Batak
Batak. Collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups found in the highlands of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Their heartland lies to the west of Medan centered on Lake Toba. In fact, the "Batak" include several groups with distinct, albeit related, languages and customs (adat). While the term is used to include the Toba, Karo, Dairi, Simalungun, Angkola, Alas-Kluet and Mandailing.
The several Batak peoples of highland north Sumatra have remarkably complex religious lives, even in so syncretistic a nation as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country. The Batak stand out as accepting congenially the religions of Islam, Christianity and animism. Perhaps thirty percent are Muslims. There are roughly seven Batak groups, not including the Batak in the rantau (the diaspora communities outside north Sumatra). The seven groups are the Toba Batak, Simulungun Batak, Karo Batak, Dairi, Silindung (Alas-Kluet), Angkola Batak, and Mandailing.
The Batak are an Indonesian people whose original homeland was in the uplands of the present province of North Sumatra. The Batak can be regarded as a single people, incorporating several ethnic and linguistic subgroups. The largest of these, the Toba Batak, inhabited mountain valleys near Lake Toba. North of them were the Pakpak (Dairi), Karo, and Simalungun and south were the Angkola and Mandailing Batak ( all of whom speak Batak dialects, some mutually unintelligible. The patrilineal kinship system is dominant among all Batak groups, and all observe as custom the marga, or exogamous patrilineal clan. Traditionally, the village had been the major governing territorial unit of the Toba, but some other Batak groups (notably the Karo) have had larger administrative units, often village confederations ruled by rajas.
The Batak uplands were generally isolated until the mid-nineteenth century, when Protestant missionaries, the Dutch government, and the lowland plantation agriculture encroached on them simultaneously. Most Karo and Simalungun were administratively incorporated into the East Coast Residency, while the others were included in Tapanuli. About half the Toba became Christians, as did numbers of Simalungun and other North Tapanuli Bataks. The southern Angkola and Mandailing are largely Muslim, having been converted by the Paderi in the early 1800s. Many other Batak retained their traditional religions.
Before 1940, members of ruling lineages held most of the positions of prestige, but their legitimacy was largely repudiated by peasants during the independence revolution (1945-1950), which saw widespread violence among Batak of both Tapanuli and East Sumatra.
Batak societies are patriarchal organized along clans known as Marga. The Toba Batak believe that they originate from one ancestor "Si Raja Batak", with all Margas, descended from him. A family tree that defines the father-son relationship among Batak people is called tarombo. Toba Batak are known traditionally for their weaving, wood carving and especially ornate stone tombs. Their burial and marriage traditions are very rich and complex. The burial tradition includes a ceremony in which the bones of one's ancestors are reinterred several years after death. This secondary burial is known among the Toba Batak as mangongkal holi.
Before they became subjects of the colonial Dutch East Indies government, the Batak had a reputation for being fierce warriors. Today the Batak are mostly Christian with a Muslim minority. Presently the largest Christian congregation in Indonesia is the HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan) Christian church. The dominant Christian theology was brought by Lutheran German missionaries in the 19th century, including the well-known missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen. Christianity was introduced to the Karo by Dutch Calvinist missionaries and their largest church is the GBKP (Gereja Batak Karo Protestan). But, the Mandailing Batak were converted to Islam in the early 19th century.
Batak. Collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups found in the highlands of North Sumatra, Indonesia. Their heartland lies to the west of Medan centered on Lake Toba. In fact, the "Batak" include several groups with distinct, albeit related, languages and customs (adat). While the term is used to include the Toba, Karo, Dairi, Simalungun, Angkola, Alas-Kluet and Mandailing.
The several Batak peoples of highland north Sumatra have remarkably complex religious lives, even in so syncretistic a nation as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country. The Batak stand out as accepting congenially the religions of Islam, Christianity and animism. Perhaps thirty percent are Muslims. There are roughly seven Batak groups, not including the Batak in the rantau (the diaspora communities outside north Sumatra). The seven groups are the Toba Batak, Simulungun Batak, Karo Batak, Dairi, Silindung (Alas-Kluet), Angkola Batak, and Mandailing.
