenco dei manoscritti persiani della Biblioteca Vaticana (Vatican, 1948), 36Google Scholar.

7. See Ashtiyani, сAbbas Iqbal, “Awwalīn dūrbīn-i nujūmī-yi jadīd dar Īrān,” Yādgār 2, no. 10 (1325 Sh./1946): 33–36Google Scholar. In the entry on the life of Thabit b. Qurra al-Harrani, cAbdallah Isfahani (Efendi) quotes (according to Iqbal) a passage from Nawādir al-сulūm wa ‘l-adab by Mulla Muhammad Salih Qazwini, who mentions that a learned European by the name of Rafaɔil made a telescope in Isfahan (сAbdallah Isfahani, Riyāż al-сulamāɔ [1106/1694], pt. 2, vol. 1). Isfahani comments that such instruments were then common in Europe and he had repeatedly (mukarrar) seen them i n Constantinople and Isfahan. This part of Riyāż al-сulamaɔ is not published. See also Ardakani, Husayn Mahbubi, Tārīkh-i muɔassasāt-i tamaddunī-yi jadīd dar Īrān, vol. 1 (Tehran, 1354 Sh./1975), 235Google Scholar, quoting from Iqbal.

8. See Munzawi, Ahmad, Fihrist-i nuskhahā-yi khaṭṭī-yi Fārsī, vol. 1. (Tehran, 1969), 206Google Scholar. Munzawi's source is Nasr al-Din Tarazi, Fihris makhṭūṭāt al-Fārisī (1:223), which introduces this MS with the Arabic title Risāla fī ithbāt ḥarakat alshams wa sukūn al-arż.

9. According to the colophon (fol. 18a), the manuscript was finished on 7 Dhul-Hijja 1294/13 December 1883 by the author, who gives his name as Muhammad Baqir (fol. lb); it was then copied by сAbdallah b. Muhammad Riza (fol. 18a). The author was, in fact, the Shaykhi scholar Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Jaсfar Hamadani (d. 1319/1901–2). Another copy of this tract is kept in the Majlis Library (MS no. 5/2769). See Munzawi, Fihrist, 299 (no. 2790), where it is introduced as Zamīn va āftāb.

10. The oldest known Persian treatise on modern astronomy is Risālaɔī dar ithbāt-i hayɔat-i jadīd by Abu Talib al-Husayni al-Safawi, written about 1772 in India, ed. Hamadani, Husayn Maсsumi and published in Majalla-yi maсārif\, no. 2 (1984): 117–85Google Scholar. S. M. Razaullah Ansari mentions some of the early manuscripts in “Modern Astronomy in Indo-Persian Sources” in Ihsanoglu, Transfer of Modern Science, 121–44, but he mistakes the above-mentioned Abu Talib b. Hasan al-Husayni al-Safawi for Mirza Abu Talib, the famous author of Masīr-i Ṭālibī, first published in English translation as The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan in Asia, Africa and Europe, during the years 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and 1803 (London, 1810).

11. See, for example, August Bontems, Voyage en Turquie et en Perse (1807), tr. Mafi, Mansoureh Nezam as Safarnāma-yi Ugūst Buntān (Tehran, 1975), 90 fGoogle Scholar.

12. Malcolm, John, History of Persia, ed. Court, M. H. (Lahore, 1888), 200Google Scholar.

13. It is possible that by this abstract Malcolm meant William Hunter, comp., Majmīсa7-yi shamsī. The Majmua shamsi. A Summary of the Copernican system of astronomy, Persian tr. by Abul-Khayr b. Ghiyath al-Din (Calcutta, 1826). According to the catalogue of the Bibliothéque Nationale (Paris), this work was first published in Hindustani (Calcutta, 1807). Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi mistakes Abul-Khayr to be the author. See his “Tārīkh-pardāzī va Īrān-ārāɔī,” Iran Nameh 12, no. 4 (1994): 614, fn. 7.

14. There are some late-18th-/early-19th-century travel accounts by Iranians who visited or stayed in India for a while, which contain, among other things, news of Western scientific and technological achievements: сAbd al-Latif Shushtari, Tuḥfat al-сālām (written 1216/1801, published in Bombay 1263/1846); Aqa Ahmad Kirmanshahi: Mirɔāat al-aḥwāl [or] Jahān-numā (Majlis Library, MS no. 5551). Haɔiri, сAbd al-Hadi, Nakhustīn rūyārūɔīhā-yi andīshagarān-i Īrān bā du rūya-yi tamaddun-i gharb, 2nd. ed. (Tehran, 1372 Sh./1993)Google Scholar, discusses these and other contributions (chap. 7).

