Commentaries on Ptolemy’s Almagest in the Manuscripts Conference
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Alexandrie, 8 mars 2006—within the framework of the proceedings of the Third International Manuscripts Conference entitled Commentary Manuscripts from 7-9 March 2006, Dr. Roshdi Rashed, National Center for Scientific Research, Paris, gave an interesting lecture on Commentaries on Ptolemy"s Almagest attributed to Ibn al-Haytham. In his lecture, Dr. Rashed mentioned that Ptolemy’s Almagest in astronomy was widely studied and commented on by distinguished scholars in mathematics and astronomy including Pappus of Alexandria, Theon of Alexandria, Thābit ibn Qurra, and other Islamic Scholars.
Under the same theme, Dr. Robert G. Morrison (USA) gave a lecture entitled The Arabic Commentaries on Ptolemy’s Almagest and their Role in the History of Arabic Astronomy. Dr. Morrison stated that the Arabic translations of the book differed from the Greek original in many aspects, as the commentaries included accurate meteorological studies on which Ptolemy’s astronomical theories were based.