Presentation - Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

MANUSCRIPTS RELATED TO ULUGH BEG
FROM
THE KANDILLI OBSERVATORY COLLECTION
Atila Özgüç
Kandilli Observatory, Bogazici University, Çengelköy, Istanbul, Turkey
June 9 - 11, 2009
Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
1
The First Observatory in the Ottoman Empire
Th IIstanbul
The
t b l Ob
Observatory
t
"Darür Rasad-ül Cedid"
The first person to introduce scientific
astronomy to the madrasa was Ali Kuşçu.
Ali Kuşçu
K
was the
th pupil
il off Ulugh
Ul h Beg.
B
Following the death of Kadı-zade-i Rumi,
h became
he
b
the
h director
di
off the
h Samarkand
k d
Observatory and helped complete the
Ulugh Beg Chart.
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
2
After Ulugg Bey,
y Ali Kuşçu remained for a time
at the court of Uzun Hasan, the ruler of the
Akkoyunlu.
y
He was sent as an envoyy to Istanbul
to establish peace among the Ottoman and
Akkoyunlu states,
states and was shown great
hospitality by Sultan Mehmed II (the
Conqueror Fatih)
Conqueror-Fatih).
Upon the invitation of the Sultan, he later came to Istanbul for a
second time together with his family and colleagues, and in a short
while Mehmed II appointed him professor of the Hagia Sophia
Madrasa.
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
3
Kuşçu prepared the curriculum at the Fatih
complex
l together
h with
i h Molla
M ll Hüsrev,
Hü
andd taught
h
mathematics and astronomy. Furthermore, he
measured the latitude and longitude of Istanbul,
and made several sundials. After Kuşçu’s death
in 1474, there was no one interested in
astronomy for a long time.
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
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Astronomy was only used to determine prayer times or in the
adjustment of the timing of the call to prayer.
prayer In other words,
words
timekeepers took the place of astronomers. While studies in
astronomy remained suspended in the Ottoman Empire,
Empire great
changes were taking place in the field in Europe.
In 1539, Copernicus declared that
the Sun was at the center of the solar
system in his revolutionary book
“De
De
Revolutionibus
Orbium
Coelestium”.
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world science
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Tycho Brahe,
Brahe worked to improve this theory and
founded the Uraniborg Observatory in Denmark
in 1576.
1576 It was at this time that the dormant field
of astronomy in the Ottoman Empire began to
stir. The first observatory was established in 1577
upon the permission of Sultan Murad III by
Takiyüddin,
T
ki üddi a teacher
t h from
f
th Madrasah
the
M d
h off Egypt.
E t Takiyüddin
T ki üddi
travelled to Istanbul in 1571 and was appointed chief astrologer the
same year.
year Following his personal studies on the Galata Tower
(Istanbul) under unfavorable circumstances, he established one of
the most significant observatories of that century on the heights of
Pera, behind Tophane.
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
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A simple observatory building was
erected on this piece of land, in
addition to housing for his previouslybuilt instruments. The observatory had
a library. In addition to reproducing the
available instruments in smaller size,
Takiyüddin also invented several new
instruments,, and made observations of
the Moon, the Sun, and other planets.
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world science
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He designed sundials and mechanical clocks, and used the clock as
an instrument
instr ment for observation.
obser ation He observed
obser ed the comet that appeared
in the sky for about a month beginning from 11 September 1577,
one of the initial scientific studies undertaken at the observatory.
observatory
Takiyüddin prophesied that this event foretold a victory against the
Persian army.
army
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world science
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However, in 1578, when an outbreak
off plague
l
causedd many deaths,
d h the
h
Şeyhülislam, Ahmed Şemseddin
Ef di who
Efendi,
h was opposedd to
t the
th idea
id
of the observatory, informed the
M d III that
Murad
th t the
th observing
b
i off the
th
celestial bodies would bring
misfortune
if t
t the
to
th empire..
i
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The sultan ordered its destruction which
was carried out on 22 January, 1580, by
cannons from the sea on the orders of
Kı1ıç Ali Pasha, Admiral of the Imperial
Navy.
Navy
Despite this tremendous loss, Takiyüddin continued
his work on astronomy by his own means until his
death. And the dormant field of observational
astronomii began
b
again
i in
i the
h Ottoman
O
E i
Empire
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world science
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The Imperial Meteorological
Observatory
( Observatoire I mperial
Meteorologique )
"Rasathane-i Amire-i Alaimulcev"
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
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Until the Ottoman reform movement in the early nineteenth
century, astronomy in the madrasas of the Ottoman Empire was
l
learned
d from
f
b k dating
books
d ti back
b k to
t the
th Middle
Middl Ages.
