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E.S. Kennedy (au). The most impressive aspect of the source material for the study of medieval oriental astronomy is its overwhelming quantity of Byzantine Greek, Sanscrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, & Turkish astronomical & astrological manuscripts. Anyone wishing to assist in building up a precise & detailed picture of Islamic astronomy is constrained to choose his material from amid a welter of easily available manuscripts. Of these manuscript masses it is possible to isolate a fairly well-defined group of works, the “zijes,” which make up the most significant & historically rewarding subclass of the whole. A “zij” consists essentially of the numerical tables & accompanying explanation sufficient to enable the practising astronomer, or astrologer, to solve all the standard problems of his profession, i.e. to measure time & to compute planetary & stellar positions, appearance, & eclipses. This paper is a survey of the number, distribution, contents, & relations between “zijes” written in Arabic or Persian during the period from the 8th through the 15th centuries of the Christian era. Illus. Oversize.
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