The Batak are an Indonesian people whose original homeland was in the uplands of the present province of North Sumatra. The Batak can be regarded as a single people, incorporating several ethnic and linguistic subgroups. The largest of these, the Toba Batak, inhabited mountain valleys near Lake Toba. North of them were the Pakpak (Dairi), Karo, and Simalungun and south were the Angkola and Mandailing Batak ( all of whom speak Batak dialects, some mutually unintelligible. The patrilineal kinship system is dominant among all Batak groups, and all observe as custom the marga, or exogamous patrilineal clan. Traditionally, the village had been the major governing territorial unit of the Toba, but some other Batak groups (notably the Karo) have had larger administrative units, often village confederations ruled by rajas.
The Batak uplands were generally isolated until the mid-nineteenth century, when Protestant missionaries, the Dutch government, and the lowland plantation agriculture encroached on them simultaneously. Most Karo and Simalungun were administratively incorporated into the East Coast Residency, while the others were included in Tapanuli. About half the Toba became Christians, as did numbers of Simalungun and other North Tapanuli Bataks. The southern Angkola and Mandailing are largely Muslim, having been converted by the Paderi in the early 1800s. Many other Batak retained their traditional religions.
Before 1940, members of ruling lineages held most of the positions of prestige, but their legitimacy was largely repudiated by peasants during the independence revolution (1945-1950), which saw widespread violence among Batak of both Tapanuli and East Sumatra.
Batak societies are patriarchal organized along clans known as Marga. The Toba Batak believe that they originate from one ancestor "Si Raja Batak", with all Margas, descended from him. A family tree that defines the father-son relationship among Batak people is called tarombo. Toba Batak are known traditionally for their weaving, wood carving and especially ornate stone tombs. Their burial and marriage traditions are very rich and complex. The burial tradition includes a ceremony in which the bones of one's ancestors are reinterred several years after death. This secondary burial is known among the Toba Batak as mangongkal holi.
Before they became subjects of the colonial Dutch East Indies government, the Batak had a reputation for being fierce warriors. Today the Batak are mostly Christian with a Muslim minority. Presently the largest Christian congregation in Indonesia is the HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan) Christian church. The dominant Christian theology was brought by Lutheran German missionaries in the 19th century, including the well-known missionary Ludwig Ingwer Nommensen. Christianity was introduced to the Karo by Dutch Calvinist missionaries and their largest church is the GBKP (Gereja Batak Karo Protestan). But, the Mandailing Batak were converted to Islam in the early 19th century.
Ba‘th Socialist Party
Ba‘th Socialist Party (Ba'ath Socialist Party) (Baath Socialist Party) (Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party). Arab political party and movement in Southwest Asia, principally in Syria and Iraq.
The Ba'th Socialist Party was founded in Damascus in the 1940s by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian intellectual, as the original secular Arab nationalist movement, to unify all Arab countries in one state and to combat Western colonial rule that dominated the Arab region at that time. In Arabic, "baʿath" means "renaissance" or "resurrection." It functioned as a pan-Arab party with branches in different Arab countries, but was strongest in Syria and Iraq, coming to power in both countries in 1963. In 1966 a coup d'état by the military against the historical leadership of Michel Aflaq and Salah Bitar led the Syrian and Iraqi parties to split into rival organizations – the Qotri (or Regionalist) Syria-based party being aligned with the Soviet Union while the Qawmi (or Nationalist) Iraq-based party adopted a generally more centrist stance. Both Ba'ath parties retained the same name and maintain parallel structures in the Arab world.
The Ba'ath Party came to power in Syria on March 8, 1963 and has held a monopoly on political power since. Later that same year, the Ba'athists gained control of Iraq and ran the country on two separate occasions, briefly in 1963 and then for a longer period lasting from July 1968 until 2003. After the de facto deposition of President Saddam Hussein’s Ba'athist regime in the course of the 2003 Iraq War, the Coalition Provisional Authority banned the Iraqi Ba'ath Party in May 2003.
