Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās Abū Bakr al-Khwārazmī, better simply known as Abu Bakr al-Khwarazmi was a 10th-century Iranian poet and secretary, who throughout his long career served in the court of the Hamdanids, Samanids, Saffarids and Buyids.[1] He is best known as the author of the early encyclopedia Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm (“Key to the Sciences”) in the Arabic language.

Life

Al-Khwarazmi is a somewhat obscure figure.[2] He was born in 935 in Khwarazm, the birthplace of his father. His mother was a native of Amol in Tabaristan.[1] He periodically refers to himself as al-Khwarazmi or al-Tabari, while other sources refer to him as al-Tabarkhazmi or al-Tabarkhazi.[1] Al-Khwarizmi may have been a nephew of al-Tabari, the prominent Persian historian.[1] For a time, al-Khwarizmi worked as a clerk in the Samanid court at Bukhara in Transoxania,[2][3] where he acquired his nickname, “al-Katib’’ which literally means “the secretary” or “the scribe”.[4]

While at the Samanid court, he compiled his best-known work, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm [The Keys of the Sciences], an early Islamic encyclopedia of the sciences, intended as a reference work for court officials. It was produced at the request of Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿUtbī a vizier in the court of Amir, Nuh II.[5][6] and the work is dedicated to al-Utbi which establishes a date for its completion of around 977.[7][2] In Nishapur, Al-Khwarizmi wrote a number of rihla (short, humorous accounts of a journey; partly written in verse and partly in literary prose), of which only fragments survive.[8] Locally, he achieved great fame as a leading scholar and writer. However, his reputation was eclipsed following the arrival of an aspiring young scholar and writer, Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadani in 383/992. Hamadani composed a new form of prose that gained enormous popularity firstly in Nishapur and later across the Arabic speaking world. This innovative genre that became known as maqama. Al-Khwārizmīand Hamadani fell into competition with each other, exchanged insults and they eventually fell out.[9]

Work

Al-Khwārizmī authored a work on Arabic grammar, Kitāb kifāyat al-Mutaḥaffiẓ [A Classified Vocabulary of Rare of Difficult Arabic words]. However, he is best known as the author of Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm (The Keys to the Sciences), an early Islamic Encyclopedia of the Sciences.[10] A monumental work, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm is part lexicography and part encyclopedia.[11] Scholars regard it as the first attempt to document the Islamic sciences.[12] The work includes sections on mathematics, alchemy, medicine and meteorology.[13]

Editions and Translations

Only limited selections of Mafātīḥ al-ʻulūm have been translated into English. Notable editions and translations include:

References

  1. ^ a b c d Sadeghi & Tehrani 2015.
  2. ^ a b c Bosworth 1977, p. 85.
  3. ^ Bosworth, Edmund (2010). "Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Khwārazmī". In David Thomas (ed.). Christian-Muslim Relations 600 - 1500 (Online ed.). doi:10.1163/1877-8054_cmri_COM_22576.
  4. ^ Willy Hartner, Yasukatsu Maeyama, Walter Gabriel Saltzer, Prismata:Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtl. Studien: Festschrift für Willy Hartner, Steiner, 1977, p. 264
  5. ^ Abdi, W. H (1990). Interaction between Indian and central Asian science and technology in medieval times. Indian National Science Academy. p. 2. OCLC 555654275.
  6. ^ Jam, H.K., The Translation of Mafatih al-'Ulum (ترجمهٔ مفاتیح العلوم), Bonyad-e Farhang-e Iran, 1968, reprinted by Sherkat-e Entesharat-e Elmi o Farhangi, c. 2004
  7. ^ Bosworth, Edmund (2010). "Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm". In David Thomas (ed.). Christian-Muslim Relations 600 - 1500 (Online ed.). doi:10.1163/1877-8054_cmri_COM_22577.
  8. ^ Hämeen-Anttila 2002, p. 147.
  9. ^ Hämeen-Anttila 2002, pp. 21–24.
  10. ^ Bosworth 1963, p. 100.
  11. ^ Thomann, J. (1 January 2015). "On the Natural Sciences: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of EPISTLES 15-21 Edited and translated by C. BAFFIONI". Journal of Islamic Studies. 26 (1): 67–69. doi:10.1093/jis/etu080.
  12. ^ Jabbar Beg, M.A., The Origin of Islamic Science, Religion, p. 17 https://archive.org/details/the_origins_of_islamic_science
  13. ^ Kalin, I. and Ayduz, S. (eds), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam, Volume 1, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 100; Jabbar Beg, M.A., The Origin of Islamic Science, https://archive.org/details/the_origins_of_islamic_sciencep. 50.

Sources

Further reading

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