HKUST Library Services

Colloquium on Information Science:
HKUST Library Series no. 6 - 6 June 2002
Celebrating Special Collections : Scholarship and Beauty

A Documentary Journey From al-Farghani (?-861?) and al-Battani (858?-929) to Christoph Clavius (1538-1612) and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610)
Fung Kam Wing
(English Synopsis provided by Louisa Kwok)

Introduction

In the middle of the 8th Century, the Abbasid Dynasty of the Muslim Empire of the Caliphate (750-1258) expanded eastwards, coming into frequent military conflict with the armies of the Tang Dynasty from China. During the period of 751- 752, the Chinese armies were defeated by the Arabs in a battle around Talas River in mid-Asia. Over 20,000 Chinese prisoners, including workers who made paper and gun powder, were taken to Samarqand in Uzbekistan. They made "Chinese paper" from rags. Since then, many paper mills were set up across areas like Samarqand, Baghdad, Yemen, Damascus, Cairo, etc. The availability of low-priced paper and the flourishing paper industry contributed to the vigorous academic movements of the Abbasid era.

Translation of Scientific Works in the Abbasid Dynasty of the Muslim Empire

After the rise of the religion of Islam, Muslims in different places needed to offer prayers five times a day on specified schedules, facing "Kaaba" in Mecca. In addition to having to accurately calculate the exact time for the five prayers they also needed to ascertain the sacred position, "the qibla" of Mecca by observing the sun in the daytime and the stars at night. Hence, the development of Islamic astronomy owed much to its significance to religious service.

The second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (754-775), was an astrologer himself. He commissioned the translation of 'Brahmasphuta-siddhanta' (630), that was submitted by an Indian astrologer, into Arabic. He sent agents to acquire books on natural philosophy and other scientific disciplines from the Byzantine Empire and Greece, and made this into an official policy. He also commissioned the translation of astronomical works obtained from Greece and India. His collections became a reference library for medical and astrological practitioners. Astrology and medicine became government enterprises and were run by government officials. Numerous important works from this period, e.g. On Conjunctions, Religions, Peoples, The Construction and Use of Astrolabe, Book of Eclipses, etc. greatly influenced European astronomy in the Middle Ages.

During the time of Harun al-Rashid, (768-809) a library, "the Treasure of Knowledge", was built to keep the scientific manuscripts that were taken from Greece as trophies in the battle against the Byzantines (806) in Ankara. These works were then translated into Arabic.

Al-Ma'mun ibn Harun (813-833), The son of Harun al-Rashid, built a 'House of Wisdom' which was even bigger than the 'Treasure of Knowledge' as an official institution for promoting the translation of scientific and philosophical works from Greece. In order to acquire the best books for translation, a team of officials were sent to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. In addition, he recruited the best translators and scholars to work in the 'House of Wisdom'.

Al-Farghani, an astronomer, was the imperial astrologist of Ma'mun. He wrote Elements of Astronomy between 833-857, which had a review of the theories of C. Ptolemy (90?-168). This work was translated into Latin in the 12th Century and was re-published many times. Before the publication of Sphaera emendata, written by Johannes Sacrobosco of Halifax (1190?-1236?), it was the most important reference work for European astronomers in the Middle Ages. The HKUST Library has collected four different editions of al-Farghani's Elements of Astronomy.

Al-Battani, (858?-929) and Ma Yize (910?-1005)

In the early 10th Century, the Chinese emperor of the Song dynasty was credited with the advancement of the study of astronomy and its related disciplines. In 961, the Emperor Taizu (r. 960-976) appointed an Islamic astrologist, Ma Yize (910?-1005) as the chief official to take charge of the government observatory.

Research has found that Ma Yize's ancestor was of Arab ethnic origin, coming from the 'Western Territory', which was situated in an area between northeastern Yemen and the northeastern Sultanate of Oman in the Arabic Peninsula. When Ma Yize was in China, he assisted Wang Chuna in compiling several important astrological works, including the Yingtianli (Calendar of Corresponding Heavens). His job was to provide observation, and computation of the regularities in celestial phenomena, using the Islamic methods. His findings were used by Wang Chuna in the compilation of Yingtianli, which was completed in 963. The calculation, based on a 7-day week system similar to that in the Islamic calendar, was first adopted in this document, which was the most important occurrence in the Chinese history of calendrical methods.

Research has also shown that Ma Yize might have consulted many works of Islamic mathematical astronomy into Chinese, including:

Kitab al-Zij [Al-Battani sive Albatenni Opus astronomicum], 880, by Abu'Abdallah al-Battani [Latin: Albategni or Albatenius], 858-929
al-Zij al-sabi [The Sabian Tables]
Kitab Matali' al-Buruj [On the Ascensions of the Signs of the Zodiac]
Kitab Aqdar al- Ittisalat [On the Quantities of the Astrological Applications]

These works were later also translated into Latin.

