Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne.

  • Nizami Aruzi
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Revised translation of the Chahár maqála : ("Four discourses") of Nizámí-i-ʼArúdí of Samarqand, followed by an abridged translation of Mírzá Muhammad's notes to the Persian text / by Edward G. Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which all straight lines drawn to the Heaven of the Moon are equal; and when we speak of “ down,” we mean this point or what lies nearest to it; and when we speak of “ up/’ we mean the remotest heaven, or what lies nearest to it, this being a heaven3 above the Zodiacal Heaven, having naught beyond it, for with it the material world terminates, or comes to an end2. Now when God most Blessed and most High, by His effective Wisdom, desired to produce in this world minerals, plants,animals and men, He created the stars, and in particular the sun and moon, whereon He made the growth and decay of these to depend. And the special property of the sun is that ( = ) by its reflection it warms all things when it stands opposite to them, and draws them up, that is attracts them, by the medium of heat. So, by its opposition, it warmed the water; and, by means of the warmth, attracted it for a long while, until one quarter of the earth’s surface was laid bare, by reason of the much vapour which ascended and rose up therefrom. Now it is of the nature of water to be capable of becoming stone, as it is admitted to do in certain places, and as may be actually wit¬ nessed3. So mountains were produced from the water by the glow of the sun ; and thereby the earth became somewhat elevated above what it had been, while the water retreated from it and dried up, according to that fashion which is witnessed. This portion, therefore, is called the “ Uncovered Quarter,” for the reason above stated; and is also called the “ Inhabited Quarter,” because animals dwell therein. Section III. When the influences of these stars had acted on the peripheries of these elements, and had been reflected back from that imaginary [central] point, there were produced from the midst of the earth and water, by the aid of the wind and the fire, the products of the inorganic world, such as mountains, mines, clouds, snow, rain, thunder, lightning, shooting stars, comets, meteors, thunder-bolts, halos, conflagrations, fulminations, earth¬ quakes, and springs of all kinds, as has been fully explained in its proper place when discussing the effects of the celestial bodies, but for the explanation and amplification of which there is no room in this brief manual. But when time began, and the cycles of heaven became continuous, and the constitution of this lower world matured, and the time was come for the fertilisation of 1 This outermost, or ninth, celestial sphere is the Primurn mobile of the Ptolemaic system, called al-FalakuH-Atlas or P'alakiPl-Aflak by the Muslim philosophers. 2 That the material universe is finite and bounded by the Empyrean, or Falaku'l- Ajlak, is generally accepted by Persian philosophers. See my Year amongst the Persians, pp. 143-144. 3 The author apparently alludes to petrifaction and the formation of stalactytes.
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