#earlyprintedbooks

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كتاب في جوامع علم النجوم  (Kitāb fī Jawāmiʿ ʿIlm al-Nujūm )

(A Compendium of the Science of the Stars or Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions)

Continuing with our weekly theme of works from the Golden Age of Islam, started with the #MinitureMonday, here is a printed book from 1669 which features a Latin translation of an astrology textbook from 833. An interesting thing to note is that the Arabic section is misbound, so while the pages in each section is numerical order from right to left, as it should be, the sections themselves are out of order.

The author, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī. (800/805-870) also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer of either Arab or Persian ancestry. Along with a team of scientists, he worked to calculate the diameter of the Earth by the measurement of the meridian arc length while under the patronage of  in the Abbasid court in Baghdad, and one of the most famous astronomers in the 9th century. He later moved to Cairo, Egypt, where he composed a treatise on the astrolabe, and supervised the construction of a large Nilometer. The lunar crater Alfraganus is named after him. 

This work was translated into Latin by Jacobus Golius (1596-1667) printing was overseen by Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge  (1642-1681) and Elizeus Weyerstraet.

An interesting note about printed books in Arabic. Arabic letters in each word connect (like cursive in English) which was difficult to print well with early moveable type, and often did not have the aesthetic quality that a handwritten work did. Combined with this, the scribal tradition was still strong in the Middle East and North Africa from the high demand for books and high literacy rates in the region, so printed Arabic books were much less popular in the Middle East then handwritten ones for a century or so after the advent of the printing press.

--Diane R.