Ali Kuşçu

Early life and works
 

He was born in 1403 on an unknown date in Samarkand which is today in Uzbekistan. His full name was Aleaddin Ali bin Muhammed el-Kuşçu. His family gained this last name after the official title of his father Muhammed who was the doğancıbaşı of Ulug Beg at that time.

He attended the courses of Bursali Kadizade Rumi, Giyaseddin Cemşid and Muinuddin Kaşi. He moved to Kerman, Iran and there he conducted some researches on the storms of Oman sea. He completed Hall-ü Eşkal-i Kamer (Explanations of the Periods of the Moon) and Şerh-i Tecrid in Kirman. He moved to Herat and taught Molla Cami about astronomy (1423). After professing in Herat for a while he went back to Samarkand and herald his works about moon to Uluğ Bey. Uluğ Bey was fascinated with the works and read the entire work while standing up. Uluğ Bey assigned him to Ulugh Beg Observatory which was called "Samarkand Observatory" at that time. He worked there till Uluğ Bey was assassinated.[1]

After Uluğ Bey's death, he went to Herat, Taşkent and finally Tabriz, Iran. While he was in Tabriz, Uzun Hasan the Khan of Ak Koyunlu sent him as a delegate to Fatih Sultan Mehmed (about 1470). At that time Sultan Baykara had come to reign in Herat but Kuşçu preferred İstanbul rather than Herat because of Fatih Sultan Mehmed's attitude toward scientists and intellectuals.


İstanbul era

When he came to İstanbul, his grandson Kutbuddîn Muhammed had a son Mirim Çelebi who would be a great mathematician and astronomer in the future. Kuşçu extended his studies in İstanbul. He wrote "Şerh el-risâlat el-vad'iyye" on Adududdîn İ'ci's famous study called "Fâi'de fî el-vad" which is the first work on linguistics. Kuşçu's work made a great impact on the scientific community. The work has thousands of copies in handwriting libraries all around the world.

He then finished "Şerh el-tecrid" on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's "el-Tecrîd fî 'ilm el-kelâm". That work is called "Şerh-i cedid" in scientific community. It is considered as the most important philosophical work on metaphysics, physics, optics and mathematics done within Islamic civilisation.


Contributions to astronomy

In his Concerning the Supposed Dependence of Astronomy upon Philosophy, Kuşçu rejected Aristotelian physics and completely separated natural philosophy from Islamic astronomy, allowing astronomy to become a purely empirical and mathematical science. This allowed him to explore alternatives to the Aristotelian notion of a stationery Earth, as he explored the idea of a moving Earth instead. He found empirical evidence for the Earth's rotation through his observation on comets and concluded, on the basis of empiricism rather than speculative philosophy, that the moving Earth theory is just as likely to be true as the stationary Earth theory.[2][3][4]

Kuşçu also improved on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's planetary model and presented an alternative planetary model for Mercury.[5]


His works

Astronomy[6]
Şerh-i Zîc-i Uluğ Bey
Risâle fî Halli Eşkâli Mu‘addili’l-Kamer li'l-Mesîr (Fâide fî Eşkâli ‘Utârid)
Risâle fî Asli'l-HâricYumkin fî's-Sufliyyeyn
Şerh ‘ale't-Tuhfeti'ş-Şâhiyye fî'l-Hey'e
Risâle der ‘İlm-i Hey'e
el-Fethiyye fî ‘İlmi'l-Hey'e
Risâle fî Halli Eşkâli'l-Kamer
Concerning the Supposed Dependence of Astronomy upon Philosophy

Mathematics[7]
Risâletu'l-Muhammediyye fî'l-Hisâb
Risâle der İlm-i Hisâb: Süleymaniye

Kelâm and Usûl-i Fıkıh
Eş-Şerhu'l-Cedîd ale't-Tecrîd
Hâşiye ale't-Telvîh
Unkud-üz-Zevahir fi Nazm-ül-Cevahir

Mechanics[8]
Tezkire fî Âlâti'r-Ruhâniyye

Linguistics[9]
Şerhu'r-Risâleti'l-Vadiyye
El-İfsâh
El-Unkûdu'z-Zevâhir fî Nazmi'l-Cevâhir
Şerhu'ş-Şâfiye
Risâle fî Beyâni Vadi'l-Mufredât
Fâ'ide li-Tahkîki Lâmi't-Ta'rîf
Risâle mâ Ene Kultu
Risâle fî'l-Hamd
Risâle fî İlmi'l-Me'ânî
Risâle fî Bahsi'l-Mufred
Risâle fî'l-Fenni's-Sânî min İlmihal-Beyân
Tefsîru'l-Bakara ve Âli İmrân
Risâle fî'l-İstişâre
Mahbub-ül-Hamail fi keşif-il-mesail
Tecrid-ül-Kelam

Notes
1. Osmanlı imparatorluğunun doruğu 16. yüzyıl teknolojisi, Editor Prof. Dr. Kazım Çeçen, Istanbul 1999, Omaş ofset A.Ş.
2. (Ragep 2001a)
3. F. Jamil Ragep (2001), "Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science", Osiris, 2nd Series, Vol. 16, Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions, p. 49-64, 66-71.
4. Edith Dudley Sylla, "Creation and nature", in Arthur Stephen McGrade (2003), p. 178-179, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521000637.
5. George Saliba, "Arabic planetary theories after the eleventh century AD", in Rushdī Rāshid and Régis Morelon (1996), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, p. 58-127 [123-124], Routledge, ISBN 0415124107.
6. Osmanlı Astronomi Literatürü Tarihi (Ed. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu), İstanbul 1997, I, 27-38
7. Seyyid Ali Paşa, Mir’âtu’l-Âlem (Haz. Yavuz Unat), Kültür Bakanlığı, Ankara 2001.
8. Sevim Tekeli, 16’ıncı Asırda Osmanlılarda Saat ve Takiyyuddîn’in “Mekanik Saat Konstrüksüyonuna Dair En Parlak Yıldızlar” Adlı Eseri, Ankara 1966.
9. Musa Yıldız, Bir Dilci Olarak Ali Kuşçu ve Risâle fî’l-İsti‘âre’si, Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, Ankara 2002, s.10-14.

References
Ragep, F. Jamil (2001a), "Tusi and Copernicus: The Earth's Motion in Context", Science in Context (Cambridge University Press) 14 (1-2): 145–163
 

• Biyografisi
• Istanbul Ali Kuşçu Amatör Astronomi Topluluğu; AKAT

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