Ulugh Beg, Zīj-I jadīd-I sulṭānī (20 Ṣafar 939 [21 September 1532])
MS 91
An extraordinary witness of early Arabic scholarship at Oxford University
This manuscript of an Arabic translation of Ulugh Beg’s New Tables is of great importance because
of the annotations by John Greaves (1602-1652), Oxford’s second Savillian Professor of Astronomy from 1643 to 1648. Notes on the epochs on folios 4-5, for instance, indicate that the manuscript was used for his Epochae celebriores […] ex traditione Ulugh Beigi, published in 1650 (Mercier, p. 163). He also used MS 91 ‘for his editions and Latin translations of portions of Ulugh Beg’s zīj’ published in 1648 and 1652, respectively (Savage-Smith, p. 27). Arriving in Oxford in 1617, Greaves developed an interest in Arabic and Persian mathematical and astronomical texts (Mercier, p. 161). He had secured the patronage of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of Oxford University, before he started his travels to Constantinople and Alexandria in 1637. On his journey, Greaves collected manuscripts, possibly even on behalf of Laud (Mercier, p. 163). He also carried out numerous observations during his journey, something he had done before leaving Oxford and would do again after his return in 1640 or 1641 (Mercier, p. 161).
The provenance of MS 91 is somewhat confusing. There are two relevant inscriptions. The ex libris of William Laud on folio 2a is dated 1640. A longer note on folio 3a with the date of 1682 states that Edward Bernard (1638-1696), Oxford University’s Savilian Professor of Astronomy from 1673 to 1691, had procured the manuscript ‘from the collection of John Greaves’ (Savage-Smith, p. 30). If both statements are true, William Laud may have entrusted this volume to Greaves for his work, perhaps before his (i.e. Laud’s) imprisonment in the Tower of London in 1643. After Laud’s execution in 1645, the manuscript may have remained in Greaves’s collection, which was dispersed after the death of his brother, Thomas Greaves (d. 1676). If that was indeed the sequence of events, it is only by sheer luck that the manuscript found its way (back) to St John’s College.
Further Resources
Full digitization available at Digital Bodleian
Descriptive catalogue records available at our Digital Library (scroll down to MS 91)