In the 1930s, Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din Bitar and Zaki Arsuzi travelled around Syria to promote an ideology of Arab nationalism. In 1943, the Arab Ba‘th Party was formed in Damascus by Aflaq and Bitar. In 1946, after the French left Syria, Aflaq and Bitar managed to get a license for their political group. Later they merged it with the political movement led by Arsuzi. On April 7, 1947, at the first party congress in Damascus, the party was officially founded, a constitution was approved and an executive committee was formed. In March 1954, the Arab Ba‘th Socialist Party was formed after a merger with the Arab Socialist Party. In 1966, a split in the Syrian party, led many of its members to establish a second Ba‘th Party in Beirut, Lebanon. In July 1968, a breakaway branch of the Ba‘th Party moved to Baghdad, following the coup in Iraq.
The basic principles of the Ba‘th Party were utility and freedom inside an Arab nation. The party also based itself on the belief that Arabs had a special mission to end Western colonialism. The Ba‘th Party was nationalistic, populistic, socialistic and revolutionary. Its socialism was not communism but did involve land reform, public ownership of natural resources, transport, large-scale industry and financial institutions. It did allow workers and peasants to form trade unions, and proposed that workers should be allowed into the management of the companies for which they worked. Nevertheless, the socialism of the Ba‘th party did allow some private ownership. Central to their ideology was also their tendency to ignore class divisions, as well as divisions between different religious groups. This allowed many from minority groups to gain political power by joining the Ba‘th Party. A key element of the original program of the Ba‘th Party was freedom of speech and association. However, the Ba'th governments of Syria and Iraq did not adopt this element.
The Ba‘th Party in Iraq was established in secret in 1950. Beginning in 1955, it started to cooperate with other nationalistic groups. However, it was not until February 1963 that the Ba‘th Party became strong enough to take control over Iraq. This seizure only lasted for a short period, until November, when a leader outside the Ba‘th Party became prime minister. Thanks to an initial cooperation with military officers, the Ba‘th Party was able to take full control over Iraq in 1968. This became the beginning of a process where the party and the state in many important areas would become the same. This applied to the government, the armed forces, the police and the intelligence agency. In the 1980s, the socialistic aspect of the Ba‘th Party was filtered out, and much encouragement was given to the private sector. Also, Arab nationalism was replaced with Iraqi nationalism.
The Ba‘th Party in Jordan was founded in 1948, originating from the Arab Ba‘th Party. It was with the annexation of the West Bank (with its large Palestinian population) that the Ba‘th Party really grew strong in the country’s nationalist-leftist alliance. This alliance became the strongest in the parliament after the elections of 1956. The members of the Jordanian Ba‘th Party were the educated in the cities, and they had strong support from students. In the period 1958-1961, the Ba‘th Party was active in working against the monarchy of Jordan, and did this with economical aid from Syria. When the West Bank was occupied by Israel in 1967, the Ba‘th Party of Jordan was weakened, and never fully recovered.
The Arab Ba‘th Party of Lebanon was established in 1948, but political freedom was limited the year after, when international parties were banned. This situation lasted until 1958. Lebanon was used for the Ba‘th Party’s congresses in 1959 and 1968. During the Lebanese Civil War of 1975, the Ba‘th Party could establish their own militia with economical support from Syria. The Ba‘th Party joined a unitary group of several parties in 1987. This group later became central in forming a unitary government in Lebanon, where central leaders from the Ba‘th Party were given posts.
The branch of the Ba‘th Party of Yemen was established around 1955, but started to become an important group after the end of the Yemeni civil war in 1970. The party never entered any office and was, in 1976, merged with other parties to form the National Democratic Front.
The local branch of the Ba‘th Party of Syria is a direct continuation of the original movement, which was first established in Syria. The party was suppressed from 1958 until 1961, during the union between Syria and Egypt (the union known as the United Arab Republic). In 1963, the Ba‘th Party seized power in Syria. However, the same year the party also split into two factions, an anti-Marxist civilian part, and a military part. The latter was led by Salah Jadid. In 1966, tensions grew stronger, and Jadid’s group made Michel Aflaq, the leader of the civilian group, go into exile. In 1970, a two week party congress tried to solve a conflict between Jadid and Hafez al-Assad, but did not succeed. Soon afterwards, Assad had Jadid removed from his position and put in jail. Following this, Assad exerted more and more control over the party. At certain periods there was much dissent with his political line, but by 1979 Assad had removed his opponents from any important positions.
