A Critical Review of the Avicenna’s Effects on the Islamic Astronomy; a Critique on the Saliba’s Theory of Scientific Revolution in Maragha Observatory
Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation
1 - ندارد
Keywords: Astronomy, Astrology, Avicenna, Peripatetic Philosophy, Maragha School,
Abstract :
This paper deals with three main effects of Avicenna on the IslamicAstronomy. First, he, methodologically, made a remarkable distinctbetween Astronomy, as a proofed and mathematical science, andAstrology, as a conjectural knowledge, and hence, he made a principalseparation between Astronomy and Astrology, while these twoassumed to be permanently as a united whole throughout theBabylonian, Greek, and Hellenistic periods. Second, his defense of theAristotelian philosophy against the experimental doubts of Bīrūnī.Third, the effect of his peripatetic ideas on the astronomical activitiesin the first period of Maragha observatory, namely, the scientific circleestablished by Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī. These effects bear some positiveand negative consequences on Astronomy; the first may be assumedas a step to forward, while the two latter ones diminished the power ofAstronomy as an experiential science and made it unable to changethe customary, dominant ideas of the natural philosophy, or, in someplaces, reduced it as a purely geometrical science.