15. S. M. Razaullah Ansari mentions some of these manuscripts in “Modern Astronomy in Indo-Persian Sources” in Ihsanoglu, Transfer of Modern Science, 121–44. Masсud b. сAbd al-Rahim Ansari, one of the first Iranians under Fath сAli Shah who learned French, translated a treatise on modern astronomy in Iran and dedicated it to сAbbas Mirza prior to 1250/1834. A copy of this treatise is kept in Sipahsalar Library (no. 3648), Tehran.

16. Other than Hunter's Majmūсa-yi shamsī, the following examples can be mentioned: Junpuri, Abul-Qasim Ghulam-Husayn, Jāmiс-i Bahādur-Khānī (Calcutta, 1250/1834)Google Scholar, on modern physics and astronomy and Jang, Dabir al-Mulk Hushyar, Ḥadā'iq al-nujūm, 2 vols. (India, 1253/1837)Google Scholar, on modern astronomy.

17. Jaсfar Khan Mushir al-Dawla was among the first group of students sent to Europe by сAbbas Mirza. He returned to Iran in 1235/1819 and published a number of books on mathematics, mechanics and geography: Kitāb-i ḥisāb (1262/1845), Khulāsat al-ḥisāb (1263/1846) and Āthār-i Jaсarī (1276/1859),’ the last ascribed to him. Other early printed books on modern sciences are: Risāla dar ḥikamt-i jadīd va āfarīnish-i sitāragān (1268/1851), translated from Hindustani; сIlm-i ḥikmat-i ṭabīсī (1276/1859), probably translated from French; Farhad Mirza, Jām-i jam (1272/1855), compiled and translated from European sources.

18. The following books were written or abridged by Kržiž and translated into Persian by Mirza Zaki Mazandarani: Qawāсid-i mashq-i dasta va qāсida va qānūn-i naẓm-i tūpkhāna (1269/1853); сIlm-i tūpkhāna (1275/1858); сIlm-i misāḥat (1274/1857); Kitāb dar tashrīḥ va tawżīḥ-i сilm-i jarr al-thaqīl va сilm-i ḥikmat-i ṭabīсī (1858); Mīzān al-ḥisāb (1274/1857) and Kitāb-i ḥisāb bi-сilm-i handasa (1274/1858).

19. There is a treatise in Urdu entitled Qawl-i matīn dor ibṭāl-i ḥarakat-i zamīn, written in 1848 and published in the collected tracts of Khan, Sir Sayyid Ahmad under the title Maqālāt-i Sir Sayyid, ed. Panipati, Ismaсil, vol. 16 (Lahore, 1965), 487–500Google Scholar. This treatise is a refutation of Copernican astronomy, based mainly on Aristotelian physics. In this treatise the author mentions that he has seen a book by another Indian scholar, Shah Rafiс al-Din b. Shah Waliallah (1749–1818), containing 110 arguments against the movement of the earth. Christian W. Troll, who briefly gives a short account of Qawl-i matīn's main arguments, also assumes it to be the work of Ahmad, Sayyid. See his Sayyid Ahmad Khan, A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology (New Delhi, 1978), 147–49Google Scholar. Alessandro Bausani, too, takes it to be written by Sayyid Ahmad and translates the whole treatise and comments on Sayyid Ahmad's alleged conversion to the Copernican world view. See “Sir Sayyid Aḥmad Khān (1817–1898), e il Moto della Terra,” in Rivista degli studi orientali 54 (1980): 303–319. However, according to Urdū dāɔira-i maсārif-i islāmīya 2:117, Sayyid Ahmad Khan had actually translated this treatise from the original Persian into Urdu together with another treatise entitled Gardish-i āsmān, both of which were written by his learned grandfather Farid al-Din Ahmad (d. 1825) in refutation of Copernican astronomy.

20. See Encyclopaedia of Islam2, s.v. “Nujūm, aḥkām al-” (T. Fahd).

21. See Ullmann, M., Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam (Leiden, 1972), 195–96Google Scholar. The probable Pahlavi origin of a treatise with the title Ikhtiyārāt ayyām alshahr (hemerology) is demonstrated by Ebied, R. Y. and Young, M. J. L. in “A Treatise on Hemerology ascribed to Ğaсfar al-Ṣṣdiq,” Arabica (1976): 295–305Google Scholar. For further astrological treatises ascribed to Jaсfar al-Sadiq see Sezgin, F., Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 1. (Leiden, 1967), 530–31Google Scholar and vol. 7 (1979), 323–24.

