Born Almería, (Spain), 1029
Died Toledo, (Spain), July or August 1070
Ṣāҁid al-Andalusī was a Muslim historian, historian of science and thought, and mathematical scientist with an especial interest in astronomy. Given the near-total loss of his astronomical writings, his claim to recognition in science largely rests on his encouragement and possibly patronage – in his capacity as a well-placed functionary at the Toledan court – of a group of young precision instrument makers and scientists, the most renowned of whom was Azarquiel (i.e., Zarqālī ). The precise extent of his involvement in the compilation of the Toledan Tables – widely disseminated in Latin Europe during subsequent centuries – remains uncertain, owing to the Tables’ deficient manuscript tradition and to the fragmentariness of biobibliographic data.
Following in the footsteps of his paternal family, Ṣāҁid pursued the career of a legal official, having received a solid education in the Islamic religious disciplines; in...
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Selected References
Llavero Ruiz, Eloísa (1987). “Panorama cultural de Al’Andalus según Abū l-Qāsim Sāҁid b. Ahmad, cadí de Toledo.” Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas 23: 79–100.
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Martinez-Gros, Gabriel (1985). “La clôture du temps chez le cadi Sāҁid, une conception implicite de l’histoire.” Revue de l’Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 40: 147–153.
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Pedersen, Fritz Saaby (2002). The Toledan Tables: A Review of the Manuscripts and the Textual Versions. Copenhagen: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab.
Richter-Bernburg, Lutz (1987). “Ṣāҁid, the Toledan Tables, and Andalusī Science.” In From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy, edited by David A. King and George Saliba, pp. 373–401. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 500. New York: New York Academy of Sciences.
Ṣāҁid al-Andalusī (1912). Kitāb Tabaqāt al-umam, edited by P. Louis Cheikho. Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique. French translation with notes by Régis Blachère as Livre des catégories des nations. Paris: Larose, 1935.
— (1985). Kitāb Ṭabaqāt al-umam, edited by Ḥayāt BūҁAlwān. Beirut.
Salem, Semaҁan I. and Alok Kumar (trans. and eds.) (1991). Science in the Medieval World: “Book of the Categories of Nations,” by Sāҁid al-Andalusī. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pb. ed. 1996. (English translation, to be used with caution.)
Samsó, Julio (1992). Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus. Madrid: Mapfre, pp. 148–150.
— (1994). Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain. Aldershot: Variorum.
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Richter-Bernburg, L. (2014). Ṣāҁid al-Andalusī: Abū l-Qāsim Ṣāҁid ibn abī l-Walīd Aḥmad Ibn ҁAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāҁid al-Taghlibī al-Qurṭubī. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1210
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