Abū aṣ‐Ṣalt Umayya ibn ʿAbd al‐ʿAzīz ibn Abī aṣ‐Ṣalt ad‐Dānī al‐Andalusī (
Arabic: أبو الصلت) (c. 1068—October 23, 1134), known in Latin as Albuzale, was an
Andalusian-
Arab[1][2]polymath who wrote about
pharmacology,
geometry,
Aristotelian physics, and
astronomy.[3] His works on
astronomical instruments were read both in the Islamic world and Europe. He also occasionally traveled to
Palermo and worked in the court of
Roger I of Sicily as a visiting
physician.[4] He became well known in Europe through translations of his works made in the Iberian Peninsula and in southern France.[4] He is also credited with introducing
Andalusi music to Tunis, which later led to the development of the Tunisian
ma'luf.[4]
Life
Abu as-Salt was born in
Dénia,
al-Andalus. After the death of his father while he was a child, he became a student of al‐Waqqashi (1017—1095) of
Toledo (a colleague of
Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm az-Zarqālī). Upon completing his mathematical education in
Seville, and because of the continuing conflicts during the
reconquista, he set out with his family to
Alexandria and then
Cairo in 1096.
In Cairo, he entered the service of the
Fatimid ruler
Abū Tamīm Ma'add al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh and the
VizierAl-Afdal Shahanshah. His service continued until 1108, when, according to
Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, his attempt to retrieve a very large
Felucca laden with copper, that had capsized in the
Nile, ended in failure. Abu as-Salt had built a mechanical tool to retrieve the Felucca, and was close to success when the machine's
silkropes fractured. The Vizier Al-Afdal ordered Abu as-Salt's arrest, and he was imprisoned for more than three years, only to be released in 1112.
Abu as-Salt wrote[6] an encyclopedic work of many treatises on the scientific disciplines known as
quadrivium. This work was probably known in Arabic as Kitāb al‐kāfī fī al‐ʿulūm. His poetry is preserved in the anthology of
Imad al-Din al-Isfahani.[7] His interests also included
alchemy as well as the study of medicinal plants. He was keen to discover an
elixir able to transmute
copper into
gold and tin into
silver.
Astronomy
Risāla fī al-amal bi‐l‐astrulab ("On the construction and use of the
astrolabe")
A description of the three instruments known as the Andalusian equatoria.
Ṣifat ʿamal ṣafīḥa jāmiʿa taqawwama bi‐hā jamīʿ al‐kawākib al‐sabʿa ("Description of the construction and Use of a Single Plate with which the totality of the motions of the seven planets"),[4] where the seven planets refer to
Mercury,
Venus,
earth,
Moon,
Mars,
Jupiter, and
Saturn.
Kitāb al‐wajīz fī ʿilm al‐hayʾa ("Brief treatise on cosmology")
Ajwiba ʿan masāʾil suʾila ʿan‐ha fa‐ajāba or Ajwiba ʿan masāʾil fī al‐kawn wa‐ʾl‐ḥabīʿa wa‐ʾl‐ḥisāb ("Solution to questions on cosmology, physics, and arithmetic").
Risāla fī l-musiqa ("Epistle about music") - a manuscript translated in Hebrew is kept in Paris[8]
Medicine (pharmacobotany)
Kitab al-adwiya al-mufrad - this book (known both by a 1311 Latin translation by Almado de Vilanova and a Hebrew translation by Yehuda Nathan) is unique in organizing drugs not by alphabetical order of the medicinal plants of which they are made, but by the part of the body they are used to cure.[9]
Description of Egypt
Risāla al-misriyya (Epistle about Egypt) a report written for the Zirid prince Yahya, precious for its description of 13th century Egypt[10]
Logic
Taqwim al-dhikr (assessing memory) a summary of
Porphyry's
Isagoge and the first four books of
Aristotles'
Organon. The manuscript has been translated in Spanish by C. Angel GONZALEZ PALENCIA.[11]
^Selin, Helaine (2008). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 9.
^Fontaine, Jean. Histoire de la littérature tunisienne, Tome 1 (in French) (1988, 1999 ed.). Tunis: Cérès Editions. pp. 216–219.
ISBN9973-19-403-9.
^Umayya Abu L-Salt poetry, reported by Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (1974). edited by Muhammad al Marzouqi (in Arabic). Tunis: Librairie Orientale. pp. 172 p.