مجله تاریخ علم
سال شانزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 24، بهار و تابستان 1397)

Muḥammad-Karim-Khān Kirmānnī, the leader of Shaykhists, was one of the opponents of modern astronomy in 19th century in Iran. Following him, his son, Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn-Khān Kirmānī wrote his Shams al-Jārīya (1926) in Persian to reject the new arguments for modern astronomy and also to show how the Islamic holy texts admit the old Ptolemaic astronomy. A major part of his book included some rejections of Hibat al-Dīn Shahristānī’s claims in Al-Islām wa al-Hayʾa (1910). Hibat al-Dīn in that book had argued for the consistency of Islamic holy texts and some of the elements of modern astronomy such as rejection of the solid celestial spheres, motion of the Earth, immobility of the Sun, and the shadow and the orbit of the Earth. Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn shows very well that Hibat al-Dīn’s interpretations of holy texts in favor of the modern astronomy are arbitrary and unreliable, however Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn’s own interpretations have the same problem.

The introduction of modern science in the Qajar era is invariably connected to the efforts of Najm al-Dawla. But why modern science did not rise in Iran despite the high development of science in pre-modern times? And why did it not find acceptance in Iran when it was first introduced? In this article the importance of Needham’s question for the historiography of science is briefly discussed as well as some attempts by Western scholarship to answer it. By considering the traditional methodology of science, as expressed by Kātibī Qazwīnī in al-Risala al-Shamsīyya that had been taught in Iran until recently, it will be argued that this methodology was not suitable for developing or embracing modern science, in particular, the Newtonian mechanics. Finally, as an example, some arguments against heliocentric astronomy based on the logic of al-Shamsīyya, and advanced by Muḥammad-Ḥusayn Shahristānī in his Āyāt Bayyināt will be discussed.

By the second Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh’s visit of Europe and Austria in 1878, the knowledge and ability of the Austrian counselors was considered and placed on the agenda of Qajar government to to train Iranian troops and introduce modern military knowledge and technology to Iran. By the arrival of the Austrians and the start of their work, they did many activities and efforts to teach the military education as well as producing weapons to the Iranin students. They also wrote or translated some military books. In this article, these actions and results is examined based on historical sources such as books, archival documents and newspapers.

Alīqulī Khān is a famous, progressive and intelligent person in contemporary history of Iran and some of his proceedings show the modernism and the efforts and attentions to progress and development in Qajar period. This research is on his political and cultural affairs in process of modernism with descriptive-analytic method and resources from library and archives. This text shows that the contribution of him to illumination of thought and modernism in Iran with his governmental occupation such as: ministry of post and telegram, commercial and theology and management of Dār al-Funūn and proceedings such as: foundation and development of telegram lines, completion of Dār al-Funūn and establishment of Danesh as a first educational newspaper in Iran, foundation of Hāfiẓ association, dispatching students to the foreign country and training expert.

Contrary to the current cliché concerning the opposition of the Imamate Shiite Ulama to the modern astronomy in the Qajar period, there is no evidence showing their literal or explicit objection of the modern astronomy based on Islamic doctrines, as one finds in the story of Galileo and Catholic Church. Although only for two oppositions we have evidence: Mahdī Narāqī and Muḥammad-Ḥusayn Shahristānī, their opposition were not because of their religious ideas, but for their traditional learnings of the Ptolemaic astronomy and Aristotelian philosophy. Ulama did not extract a cosmology according to the Ptolemaic astronomy from Quranic verses and hadiths. Ulama even did not believe in the astrology and thus did not advocate Ptolemaic astronomy because of astrology. Accordingly they had no religious motivation to defend Ptolemaic astronomy against the modern astronomy. They were not the pretenders of a cosmology, thus they did not see the modern astronomy as their rival. Finally, Hibat al-Dīn Shahristānī in his al-Islām wa al-Hayʾa not only was not against the modern astronomy but also he believed that they admit the holy Quran and Islamic hadiths.

The first treatise written in Persian to criticize Darwin’s theory and published in 1880 isJamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī’s Niychirīya. Another treatise written in Persian in this subject by Ayatollah Muḥammad-Ḥusayn Shahristānī in 1881 titled Āyāt Bayyināt. Following that treatise, adetailed book published in 1912 by Ayatollah Muḥammad-Riẓā Najafī-Iṣfahānī, titled Naqd Falsafat Dārwan. Mirʾāt al-ʿAql (The Mirror of Reason), a book in theology, is written in Persian by Ayatollah Muḥammad-‘Alī Sunqurī-Ḥāʾirī (1876-1958) in 1911.The firstvolume includes an introduction and three chapters, containing the problems of materialism anditscontradictions. Sunqurī critiques materialism in a philosophical-theological way. Then he, in the third chapter, “Nawāmīs Arbaʾa”, addressed the four main axes of Darwin’s theory and consider its corruptions, according to his own opinion. I claim that this book was a turning point in the history of science in Qajar period.

The arguments for the mobility (orbital and spin) of the Earth and the solutions for the natural and observational criticisms have been one of the major problems in the acceptance or rejection of the heliocentrism. Although the works of the Islamic scholars in medieval period have dedicated to find observational reasons for the immobility of the Earth, it seems in the literature of the Qajar period, the observational arguments are less important than natural arguments.ʿAbd al-Ghaffār Najm al-Dawla elaborates on the issues of modern astronomy and astronomical discoveries in his book Qānūn Nāṣirī (1867). Although the topics inside this book do not go beyond the level of popular science publications, a study of its content is necessary to understand the astronomical arguments raised for the mobility of the Earth during the Qajar period. This article reviews the reasons which Najm al-Dawla presented for the mobility of the Earth in his Qānūn Nāṣirī.