The Celestial Spheres in the Writings of Greek and Arab Authors

  • Silviu Lupaşcu “Dunarea de Jos“ University of Galati
Keywords: celestial sphere, sphere of the spheres, Aristotéles, Peri kósmon, Klaúdios Ptolemaĩos, Al-Farghānī, Al-Battānī, Al- Haytham, Mathematiké súntaxis, He Megále Súntaxis (Almagesta)

Abstract

The notion of “celestial sphere” (Greek: sphaīra; Arabic: falak al-aflāk or “sphere of the spheres”) penetrates inside the spiritual universe of medieval Islam as a constituent part of the treatises of mathematics and astronomical physics written by Abū Al-‘Abbas Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Kathīr Al-Farghānī (IXth century), Abū ’Abdillah Muhammad Al-Battānī (ca. 858-929) and Abū ’Alī Muhammad Ibn Al-Hasan Ibn Al-Haytham (d. 1038) on the foundation of the celestial physics conceived by ’Aristotéles (384-322 B.C.) in Peri kósmon or De caelo and Klaúdios Ptolemaĩos (ca. 90-168
A.D.) in Mathematiké súntaxis, He Megále Súntaxis, He Megíste or Almagesta, as well as Hypotheses planetarium. Approached from a mathematical perspective, the spheres were conceived as ideal circles which represented the movement of the celestial bodies, and the system of the homocentric spheres was organized around the Centre of the Earth.

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Author Biography

Silviu Lupaşcu, “Dunarea de Jos“ University of Galati

Lecturer, Ph.D., History Department, The Lower Danube University of Galaţi (Romania).

Published
2010-12-05
How to Cite
Lupaşcu, S. (2010). The Celestial Spheres in the Writings of Greek and Arab Authors. The Annals of "Dunarea De Jos" University of Galati. Fascicle XIX, History, 9, 191-196. Retrieved from https://www.gup.ugal.ro/ugaljournals/index.php/history/article/view/560
Section
ISTORIA CULTURII