22. Raphaël du Mans writes in his Estat de la Perse en 1660 (Paris, 1890; repr. 1969) that the monarch used to pay more than 20,000 tūmṣns to his astrologers who would determine what hours were auspicious even for daily routine.

23. It was among the first books lithographed in Iran. From 1259/1843 to 1286/1869 it went through at least seven printings. Like other books of its kind, it determines auspicious and inauspicious hours and days. In the preface appended to the early lithograph prints (e.g., 1843 and 1850) Majlisi stated that he had compiled this work from the writings of the Shicite ulama of the past, adding that although some of the determinations of the aḥkṣm were in accordance with those of the old Persians, obeying them was obligatory (p. 1). It is interesting to note that in the later editions (e.g., 1964), the reference to the pre-Islamic origin of the astrological determinations is omitted, so as to deny their origin.

24. In Rasṣɔil-i marḥūm Ḥṣjj Muḥammad Karīm Khṣn Kirmṣnī, facsimile of the autograph, J. 30 (Kirman, ca.’ 1979), 34–109.

25. Ibid., 34, 71, 87, 91–97.

26. Ibid., 77–80.

27. This will be done in a separate study, on which the author is currently working.

28. He is the author of a book on medicine entitled Ījṣz al-ṭirṣz in the Library of Astan-i Quds, Mashhad (MS no. 10276). He probably also participated in the publication of Khulṣṣat al-ḥisṣb by Jaсfar Khan Mushir al-Dawla. The colophon of Khulṣṣat alḥisṣb is quoted by Mahbubi Ardakani, Tarikh-i muɔassasṣt 1:184. According to the colophon, the book was printed under the supervision (bi-mubṣsharat) of Muhammad Wali al-Tabib al-Urdubadi, who is probably identical with our Muhammad Wali b. Muhammad Jaсfar.

29. According to Adamiyat, Firaydun, Amīr Kabīr va Īrṣn, 3rd ed. (Tehran, 1348 Sh./1969), 327Google Scholar, the newspaper Waqṣyiс-i ittifṣqīya, no. 30, reported that Mirza Muhammad Wali Hakim-Bashi was appointed head of the hospital, while a military physician, Dr. Kazulani, was in charge of medical treatment.

30. The date of composition is not mentioned by the author, but is arrived at from a statement made by him: “[William] Herschel discovered the planet Uranus in the year 1195 [1781] … and now barely 80 years after that . ..” (p. 671). The title and the author's name are mentioned by him in his preface (dībṣcha), but the book does not turn up in any bibliographical works known to me. Only one section of the book was published in Bombay (1310/1882), mistakenly as the still-missing fourth Chaman of the Chahṣr chaman by Bahram b. Farhad b. Isfandiyar, written in the reign of Akbar (1556–1605). See Storey, C. A., Persian Literature, vol. 1, pt. 1 (repr. 1970), 245 fGoogle Scholar.

31. Shigarf-nṣma, 776 f. A likely candidate for this unnamed author is Mirza Rafaɔil (according to E. G. Browne) or P. Raphael (according to Edwards) or Rafaeli (according to Katalog der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft; see Storey, Persian Literature, vol. 2, pt. 1, 160) or Flughun Rafaɔil (according to Iranian sources such as Adamiyat, Amīr Kabīr, 375 and Yarshater, ed., Fihrist-i kitṣbhṣ-yi chāpī-yi Fārsī [Tehran, 1352 Sh./1974], col. 1035). The work in question was entitled (Jughrāfiyā-yi) jahān-numā, compiled at the request of the shah from works in English and published in Tabriz in 1267/1851. Another candidate is the American Jesuit in Beirut, Cornelius van Dyke, who wrote a number of books on natural science, among them a book on geography entitled al-Mirɔāt al-ważīɔa fi ‘l-kura al-arżīya, published in Beirut in 1852, which was translated into Persian and published under the title Kashf al-qināс сan aḥwal al-aqālīm wa ‘l-biqāс (Bombay). According to E. Edwards, A Catalogue of the Persian Books in the British Museum (1922), there was no publication date given, but according to Yarshater, Fihrist, it was also published in 1852.

32. Shigarf-nāma, 683. Due to careless copying by the scribe, this title—like many other words—appears with variations at different places, e.g., 678, 714 and 760.

