The Tanbīh al-anām ̔alā mā yaḥduthu fī ayyām al- ̔ām (Warning to humanity about what happens during the days of the year) by ̔Abdu ̓ l-Raḥmān al-Jādirī (777/1375–818/1416)

Abstract

The article studies, translates, and edits a calendar entitled Tanbīh al-anām ̔ala mā yaḥduthu fī ayyām al- ̔ām (Warning to humanity about what happens during the days of the year), written by al-Jādirī (777/1375-ca. 818/1416). The author is a well-known muwaqqit who worked in Fes. The book was written at the request of an unknown scholar who asked al-Jādirī to adapt to the latitude of Fes a calendar written by the mathematician and astronomer Ibn al-Bannā ̓ (654/1256–721/1321) for the latitude of Marrakesh. Al-Jādirī calls this calendar Taqyīd fī l-shuhūr al- ̔ajamīya wa-mā yaḥduthu fī-hā. Even though there is no known reference to this Taqyīd in the bibliography about Ibn al- Bannā ̓, al-Jādirī’s Tanbīh most closely resembles his Risāla fī l-anwā ̓. This latter work was strongly in uenced by the well-known Kitāb al-anwā ̓ written by ̔Arīb b. Sa ̔īd (d. 370/980–981). Al-Jādirī knew ̔Arīb’s work and probably employed it in order to complete the calendar written by Ibn al-Bannā ̓, to which he added materials borrowed from other sources. This represents thus a revival of the Andalusi tradition of calendars and treatises about Arabic folk astronomy in the early 9th/15th century.