HKUST Library has collected two titles by al-Battani.

Ma Yize specialized in Islamic astronomy, especially in astrology. The author thinks it is possible that Ma was influenced by al-Battani or al-Hamdani. Owing to Ma's contribution to the compilation of 'Yingtianli', Ma was made a hereditary noble and his sons later succeeded his position with the Imperial Observatory.

Translation of Islamic Works and Manufacture of the Related Astronomical Equipment by Muslim Astronomers in the Early Ming Dynasty

Emperor Taizu (r. 1368-1398) of the Ming Dynasty (1328-1398), in the first year of his reign (1368), conscripted Han and non-Han astrology specialists from the astronomical institutions in Beijing of the former Mongolian Yuan to Nanjing to become officials of the newly established national observatory.

That year the Ming government summoned for the first time the astronomical officials to come south from the upper capital of Yuan. There were fourteen of them. In order to enhance accuracy in methods of observation and computation, Emperor Taizu reinforced the adoption of parallel calendar systems, the Han and the Muslim. In the following years, the Ming Court appointed several astrologers from Arabia to hold high positions in the Imperial Observatory. They wrote many books on Islamic astrology and also manufactured astronomical equipment based on the Islamic system.

The translation of two important works into Chinese was completed in 1383:

Zij (1366)
al-Madkhal fi Sina'at Ahkam al-Nujum [Introduction to Astrology] (1004?)

In 1384, an astrolabe was made for observing stars based on the instructions for making multi-purposed Islamic equipment. In 1385 the apparatus was installed on a hill in northern Nanjing.

Western Books in the Old Collections of Matteo Ricci, (1552-1610)

In 1583, Matteo Ricci arrived in Sciaochin in China. He built a church and a residence there with a library. By then he could already speak fluent Mandarin, and read and write Chinese. In 1585, he started preaching. Two years before, he and Michele Ruggieri, an Italian (1543-1588), had already completed a Dictionary of Portuguese and Chinese (1583-1588), which contained many translations of scientific and technical terms.

Based on 'Guangyutu Quan Shu' of Zhu Siben (1273-1355), Ruggieri also produced a China Provincial Map (Atlante Della Cina, 1590), which included his travel experience during his missionary work in Southern China. HKUST Library has acquired this map.

Matteo Ricci made acquaintance with many Chinese officials and hoped to identify appropriate partners to systematically translate the works of Christoph Clavius (1538-1612). Christoph Clavius was a German, born in Bamberg, researching mathematics at the Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal. For various periods between 1563 and 1595, he was a professor of mathematics in Collegio Romano. Matteo Ricci was a student of Clavius from 1572-1578, studying mathematics, geography, conveyance, etc. He addressed him as "Mr. Ding". Clavius had helped Pope Gregorio XIII to reform the calendar and authored the book Calendrivm Gregorianvm. He was also a good friend of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).

In 1589, Matteo Ricci left Sciaochin for Sciaoceu. There he built another residence with a chapel and a library where he collected, the author speculates, many important mathematical and astronomical works of his teacher, Clavius.

Matteo Ricci had been receiving copies of several scientific works from Clavius, who traveled to different parts of China. He completed the translation of Clavius' Calendrivm Gregorianvm in 1603.

Matteo Ricci's collection also included the new translation of Epitome in Almagestum Ptolomei, Venice, 1496 by Austrian astronomer Georg von Peurbach (1423-1461) and his student, Johannes Regiomontanus (1436-1476). HKUST Library has collected seven titles written by Christoph Clavius.

The wide acceptance of the theories of Clavius and Matteo Ricci in China can be seen in his revision of Kunyu Wanguo Quantu.

Strictly speaking, Matteo Ricci's Analemma (an astronomical diagram explaining stereographic projection) in Kunyu Wanguo Quantu was inspired by Clavius' Gnomonices Libros octo, 1612. Many Chinese astronomers later were also influenced by the works of Christoph Clavius.

Concluding Remarks

The Special Collections of HKUST Library contains many important original works of science. One example is a work entitled Zhongguo Yifa Juli (Specimen Medicinae Sinicae) by Michael Boym, a Pole (1612-1659). It threw much light on how Jesuit members translated Chinese works on acupuncture and neurology into Latin, and helped to introduce Chinese medical knowledge to the West.

According to the author's research, Boym wrote the book Specimen Medicinae Sinicae in Latin by taking and translating excerpts from the works of some important Chinese medical practitioners in the Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties. This work of Boym did not contain any Chinese (Hanzhi), but only romanization. You can find some examples in the table included in the Chinese version of this article. Boym most probably adopted the Pinyin romanization system used in the book Xi Ru Er Mu Zhi, written by Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628), a Frenchman who came to China in 1610.

Prof. Fung Kam Wing
Associate Professor, Department of Chinese
The University of Hong Kong