In Iraq, in July 1968, a bloodless coup brought to power the Ba'athist general Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Wranglings within the party continued, and the government periodically purged its dissident members. Emerging as a party strongman, Saddam Hussein eventually used his growing power to push al-Bakr aside in 1979 and ruled Iraq until 2003. Although almost all the Ba'thist leadership had no military background, under Hussein the party changed dramatically and became heavily militarized, with its leading members frequently appearing in uniform.
In June 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq banned the Ba'ath party. Some criticize the additional step the CPA took — of banning all members of the top four tiers of the Ba'ath Party from the new government, as well as from public schools and colleges — as blocking too many experienced people from participation in the new government. Thousands were removed from their positions, including doctors, professors, school teachers, bureaucrats and more. Many teachers lost their jobs, causing protests and demonstrations at schools and universities. Under the previous rule of the Ba'ath party, one could not reach high positions in the government or in the schools without becoming a party member. In fact, party membership was a prerequisite for university admission. In other words, while many Ba'athists joined for ideological reasons, many more were members because it was a way to better their options. After much pressure by the US, the policy of deba'athification was addressed by the Iraqi government in January, 2008 in the highly controversial "Accountability and Justice Act" which was supposed to ease the policy, but which many feared would actually lead to further dismissals.
The Arabic word Baʿath means "renaissance" or "resurrection" as in the party’s founder Michel Aflaq’s published works "On The Way Of Resurrection". Ba'athist beliefs combine Arab Socialism, nationalism, and Pan-Arabism
Inspired by the French Jacobin political doctrine linking national unity and social equity, the motto of the Party is "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" (in Arabic wahda, hurriya, ishtirakiya). Unity refers to Arab unity, freedom emphasizes freedom from foreign control and interference in particular, and socialism refers to what has been termed Arab Socialism rather than to Marxism.
The Ba'ath party and the Arabian national movement have been influenced by 19th century mainland European thinkers, notably conservative German philosophers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte of the Königsberg University Kantian school and center-left French “Positivists” such as Auguste Comte and professor Ernest Renan of the Collège de France in Paris. Tellingly, Baath party co-founders Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar both studied at the Sorbonne in the early 1930s, at a time when center-left Positivism was still the dominant ideology amongst France’s academic elite.
The “Kulturnation” concept of Johann Gottfried Herder and the Grimm Brothers had a certain impact. Kulturnation defines a nationality more by a common cultural tradition and popular folklore than by national, political or religious boundaries and was considered by some as being more suitable for the German, Arab or Ottoman and Turkic countries.
Germany was seen as an anti-colonial power and friend of the Arab world; cultural and economic exchange and infrastructure projects as the Baghdad Railway supported that impression. One of the early Arab nationalist thinkers Sati' al-Husri was influenced by Fichte, a German philosopher and Nazi precursor, famous for his nation state socialism economic concepts, his anti-semitic stance and his important influence on the German unification movement.
The Ba'ath party also had a significant number of Christian Arabs among its founding members. For them, most prominently Michel Aflaq, a resolutely nationalist and secular political framework was a suitable way to evade faith-based minority status and to get full acknowledgement as citizens. Also, during General Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's short-lived anti-British military coup in 1941, Iraq-based Arab nationalists (Sunni Muslims as well as Chaldean Christians) asked the Nazi German government to support them against British colonial rule.
After 1948, the traditional Arab Muslim elite failed to prevent the foundation of Israel and was not able to provide welfare and administrative standards comparable to the western world. The secular and highly disciplined Ba'ath movement was seen as less corrupt and better organized. In multi-ethnic, multi-faith and highly divergent countries like Iraq and Syria, the Ba'ath concept allowed non-Muslims, as well as secular-minded Sunni and Shia Muslims to work under one common roof. The mentioning of a socialist stance allowed as well for a closer cooperation with the Soviet Union after 1945. Starting with the 1960s, the GDA had a stronger military involvement in Syria as well.
