ABU’L-FATḤ B. MAḤMŪD (or MOḤAMMAD) B. AL-QĀSEM B. AL-FAŻL AL-EṢFAHĀNĪ, an early 6th/12th century astronomer. His best known work is his revision of books V-VII of the Arabic translation, completed by Helāl b. Abī Helāl and Ṯābet b. Qorra, of the Cronica of Apollonius of Perge. This section of that great work was first made known in western Europe through the Latin translation of Abu’l-Fatḥ’s version by the Maronite orientalist Abrahamus Echallensis and the Italian mathematician Johannes Alfonsus Borellus (see bibliography). At the end of the translation is the statement: explicit anno DXIII (513/1119-20). Abu’l-Fatḥ claims to have found the manuscript of the Arabic translation in the library of a king named Abicaligiar Carsciaseph filii Ali filii Phrami filii Hasami, who must be identical with the Abū Kālīǰār Garšāsp b. ʿAlī b. Farāmarz b. Moḥammad who ruled Yazd from 1095 till about 1119. Abu’l-Fatḥ’s Persian translation of books I-VII of the Cronica and a commentary on books I-V are extant in manuscript.
Bibliography:
A. Echellensis, and I. A. Borellus, Apollonii Pergaei Cronicorum lib. V. VI. VII. paraphraste Abalphato Ashahanensi, Florence, 1651.
Suter, Mathematiker, p. 98, no. 217.
Sezgin, GAS V, p. 140.
(D. Pingree)
Originally Published: December 15, 1983
Last Updated: July 21, 2011
This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 3, pp. 284-285
David Pingree, “ABU’L-FATḤ EṢFAHĀNĪ,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/3, pp. 284-285; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abul-fath-b (accessed on 31 January 2014).
