The Greco-Arabic Optical Tradition In and Beyond Ninth-Century Baghdad

项目概述拟议的项目是对希腊-阿拉伯光学传统进行研究，这一传统始于9世纪巴格达，并继续作为重要和杰出的伊本·海瑟姆“光学”的基础，在欧洲被称为Alhazen或Alhacen(公元1040年)。重点放在两个较早的阿拉伯作品：“光学和燃烧的镜子的书”，归因于某个A？Mad ibn‘和最近发现的“纠正错误和欧几里得的光学问题”，由著名学者亚克巴尔-Kind(公元870年公元)。该研究项目旨在根据以前无法获得的来源和方法，产生新的和确凿的知识，目前有两个目标：(A)在一个研究很少的时期--9世纪巴格达及其周围的早期光学译本和作品的背景下，揭露和阐明一个具有重要历史意义的科学传统；以及(B)通过Al-Kind的《光学》提供的证据，调查和推进长期悬而未决的A？Mad ibn‘的《光学》的组成日期和作者身份的问题，该名称与8-10世纪的几个人物有关，而Al-Kind的《光学》本身是其作者关于光学本身的唯一现存的阿拉伯语文本。选择这些文本是因为它们具有可比性(包括精确的重叠)、可派生的日期(大约9世纪中期)和可扩展的知识，特别是它们对其著名作者的工作的影响。预期的结果将包括两个文本的英文版本，第一个文本目前有两个阿拉伯手稿和一个希伯来语抄本，第二个文本显然是独特的手稿副本。通过对这些文本和其他相关文本进行语言分析，该项目将解决这些文本从古希腊到伊斯兰文化的翻译和传播的长期问题。该项目将有助于九世纪巴格达的科学知识和理解，因此将为伊斯兰科学提供重要的新见解。它还将同样研究这些文本在中世纪传播到欧洲的情况，从而探讨它们对西方拉丁地区光学和其他科学领域的影响。该项目也是对快速增长的伊斯兰科学专业领域的贡献。通过对这些文本的分析，它们与希腊原型的关系，以及它们对全面而有影响力的《阿拉赞》卷的影响，该项目将产生关于伊斯兰科学、赞助人和学者的作用以及传播和翻译过程的新信息，这些信息在很大程度上仍然没有得到普通公众的欣赏。更广泛的影响这项工作将对西方科学最重要的发展之一产生新的见解：伊斯兰文化对古希腊科学的传播和挪用，以及随后对西方的传播。通过使用新的电子技术，该项目将使这些翻译广泛提供给学术界和学术界以外的人。利用电子媒体，特别是‘IOTA’项目(阿拉伯语光学术语索引)“这项建议将使越来越重要的地理区域的教科书和对科学的理解广为使用。在教学方面，该项目将通过使这些资料和其他大部分未开发和未充分研究的资料更广为人知和更容易获得，来克服资料来源的限制。

Project Summary The proposed project is to conduct research on the Greco-Arabic optical tradition, a tradition initiated in ninth-century Baghdad, and continued as a basis for the important and outstanding "Optics" of Ibn al-Haytham, known in Europe as Alhazen or Alhacen (d.1040 CE). The focus is on two earlier Arabic compositions: "The Book of Optics and Burning Mirrors", attributed to a certain A?mad ibn ' and the recently discovered "Rectification of Errors and Problems of Euclid's Optics", by the prominent scholar, Ya'qb al-Kind (d. ca. 870 CE). The research project aims to produce new and conclusive knowledge based on previously unavailable sources and methods, with two immediate objectives: (a) to expose and illuminate a historically important scientific tradition within the context of a largely understudied period - that of the early optical translations and compositions in and around ninth-century Baghdad; and (b) to investigate and advance the long-unresolved problem of the composition date and author identity of the "Optics" of A?mad ibn ', a name associated with several figures in the 8-10th centuries CE, through evidence provided by the "Optics" of Al-Kind, itself the only extant Arabic text of its author on optics proper. These texts were selected for their comparable content (including exact overlaps), derivable date (of about mid ninth-century), and extendable knowledge, in particular their impact on the work of its famous author. The expected results will include English editions for the two texts, the first currently available in two Arabic manuscripts and a Hebrew transcription, and the second, in an apparently unique manuscript copy. Intellectual Merit Through linguistic analysis of those and other relevant texts, the project will solve long- standing problems of the translation and transmission of those texts from the ancient Greeks to Islamic culture. The project will contribute to the knowledge and understanding of science in ninth-century Baghdad, and as a result will provide important new insights into Islamic science. It will likewise examine the transmission of those texts to Europe in the Middle Ages and will thus explore their impact on optics and other fields of science in the Latin West. The project is also a contribution to the fast growing specialty area of Islamic science. Through the analysis of those texts, their relationship to Greek prototypes, and their impact on the comprehensive and influential volumes of Alhazen, the project will yield new information about Islamic science, the role of patrons and scholars, and the processes of transmission and translation, all still largely unappreciated by the general public. Broader Impacts The work will yield new insights into one of the most important developments of western science in general: the transmission and appropriation of ancient Greek science by Islamic culture, and its subsequent transmission to the West. Through the use of new electronic technologies, this project will make the translations widely available to those in the scholarly community and beyond. Using electronic media, in particular the 'IOTA' Project (Index for Optical Terms in Arabic)" this proposal will make the texts and the understanding of science in an increasingly vital geographical area, widely available. In teaching, the project will redress source limitations by making those and other largely untapped and understudied sources much better known and more readily accessible.