Although Aflaq gave "unity" the priority among the party's objectives, he also stressed democracy and liberties.
The Ba'ath Party was created as a cell-based organization, with an emphasis on withstanding government repression and infiltration. Hierarchical lines of command ran from top to bottom, and members were forbidden to initiate contacts between groups on the same level of organization. All contacts had to pass through a higher command level. This made the party somewhat unwieldy, but helped prevent the formation of factions and cordoned off members from each other, making the party very difficult to infiltrate, as even members would not know the identity of many other Ba'athists. As the United States and its allies discovered in Iraq in 2003, the cell structure also made the Party highly resilient as an armed resistance organization.
A peculiarity stemming from its Arab unity ideology is the fact that the Ba'ath Party has always been intended to operate on a pan-Arab level, joined together by a supreme National Command, which was to serve as a party leadership for branches throughout the Arab world.
Ba‘ath Socialist Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Baath Socialist Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Ba‘th Socialist Party (Ba'ath Socialist Party) (Baath Socialist Party) (Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party). Arab political party and movement in Southwest Asia, principally in Syria and Iraq.
The Ba'th Socialist Party was founded in Damascus in the 1940s by Michel Aflaq, a Syrian intellectual, as the original secular Arab nationalist movement, to unify all Arab countries in one state and to combat Western colonial rule that dominated the Arab region at that time. In Arabic, "baʿath" means "renaissance" or "resurrection." It functioned as a pan-Arab party with branches in different Arab countries, but was strongest in Syria and Iraq, coming to power in both countries in 1963. In 1966 a coup d'état by the military against the historical leadership of Michel Aflaq and Salah Bitar led the Syrian and Iraqi parties to split into rival organizations – the Qotri (or Regionalist) Syria-based party being aligned with the Soviet Union while the Qawmi (or Nationalist) Iraq-based party adopted a generally more centrist stance. Both Ba'ath parties retained the same name and maintain parallel structures in the Arab world.
The Ba'ath Party came to power in Syria on March 8, 1963 and has held a monopoly on political power since. Later that same year, the Ba'athists gained control of Iraq and ran the country on two separate occasions, briefly in 1963 and then for a longer period lasting from July 1968 until 2003. After the de facto deposition of President Saddam Hussein’s Ba'athist regime in the course of the 2003 Iraq War, the Coalition Provisional Authority banned the Iraqi Ba'ath Party in May 2003.
In the 1930s, Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din Bitar and Zaki Arsuzi travelled around Syria to promote an ideology of Arab nationalism. In 1943, the Arab Ba‘th Party was formed in Damascus by Aflaq and Bitar. In 1946, after the French left Syria, Aflaq and Bitar managed to get a license for their political group. Later they merged it with the political movement led by Arsuzi. On April 7, 1947, at the first party congress in Damascus, the party was officially founded, a constitution was approved and an executive committee was formed. In March 1954, the Arab Ba‘th Socialist Party was formed after a merger with the Arab Socialist Party. In 1966, a split in the Syrian party, led many of its members to establish a second Ba‘th Party in Beirut, Lebanon. In July 1968, a breakaway branch of the Ba‘th Party moved to Baghdad, following the coup in Iraq.
The basic principles of the Ba‘th Party were utility and freedom inside an Arab nation. The party also based itself on the belief that Arabs had a special mission to end Western colonialism. The Ba‘th Party was nationalistic, populistic, socialistic and revolutionary. Its socialism was not communism but did involve land reform, public ownership of natural resources, transport, large-scale industry and financial institutions. It did allow workers and peasants to form trade unions, and proposed that workers should be allowed into the management of the companies for which they worked. Nevertheless, the socialism of the Ba‘th party did allow some private ownership. Central to their ideology was also their tendency to ignore class divisions, as well as divisions between different religious groups. This allowed many from minority groups to gain political power by joining the Ba‘th Party. A key element of the original program of the Ba‘th Party was freedom of speech and association. However, the Ba'th governments of Syria and Iraq did not adopt this element.
