Jahan-i danish

Sharaf al-Din Mas'udi (6th/12th cent.) was a philosopher, astronomer, mathematician and logician. A native of Marw, he spent a large part of his life in Bukhara and Samarqand, Transoxiana. In Bukhara he had a number of debates with the philosopher and theologian Fakhr al-Din Razi (d. 606/1210), described in the latter's Munazarat jarat fi bilad Ma wara? al-nahr. From among his philosophical works, his critical notes to Avicenna's (d. 428/1037) al-Isharat wal-tanbihat deserve special mention. In the sciences, he wrote a work on astronomy and geography called al-Kifaya fi ?ilm al-hay?a. In the introduction to this work he explains that he composed it at the request of a friend and that it is based on the works of others, among then Ibn al-Haytham (d. ca. 432/1040-41) and Kushyar b. Labban (fl. late 4th/10th cent.). Afterwards, he translated it into Persian-this time without mentioning his sources-calling it Jahani- danish, published in this volume.