Work C.1.43
Ghiyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr al-Dashtakī
تكملة المجسطي
Takmilat al-Majisṭī
A commentary on the Almagest by the well-known Iranian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician, Ghiyāth al-Dīn Manṣūr al-Dashtakī (866/1461–949/1542); on him, see Pourjavady. As he mentions in the preface of the unique incomplete manuscript of this work (MS Mashhad, Āstān-i Quds, 5263, ff. 1v–2r), al-Dashtakī presents a summary of the Almagest with his own additional explanations based on the commentaries of his predecessors — especially the Khulāṣat al-Majisṭī by Muḥyī l-Dīn al-Maghribī (d. 682/1283, C.1.21) . The similarity of several section titles of the present commentary (e.g., I.2 and I.3) with al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (C.1.18) as well as sentences literally quoted from that work, make clear that al-Ṭūsī was among al-Dashtakī’s sources. In addition, obvious similarities can be found with al-Maghribī’s Khulāṣa (e.g., the beginning of sections I.9, II.1 and II.2). In section I.3, al-Dashtakī also refers to al-Bīrūnī (15r) and to Ibn Sīnā’s Talkhīṣ al-Majisṭī (C.1.8), and in section I.7 to an unspecified work of al-Ṭūsī (24v).
In the preface, al-Dashtakī introduces this work as the third ‘outlook’ (manẓar) of the third ‘pillar’ (rukn) of his Riyāḍ al-riḍwān, a collection of treatises on different topics (see Pourjavady, p. 31). He calls this part of the Riyāḍ al-riḍwān an ‘abridgement’ (khulāṣa) of the Almagest which he titles al-Takmila (‘the supplement’). The only identified manuscript of al-Dashtakī’s commentary breaks off in section II.2. As he states in the preface (1v–2r), the Takmila consists of two parts (juzʾ), the first of which contains ten books (maqāla), subdivided into sections (faṣl), and his additions are distinguished from the ‘original text’ (aṣl al-kitāb, which most likely refers to al-Maghribī’s commentary) by various subtitles, such as fāʾida, ziyāda, muqaddima, taḍallul, faḍl, etc. He adds that the original and additional figures are differentiated by the use of black and red (wa-laqad mayyaztu … bayna ashkāli-himā bi-l-sawād wa-l-ḥumra). For example, the three diagrams of section I.1 (7r, 8r, 8v), which are not included in al-Ṭūsī’s Taḥrīr and al-Maghribī’s Khulāṣa, all three have red lines and black geometrical points, while the diagrams also found in al-Maghribī’s Khulāṣa have black lines and red letters (e.g., 60r–63r). In the sole surviving manuscript of al-Dashtakī’s commentary, Book I includes 13 sections (section I.9 being further divided into seven bāb) and Book II is said to contain 10 sections (66r); further subsections are headed taḍkira, tabṣira, tanbīh, waṣl, etc. The unique manuscript provides no information about the second juzʾ.
Text: [Mashhad, Āstān-i Quds, 5263]
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Bibl.: Reza Pourjavady, Philosophy in Early Safavid Iran: Najm al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Nayrīzī and His Writings, Leiden: Brill, 2011, pp. 24–32.
Ed.: None.
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