The Ba‘th Party in Iraq was established in secret in 1950. Beginning in 1955, it started to cooperate with other nationalistic groups. However, it was not until February 1963 that the Ba‘th Party became strong enough to take control over Iraq. This seizure only lasted for a short period, until November, when a leader outside the Ba‘th Party became prime minister. Thanks to an initial cooperation with military officers, the Ba‘th Party was able to take full control over Iraq in 1968. This became the beginning of a process where the party and the state in many important areas would become the same. This applied to the government, the armed forces, the police and the intelligence agency. In the 1980s, the socialistic aspect of the Ba‘th Party was filtered out, and much encouragement was given to the private sector. Also, Arab nationalism was replaced with Iraqi nationalism.
The Ba‘th Party in Jordan was founded in 1948, originating from the Arab Ba‘th Party. It was with the annexation of the West Bank (with its large Palestinian population) that the Ba‘th Party really grew strong in the country’s nationalist-leftist alliance. This alliance became the strongest in the parliament after the elections of 1956. The members of the Jordanian Ba‘th Party were the educated in the cities, and they had strong support from students. In the period 1958-1961, the Ba‘th Party was active in working against the monarchy of Jordan, and did this with economical aid from Syria. When the West Bank was occupied by Israel in 1967, the Ba‘th Party of Jordan was weakened, and never fully recovered.
The Arab Ba‘th Party of Lebanon was established in 1948, but political freedom was limited the year after, when international parties were banned. This situation lasted until 1958. Lebanon was used for the Ba‘th Party’s congresses in 1959 and 1968. During the Lebanese Civil War of 1975, the Ba‘th Party could establish their own militia with economical support from Syria. The Ba‘th Party joined a unitary group of several parties in 1987. This group later became central in forming a unitary government in Lebanon, where central leaders from the Ba‘th Party were given posts.
The branch of the Ba‘th Party of Yemen was established around 1955, but started to become an important group after the end of the Yemeni civil war in 1970. The party never entered any office and was, in 1976, merged with other parties to form the National Democratic Front.
The local branch of the Ba‘th Party of Syria is a direct continuation of the original movement, which was first established in Syria. The party was suppressed from 1958 until 1961, during the union between Syria and Egypt (the union known as the United Arab Republic). In 1963, the Ba‘th Party seized power in Syria. However, the same year the party also split into two factions, an anti-Marxist civilian part, and a military part. The latter was led by Salah Jadid. In 1966, tensions grew stronger, and Jadid’s group made Michel Aflaq, the leader of the civilian group, go into exile. In 1970, a two week party congress tried to solve a conflict between Jadid and Hafez al-Assad, but did not succeed. Soon afterwards, Assad had Jadid removed from his position and put in jail. Following this, Assad exerted more and more control over the party. At certain periods there was much dissent with his political line, but by 1979 Assad had removed his opponents from any important positions.
In Iraq, in July 1968, a bloodless coup brought to power the Ba'athist general Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr. Wranglings within the party continued, and the government periodically purged its dissident members. Emerging as a party strongman, Saddam Hussein eventually used his growing power to push al-Bakr aside in 1979 and ruled Iraq until 2003. Although almost all the Ba'thist leadership had no military background, under Hussein the party changed dramatically and became heavily militarized, with its leading members frequently appearing in uniform.
In June 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq banned the Ba'ath party. Some criticize the additional step the CPA took — of banning all members of the top four tiers of the Ba'ath Party from the new government, as well as from public schools and colleges — as blocking too many experienced people from participation in the new government. Thousands were removed from their positions, including doctors, professors, school teachers, bureaucrats and more. Many teachers lost their jobs, causing protests and demonstrations at schools and universities. Under the previous rule of the Ba'ath party, one could not reach high positions in the government or in the schools without becoming a party member. In fact, party membership was a prerequisite for university admission. In other words, while many Ba'athists joined for ideological reasons, many more were members because it was a way to better their options. After much pressure by the US, the policy of deba'athification was addressed by the Iraqi government in January, 2008 in the highly controversial "Accountability and Justice Act" which was supposed to ease the policy, but which many feared would actually lead to further dismissals.