A
The second observatory in the Ottoman era was established not for
astronomy, but for meteorology. The Rasathane-i Amire, founded
in 1868 in a building in Pera area of Istanbul, met a fate similar to
its predecessor in that it was destroyed together with all its
instruments in the uprising of 31st March, 1909.
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world science
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Following the suppression of that event, the Minister of
Ed
Education,
i
E
Emrullah
ll h Efendi,
Ef di ordered,
d d on 21st
21 June,
J
1910 a
1910,
new observatory to be built, and appointed Fatin Gökmen
(1878-1955), known to all as Fatin Hoca, as the director of
the new Rasadhane-i Àmire. He chose the site at the Icadiye
hill where the observatory is to be found today and it began
operations in July of 1911.
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world science
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The Observatory Collection and Its Works
Fatin
Gökmen
made
great
contribution to the world of
scholarship: He founded a specialist
collection of Islamic manuscripts
written in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian
d li with
dealing
ith astronomy
t
andd astrology.
t l
Being the only specialist collection of
this type in Turkey it also contains a
significant number of works on
mathematics and geography and a
smaller number of works in other
subjects.
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world science
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•Kandilli Rasathanesi Kitaplığı Yazma Eserler Kataloğu II.
Prepared by Muammer Dizer. İstanbul: MEB Kandilli
Rasathanesi, 1973.
•Kandilli Rasathanesi Kitaplığı Takvim Kataloğu. Prepared
by Muammer Dizer and Atila Özgüç. İstanbul: MEB
K dilli Rasathanesi,
Kandilli
R th
i 1973.
1973
•Kandilli Rasathanesi Kitaplığı Yazma Eserler Kataloğu
II Prepared by Rıfkı Seven.
II.
Seven İstanbul: MEB Kandilli
Rasathanesi, 1977.
•Kandilli Rasathanesi Yazma Eserler Kataloğu. İstanbul:
Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, 1988.
•Kandilli Rasathanesi El Yazmaları 1. Türkçe yazmalar,
P
Prepared
d bby Gü
Günay K
Kutt ett al.
l Boğaziçi
B ğ i i Üniversitesi,
Ü i
it i 2007
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Ulugh Beg and his contribution to the
world science
15
Turkish
Arabic
Persian
A
Astronomy
590
233
59
Astrology
172
77
30
Mathematics
30
49
5
Geography
14
4
--
Others
15
51
8
TOTAL
821
414
102
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world science
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This collection includes many works in
either author
author’ss or translator
translator’ss autographs or
those prepared by the chief astrologers of the
time and this attaches more importance to
the collection. Here below some of them
written ot translated by Ulugh Beg and some
related with Ulugh Beg’s works
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23
Cedvel-i ta‘dìlü‡l-ºamer
Begins: 1b
The workk consists
Th
i t off tables
t bl related
l t d to
t the
th motions
ti
off the
th
moon. The table on 1b gives the motions of the moon, in
accordance with the Zìc of Uluğ Beg, between the years
1748-1807. Some tables show the yearly motions of the
moon.
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52
‘Alì Kuşì (4a)
Kàtibì er
er-Rùmì
Rùmì Seydi (Seyyid) ‘Alì
Alì b. Hüseyin (3a) (called also Seydì
‘Alì Re’ìs and using the pseudonym Kàtibì) (translator) [died
970/1562-63] OM III, 270-72; Adıvar 72.
Hulàsatü'l-hey’e (4b)
Begins: 1b and 2b
Translated in Aleppo in January 1-30, 1549. A note on 1a of
manuscript No: 141 mentions that this work is a translation of
the work entitled Fethiyye by Alì Kuşçu.
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‘Alì b. Mu¤ammad al-Kuşci (Commentator) Keşf II, 945
Şarh-i Zìc al-cadìd
Begins: 158b
The work is a commentary on the Zìc al-cadìd by
Ulugh Beg. Deals with determining days and
months with respect to the stars
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References
Catalogue of Astronomical, Astrological and mathematical
manuscripts,
i
UNESCO CD,
CD 1996
1996.
History of Astronomy Literature During the Ottoman Period,
Period E.
E
Ihsanoglu, R. Sesen, C. Izgi, C. Akpinar an I. Fazlioglu , ISBN
92-9063-072-8, IRCICA, 1997.
Kandilli Rasathanesi elyazmaları, Günay Kut et al., Boğaziçi
U i
University
it publication,
bli ti 2007.
2007
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Tombstones of Ali Kuşçu
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world science
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El Fatiha for Ali Kuşçu
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THANK YOU
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world science
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