33. Ibid., 671 f., 687 ff., 762 ff., 766 f.

34. Ibid., 760, 766 f.

35. Ibid., 761, 725 ff. This is, in fact, the modification proposed by Baer (see Toulmin, Stephen and Goodfield, June, The Fabrics of the Heavens [London, 1963], 205Google Scholar). Baer is not mentioned by Muhammad Wali.

36. Ibid., 760.

37. Ibid., 674 ff., 676 ff.

38. Paulys Realencyclopadie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft, new ed. Georg Wissowa, vol. 2.2 (Stuttgart, 1896), col. 1836.

39. According to him, Ibn al7Haytham (356–430/965–1039) proposed the Tychonic system in a book titled Marātib al-samāɔ, without either confirming or rejecting it (Shigarf-nāma, 722). The verification of this claim seems to be impossible, since this title is not included in the works cited in Brockelmann's Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur or in Sezgin's Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, nor by Usaybiсa, Ibn Abi in his сUyūn al-anbāɔ fi ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāɔ (Beirut, ca. 1990)Google Scholar among the bibliography of Ibn al-Haytham. Moreover, it is not known from other works by Ibn al-Haytham that he had ever proposed such a system. See Schram, Matthias, Ibn al-Haythams Weg zur Physik (Wiesbaden, 1963)Google Scholar.

40. This book contains many strong arguments in defense of heliocentrism and rejects Ptolemaic astronomy. See Husayn Maсsumi Hamadani's Introduction to Abu Talib Husayni Safawi, Risālaɔī dar ithbāt-i hayɔat-i jadid, fn. 30. See also Manthur, M. N., “Qānūn-i Nāṣirī. A Persian Treatise on Modern Astronomy,” Studies in History of Medicine & Sciences 9, no. 3–4 (1985): 154Google Scholar.

41. See Shigarf-nāma, 699. Here the mathematical correlation is stated, but without attribution to Newton.

42. See George Saliba, “Copernican Astronomy in the Arab East: Theories of the Earth's Motion in the Nineteenth Century” in Ihsanoglu, Transfer of Modern Science, 145–56.

43. Shigarf-nāma, 769 f.

44. He was a proponent not only of astrology but also other esoteric sciences, on which he had written numerous books. His book on astrology was entitled Mawāqiс al-nujūm (Kirman, 1354/1935). For the bibliography of his works see Abul-Qasim Ibrahimi, Fihrist-i kutub-i mashāɔikh-i сiẓ;ām, 2 vols. (Kirman, n.d.).

45. I am not suggesting that Muhammad Wali was aware of the philosophical implications of his assertions. Indeed, this is not the impression that one has when reading his argument.

46. There is no comprehensive biography of Iсtizad al-Saltana. Mahdi Bamdad gives a brief biography of him in Sharḥ-i ḥāl-i rijāl-i Īrān, vol. 2 (Tehran, 1347 Sh./1968), 442–48.

47. See his Falak al-saсāda (Tehran, 1278/1861), 78.

48. Ibid., 39.

49. This is in accordance with the common use of the term сilm-i nujūm, which covers both astronomy and astrology. Specialists used the term hayɔat to refer exclusively to astronomy and tanjīm or aḥkām-i nujūm to refer to astrology.

50. Iсtizad al-Saltana, Falak al-saсāda, 39–40.

51. Tehran University Central Library, no. 3325. In this manuscript, the author refers to Muhammad Karim Khan as ibn-i сamm (cousin). Although Iсtizad al-Saltana and Farhad Mirza, being half-brothers and cousins of Muhammad Karim Khan, both satisfy this description, the former is more likely to be the author, as he refers to this account in his Falak al-saсāda. See also Tihrani, Aqa Buzurg, al-Dharīсa ilā taṣānīf al-Shīсa, vol. 22 (1974), 289 fGoogle Scholar.

52. Adamiyat points out the importance of this work for the introduction of modern thought in Iran and cites a few passages from it. See his Andīsha-yi taraqqī va ḥukūmat-i qānūn (Tehran, 1351 Sh./1972), 21–24. In his introduction to Abu Talib Husayni Safawi's Risālaɔī dar ithbāt-i hayɔat-i jadīd, Maсsumi also deals briefly with this work.

53. Iсtizad al-Saltana, Falak al-saсāda, 18.

54. Ibid., 32, 36 f., 48, 64 ff. As an example of cosmic collisions he mentions an incident in Isfahan in 1272/1855 in which two peasants were struck by a meteor. This meteor was later brought to Tehran and presented to Nasir al-Din Shah.