The Arabic word Baʿath means "renaissance" or "resurrection" as in the party’s founder Michel Aflaq’s published works "On The Way Of Resurrection". Ba'athist beliefs combine Arab Socialism, nationalism, and Pan-Arabism
Inspired by the French Jacobin political doctrine linking national unity and social equity, the motto of the Party is "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" (in Arabic wahda, hurriya, ishtirakiya). Unity refers to Arab unity, freedom emphasizes freedom from foreign control and interference in particular, and socialism refers to what has been termed Arab Socialism rather than to Marxism.
The Ba'ath party and the Arabian national movement have been influenced by 19th century mainland European thinkers, notably conservative German philosophers such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte of the Königsberg University Kantian school and center-left French “Positivists” such as Auguste Comte and professor Ernest Renan of the Collège de France in Paris. Tellingly, Baath party co-founders Michel Aflaq and Salah al-Bitar both studied at the Sorbonne in the early 1930s, at a time when center-left Positivism was still the dominant ideology amongst France’s academic elite.
The “Kulturnation” concept of Johann Gottfried Herder and the Grimm Brothers had a certain impact. Kulturnation defines a nationality more by a common cultural tradition and popular folklore than by national, political or religious boundaries and was considered by some as being more suitable for the German, Arab or Ottoman and Turkic countries.
Germany was seen as an anti-colonial power and friend of the Arab world; cultural and economic exchange and infrastructure projects as the Baghdad Railway supported that impression. One of the early Arab nationalist thinkers Sati' al-Husri was influenced by Fichte, a German philosopher and Nazi precursor, famous for his nation state socialism economic concepts, his anti-semitic stance and his important influence on the German unification movement.
The Ba'ath party also had a significant number of Christian Arabs among its founding members. For them, most prominently Michel Aflaq, a resolutely nationalist and secular political framework was a suitable way to evade faith-based minority status and to get full acknowledgement as citizens. Also, during General Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's short-lived anti-British military coup in 1941, Iraq-based Arab nationalists (Sunni Muslims as well as Chaldean Christians) asked the Nazi German government to support them against British colonial rule.
After 1948, the traditional Arab Muslim elite failed to prevent the foundation of Israel and was not able to provide welfare and administrative standards comparable to the western world. The secular and highly disciplined Ba'ath movement was seen as less corrupt and better organized. In multi-ethnic, multi-faith and highly divergent countries like Iraq and Syria, the Ba'ath concept allowed non-Muslims, as well as secular-minded Sunni and Shia Muslims to work under one common roof. The mentioning of a socialist stance allowed as well for a closer cooperation with the Soviet Union after 1945. Starting with the 1960s, the GDA had a stronger military involvement in Syria as well.
Although Aflaq gave "unity" the priority among the party's objectives, he also stressed democracy and liberties.
The Ba'ath Party was created as a cell-based organization, with an emphasis on withstanding government repression and infiltration. Hierarchical lines of command ran from top to bottom, and members were forbidden to initiate contacts between groups on the same level of organization. All contacts had to pass through a higher command level. This made the party somewhat unwieldy, but helped prevent the formation of factions and cordoned off members from each other, making the party very difficult to infiltrate, as even members would not know the identity of many other Ba'athists. As the United States and its allies discovered in Iraq in 2003, the cell structure also made the Party highly resilient as an armed resistance organization.
A peculiarity stemming from its Arab unity ideology is the fact that the Ba'ath Party has always been intended to operate on a pan-Arab level, joined together by a supreme National Command, which was to serve as a party leadership for branches throughout the Arab world.
Ba‘ath Socialist Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Baath Socialist Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party see Ba‘th Socialist Party
Batiniyya
Batiniyya. Name given (a) to the Isma‘ilis in medieval times, referring to their emphasis on the “inner” meaning (in Arabic, "batin") of the literal wording of sacred texts and (b) to anyone accused of rejecting the literal meaning of such texts in favor of the “inner” meaning.
Batiniyya is a pejorative term to refer to those groups, such as Alevism, Ismailism, and often Sufism which distinguish between an inner, esoteric level of meaning (Batini) in the Qur'an, in addition to the outer, exoteric level of meaning Zahiri. Batini ta’wil is the name given to the exegesis (ta'wil) of the esoteric knowledge which rests with the Imam, or with the Shaykh/Pir in Sufism.
