Indian astronomy in Arabic: the Zij al-Sindhind
An embassy from Sind brought an Indian astronomer with a Sanskrit treatise to the court of al-Mansur in Baghdad, and at the caliph’s request al-Fazari and Ya'qub ibn Tariq worked with him on an Arabic version. The astronomical tables made from it, the Zij al-Sindhind, introduced Indian parameters and methods of calculation into Islamic science and began a tradition that lasted into the 12th century.
- Date
- between 771 and 773exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Baghdadtoday: Baghdad, Iraq · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Al-Mansur, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari, Abbasid Caliphate
- Threads
- Middle East and Egypt (6th–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Sindhind; Zij al-Sindhind al-kabir; Great Sindhind; Mahasiddhanta; Синдхинд; Большой Синдхинд; Махасиддханта
The name Sindhind renders the Sanskrit siddhanta, ‘treatise’. The Sanskrit work, probably called the Mahasiddhanta, belonged to the Brahmapaksha school, whose best-known text is Brahmagupta’s Brahmasphutasiddhanta of 628; later tradition simply identified the translation with Brahmagupta’s book. Who the Indian visitor was is unknown: David Pingree rejected the name Kanaka given to him by some later authors. The embassy is dated 771 or 773, and the translation was made in the early 770s, at a court where the caliph took a keen interest in astronomy and astrology and had Persian scientific books translated as well.
Al-Fazari, an astronomer from an old Arab family of Kufa who had helped to choose the date for the founding of Baghdad, based his Zij al-Sindhind al-kabir (‘Great Sindhind tables’) on the translation; his colleague Ya'qub ibn Tariq compiled a similar zij and a treatise on the arrangement of the heavens. Their works survive only in quotations by later authors, above all al-Biruni in the 11th century, who pointed out their misunderstandings of Sanskrit terms. The fragments show a mixture of Indian, Sasanian and a little Greek material; al-Fazari is credited with converting the Indian computation of planetary positions, based on billions of revolutions in a cosmic cycle, into sexagesimal mean motions.
The Sindhind became the basis of a school of Islamic astronomy that survived in the East until the early 10th century and in al-Andalus until the 12th; al-Khwarizmi’s own Zij al-Sindhind of the 9th century belongs to it. The translation may also have been one of the channels through which Indian decimal numerals reached the Islamic world.
Connections
Related events
- Brahmagupta writes the Brahmasphutasiddhanta628 · South Asiathe translated Sanskrit text belonged to the school of Brahmagupta’s treatise, with which later tradition identified it
- Muhammad ibn al-Qasim conquers Sind711–713 · South Asiathe embassy that brought the Indian astronomer came from Sind, a province of the caliphate since its conquest in 711–713
- Founding of Baghdad: al-Mansur’s Round Citybetween 30 July and 2 August 762 – between 766 and 767 · Middle East and Egyptal-Fazari had helped to cast the horoscope for the founding of Baghdad in 762
- Ghana, ‘the land of gold’, in al-Fazari’s writingsc. 790 · Africathe same astronomer, al-Fazari, had worked on the Arabic Sindhind
Same participants
- Abu Hanifa and Malik: the oldest surviving Sunni schools of lawbetween 737 and 738 – 795 · Middle East and Egyptvia Al-Mansur
- Paper comes to Baghdadbetween 794 and 795 · Middle East and Egyptvia Abbasid Caliphate
Same place
- Reign of Vologases I51–78 · Middle East and Egypt
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191 · Middle East and Egypt
- Mani begins his mission240 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Shapur II309–379 · Middle East and Egypt
- Julian’s Persian expedition and the Peace of 3635 March 363 – July 363 · Middle East and Egypt
- Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon410 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Bahram V Gurbetween 420 and 421 – 438 · Middle East and Egypt
- Suppression of the Mazdakitesbetween 524 and 529 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egypt
- Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II589–591 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Siege of Pavia and fall of the Lombard kingdomSeptember 773 – June 774
- Saxon Wars772–804
Eastern Europe
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
Central and Northern Asia
- Trisong Detsen: the Tibetan Empire at its height and the founding of Samyebetween 755 and 756 – 797
South Asia
- Krishna I carves the Kailasa temple at Ellorabetween 756 and 774
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Zij as-Sindhind
- Wikipedia (English): Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī
- Wikipedia (English): Ya'qub ibn Tariq
- Wikipedia (English): Al-Mansur
- Wikipedia (Russian): Мухаммад аль-Фазари
- Plofker K. Fazārī: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī // The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. — New York: Springer, 2007. — P. 362–363
- Pingree D. The Fragments of the Works of al-Fazārī // Journal of Near Eastern Studies. — 1970. — Vol. 29, no. 2. — P. 103–123.