55. Ibid., 22, 24, 25, 38, 41.

56. Ibid., 13.

57. Ibid., 110. In this point he approves the opinion of the 17th-18th-century Shiсite scholar сAbdallah b. Nur al-Din al-Bahrani, a pupil of сAllama Majlisi.

58. See al-Ansari, Murtaza, al-Makaāib, ed. with comm. by Kalantar, M., vol. 2 (Najaf 1393/1973), 297–369Google Scholar.

59. Kirmani, Muhammad Karim Khan, “Risāla dar jawāb-i сAbd al-сAlī Khān” in Majmaс al-rasāɔil-i Fārsī, vol. 2. (Kirman, 1387/1967), 406–422Google Scholar.

60. Ibid., 410, 413–21.

61. See, for example, Encyclopaedia of Islam2, s.v. “al-Nujūm” (Paul Kunitzsch).

62. Muhammad Karim Khan, “Risāla,” 408 f.

63. Ibid., 409–10.

64. Ibid., 407 f.

65. Similar quasi-logical objections were often raised by Islamic scholars. See Encyclopaedia of Islam2, s.v. “Masāɔil wa-adjwiba” (Hans Daiber).

66. “Risāla,” 411.

67. See Adamiyat, Andīsha-yi taraqqī, 17.

68. This was based on a Russian translation and published in Istanbul. Flammarion's Les Terres du del was translated by Muhammad Tahir Mirza b. Iskandar b. сAbbas Mirza and finished in 1306/1888 but not published. See Haɔiri, сAbd al-Husayn, Fihrist-i Kitābkhāna-yi Majlis-i Shūrā-yi Millī, vol. 19 (1350 Sh./1972)Google Scholar, MSS nos. 7275–6, 252 f. Flammarion's Dieu dans la nature was translated and published under the title Khuda dar ṭabīсat (Tehran, 1306 Sh./1927).

69. See al-Shahristani, Hibat al-Din, al-Hayɔa wa ‘l-Islām (Baghdad, 1909)Google Scholar, first published in Persian as Islām va hayɔat, ed. Mahdi Siraj Ansari (1356/1937). According to the editor's notes (Dah guftār) in the new Persian edition (Tabriz, 1342 Sh./1963), lb [32], Mawāɔid was published in India. Iсtimad al-Saltana mentions in his Maɔāthir wa ‘l-āthār (Tehran, 1889), 180, that he had seen the autograph manuscript of al-Mawāɔidfī ‘l-mutafarriqāt, which contained an account of modern astronomy as well as biographies of notables, and quotes from it. For a biography of Shahristani see Tihrani, Aqa Buzurg, Ṭabaqāt aсlām al-Shīoсa, pt. 2, sec. 1 (Najaf 1375/1956), 627–31Google Scholar.

70. Tihrani, ṭabaqāt, 629–30.

71. See Dah guftār, la [31] f.

72. Ibid.

73. See Tihrani, al-Dharīсa 4:362.

74. See the author's preface to the new edition, Pers. transl., 92.

75. Siraj Ansari's introductory notes (Dah guftār), 43.

76. See Jaсfariyan, Rasul, Mīrāth-i Islāmī, vol. 3 (1375 Sh./1996), 54Google Scholar.

77. See Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, al-Dharīсa 20:260.

78. See Iсctizad al-Saltana, Falak al-saсāda, 169. Adamiyat states, without giving a reference, that it was Iсtizad al-Saltana who issued this order (Andīsha-yi taraqqī, 23

79. Akhtar, year 8, no. 28, 12 Rajab 1299/30 May 1882, 220. Najm al-Dawla claims that the right to publish the almanac had been given to him for about 20 years. I am indebted to Dr. Anja Pistor-Hatam for providing me with the Akhtar excerpt. See also Muhammad Hasan Ptimad al-Saltana, al-Maɔāthir, 114.

80. Aside from Newton's work, these were Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, as well as the writings of Poincare and Einstein. See Īrānshar 1, no. 7, (20 December 1922): 168–69.

81. Falak al-saсāda, 43 f. Ttimad al-Saltana (d. 1313/1897), minister of publications (wazīr-i inṭibāсāt), even considered it a proof of Nasir al-Din Shah's mastery of modern astronomy that the latter allegedly interpreted two Qurɔanic verses in accordance with the Copernican system, intending it to indicate that the shah had supplied another evidence for the truth of heliocentrism (Maɔāthir, 6).