Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

Political and Cultural History of Islam
Foremost among the last Spanish astronomers stood Nur alDin abu-Ishaq al-Bitruji, a pupil of ibn-Tufayl. His kitab al-Hay’ah on the configuration of the heavenly bodies, is remarkable for its attempt to revive in a modified form the false theory of homocentric spheres. Though considered the exponent of a new astronomy, alBitruji in reality reproduced the Aristotelian system; his work marks the culmination of the Muslim anti-Ptolemaic movement. By the end of the twelfth century translation has been made from Arabic into Latin of a large number of Aristotle’s works on astronomy, physics and meteorology, in which most of Aristotle’s thought in geography had also found expression.16
One of Said’s contemporaries was the alchemist Abu Maslama of Madrid (not to be confused with the astronomer who is his near-namesake). He wrote a book entitled Rutbat al-Hakim, which, incidentally, contains a description of some experiments made by the author, from one of which one can infer that he was aware of the principle of the preservation of matter. Among this group of authors-it is difficult to know whether to call them technicians or scientists-one must include Ahmad or Muhammad b. Khalaf al-Muradi, a person unknown twenty years ago, who was ”discovered”’ through the study of his kitab al-asrar fmata’ij al-afkar, conserved in a single manuscript copied by the hand of Ishaq b. alSid, the chief astronomer of Alfonso X (the Wise).
The work of al-Muradi is of great interest. In spite of the fact that the single manuscript in which it is conserved has been approximately 40% destroyed, it can be almost completely reconstructed. It describes various clepsydras capable of being set in motion at specified intervals of time-so that they could have been used as clocks-and capable of performing predetermined motions. This means that we have found the only book hitherto known in alAndalus which is comparable to the works of Heron, the Banu Musa brothers and al-Jazari. There is another interesting detail about this work: the manner in which al-Muradi treats his subject-matter seems to be without precedent; in a couple of key words, the terminology is quite different from that which one finds in the above mentioned works, and everything seems to suggest that we are here in the presence of a true inventor, or else someone who represents a native Andalusi tradition of artesan-mechanics. Similarly, in his clepsydras
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he seems to be working independently from Ibn Firnas and Azarquiel. Moreover, and this is important to emphasise, in order to produce hysteresis in his mechanical ”toys”, al-Muradi uses mercury (al-Jazari uses metal baljs) which is displaced inside the arms of the main balance, or master-balance of the system. Machine number one, which has recently been reconstructed, demonstrates the efficacy of a mechanism which had never before been used in this way.
HISTORY
In Spain Arabic philology, theology, historiography, geography, astronomy and allied sciences had a comparatively late development, since the Muslims there, unlike their co-religionists of Syria and al-Iraq, had but little to learn from the natives. Even after their rise Spanish sciences lagged behind those of the Eastern Caliphate. It was mainly in such disciplines as botany, medicine, philosophy and astronomical mathematics that Western Muslims made their greatest mark.
One of the earliest and best known of Andalusian historians was abu-Bakr ibn-Umar, usually known as ibn-al-Qutiyah, who was born and flourished at Cordova, where he died in 977. His Ta’rikh Iftitah (variant Path) al-Andalus,’ which we have used in this work, extends from the Muslim conquest to the early part of ’Abdur Rahman Ill’s reign. Ibn-al-Qutiyah was also a grammarian and his treatise on the conjugation of verbs was the first ever composed on the subject. Another early but more prolific historical writer was abuMarwan Hayyan ibn-Khalaf of Cordova, surnamed ibn-Hayyan (987 or 988-1076). Ibn-Hayyan’s list of works contains no less than fifty titles, one of which, al-Matin, comprised sixty volumes. Unfortunately only one work, al-Muqtabis fi Ta’rikh Rijal alAndalus,’ has survived. The most valuable work on the Muwahid period was written in 1224 by the Moroccan historian ’Abdul Wahid al-Marrakushi,’ who sojorned in Spain.17
Andalusia produced a number of biographers, one of the first among whom was Walid ’Abdullah ibn-Muhammad ibn-alFaradi, who was born in 962 at Cordova, where he studied and taught. When thirty years old be undertook a pilgrimage in the course of which he stopped to study at al-Qayrawan, Cairo, Makkah and al-Medina. After his return he was appointed Qadi of Valencia. During the sack of Cordova by the Berbers in 1013 ibn-al-Faradi was
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