Out of Maragha: Observations, Teachings, and Translations

Abstract

This paper examines the context for the Greek translations and adaptions of Islamic astronomical works which came out of Maragha and Tabriz at the end of the thirteenth century. It discusses the observation programs and the teaching activities of astronomers at the Maragha Observatory in order to shed light on the relation of the translated texts to the intellectual activities at the observatory and to the broader picture of education in the astral sciences in these two cities. The paper argues that astronomical education in these centers drew from a combination of more established teaching texts and of newer works by the astronomers and teachers at the observatory, and that the selection of sources that received translations and adaptions in Greek was motivated by the particular needs of the Byzantine student or students in question.