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The Causes and Features of Earthquakes in Avicenna and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2011

Carmela Baffioni
Carmela Baffioni*
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L'Orientale’ – Dipartimento di Studi e Ricerche su Africa e Paesi Arabi – Piazza San Domenico Maggiore 12 – 80134 Naples, Italy. E-mail: baffioni@unior.it
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Abstract

This paper discusses the explanations for the causes and features of earthquakes in the works of philosopher and scientist Avicenna (980–1037) and in the theologian Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (1149–1209), who was deeply familiar with the work of Avicenna and who criticized him sharply on many occasions. The aim of this paper is to check the well-known hypothesis according to which Muslim theologians sometimes set out doctrines that were much more innovative from a scientific point of view than those of philosophers, strictly linked to Aristotle. This paper thus contributes to the history of Graeco-Arabic translations and the history of science. Avicenna's and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's doctrines are compared with Aristotle and the Arabic tradition of the Meteorologica.

Type
Risks, Environment and Sustainable Development – Papers from the 2009 Academia Europaea Meeting in Naples
Information
European Review , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , 31 May 2011 , pp. 355 - 366
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2011

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References

Notes and References

1. A simplified transcription system is used in the present article. Two editions of this work are available: Aristotelis de Cœlo et Meteorologica, Edidit et adnotatione critica auxit ‘Abdurrahmân Badawi, Cahire, Maktaba al-nahda al-misriyya 1961 (= B), and C. Petraitis, The Arabic Version of Aristotle's Meteorology, A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Greek-Arabic Glossaries, Beyrouth, Dar el-Machreq 1967 (= P).Google Scholar
2.Jawāmi‘ Hunayn ibn Ishāq… fī-l-āthar al-‘ ulwiyya li-Aristū, taqdīm wa tahqīq al-Duktūr Yūsuf Habbī wa Hikmat Najīb, Baghdād, 1976.Google Scholar
3. See also Baffioni, C. (1980) La tradizione araba del IV libro dei ‘Meteorologica’ di Aristotele. Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 40, suppl. n. 23, pp. 1–104, on p. 10.Google Scholar
4. I read here with P: al-haraka; B: al-rīh.Google Scholar
5. P adds: al-ustuqusāt (‘the elements’).Google Scholar
6. Aristotle, Meteorologica, with an English translation by Lee, H. D. P.Loeb Classical Library (London, Heinemann, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952)Google Scholar
7. Apart from Hājjī Khalīfa (1609–57). See Baffioni, C. (1980) La tradizione araba del IV libro dei ‘Meteorologica’ di Aristotele. Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 40, suppl. n. 23, on pp. 7 and 9.Google Scholar
8. See Baffioni, C. (1980) La tradizione araba del IV libro dei ‘Meteorologica’ di Aristotele. Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 40, p. 9, note 5.Google Scholar
9. See Baffioni, C. (1980) La tradizione araba del IV libro dei ‘Meteorologica’ di Aristotele. Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, 40, p. 10.Google Scholar
10. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Kitāb mabāhith al-mashriqiyya fī ‘ilm al-ilāhiyyāt wa ’l-tabī‘iyyāt, Tehrān, Maktaba al-Asadī 1966, 2 vols., vol. II, pp. 205–207.Google Scholar
11. Ibn Sīnā, Al-Shifā’, La Physique V – Les Métaux et la Météorologie (al-Ma‘ādin wa-l-Āthār al‘oloyya). Texte Établi et Édité par le Dr. ‘Abd El-Halīm Montasir Sa‘īd Zayd ‘Abdallāh Ismā‘īl Revu et Précédé d'une Introduction par le Dr. Ibrahim Madkour… A l'occasion du Millénaire d'Avicenne, Le Caire, Organisation Générale des Imprimeries Gouvernementales 1965.Google Scholar
12. See Baffioni, C. (2005) L'approccio scientifico all'embriologia nel commentario coranico di Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī. In: R. B. Finazzi (ed.), Del tradurre. Da Occidente verso Oriente come incontro di lingue e culture. Atti della giornata di studio su Traduzioni orientali e testi classici: lo stato della ricerca, Brescia, 8 ottobre 2004 (Milano: ISU Università Cattolica, 2005), pp. 11–38.Google Scholar
13.Bustānī, B. (ed.) (1957) Rasā'il Ikhwān al-Safā’ wa Khullān al-Wafā’, 4 vols (Beirut: Dār al-Sādir).Google Scholar
14. We may add here that the Ikhwān al-Safā’ appear to have been the source of many aspects of Avicenna's brief presentation of the origin of mountains, to which Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī faithfully adheres.Google Scholar