Batiniyya. Name given (a) to the Isma‘ilis in medieval times, referring to their emphasis on the “inner” meaning (in Arabic, "batin") of the literal wording of sacred texts and (b) to anyone accused of rejecting the literal meaning of such texts in favor of the “inner” meaning.
Batiniyya is a pejorative term to refer to those groups, such as Alevism, Ismailism, and often Sufism which distinguish between an inner, esoteric level of meaning (Batini) in the Qur'an, in addition to the outer, exoteric level of meaning Zahiri. Batini ta’wil is the name given to the exegesis (ta'wil) of the esoteric knowledge which rests with the Imam, or with the Shaykh/Pir in Sufism.
Batonun
Batonun (Batonu) (Botombu) (Bariba). Early European explorers called the people who inhabit the north central-northeastern forest and savanna lands of the People’s Republic of Benin, Bariba. They call themselves Batonu, Botombu, or Batonun. The word “Bariba” is most frequently used by foreigners.
Legend proposes that the Batonun are descendants of Kisra, a seventh century Persian warrior whose exploits in the Nile Valley were terminated by the Prophet Muhammad. Kisra refused to profess his faith in Islam and rode west to found a new kingdom in Busa, which is today a Batonun city in west central Nigeria. His military strength was seasoned with political expertise, and he acquired the homage, fealty -- and daughters -- of local land chiefs in exchange for his administrative, judicial and military talents.
Glimpses of Batonun are found in the journals of travelers, traders and would be conquerors as early as the fifteenth century, but their ethnological origin remains elusive. Historians agree that they are a Sudanic people whose language stems from Voltaic and Manding substocks and whose culture emerged from a confluence of autochthonous (native or indigenous) as well as immigrant populations. Their political history shows the alliance of powerful landed families and clans with a group of equally powerful roving horsemen, the gradual extension of control over weaker agrarian and pastoral populations and, finally, the evolution of a social hierarchy responsive to the economic and military needs of the aristocratic group.
The Batonun (Bariba) are the fourth largest ethnic group in Benin and comprise approximately one-twelfth of the population. The Batonun are concentrated primarily in the north-east of the country, especially around the city of Nikki, which is considered the Batonun capital. They originally migrated from the Kwara state Nigeria and were renowned horsemen. One of their noted festivals is the annual Gani festival which is a showcase for the horseriding that is very much a part of, and is engrained in, the Batonun culture.
The Batonun tribe holds an important place in the history of the country. During the late 19th century, Batonun (Bariba) was known to constitute independent states and dominate with kingdoms in cities like Nikki and Kandi in the northeast of the country.
The Batonun society consists of a higher-ranking official as chief of the town and subordinate chiefs. Social status and titles are inherited in families, but the status of a person may be given by the families’ nature of work. Notable subdivisions of the Bariba include the ruling Wasangari nobles, Baatombu commoners, slaves of varying origin, Dendi merchants, Fulbe herders, and other divisional ethnic groups.
Agriculture is the dominant occuption for the Batonun. They grow corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil, peanuts and some poultry and livestock. Religion plays an important part in Batonun tribes and they are primarily Islamic. The religion was introduced to the Batonun people by Dendi traders who were preaching in the north. However, a number of Batonun communities have their own indigenous beliefs.
Bariba see Batonun
Batonu see Batonun
Botombu see Batonun
Batonun (Batonu) (Botombu) (Bariba). Early European explorers called the people who inhabit the north central-northeastern forest and savanna lands of the People’s Republic of Benin, Bariba. They call themselves Batonu, Botombu, or Batonun. The word “Bariba” is most frequently used by foreigners.
Legend proposes that the Batonun are descendants of Kisra, a seventh century Persian warrior whose exploits in the Nile Valley were terminated by the Prophet Muhammad. Kisra refused to profess his faith in Islam and rode west to found a new kingdom in Busa, which is today a Batonun city in west central Nigeria. His military strength was seasoned with political expertise, and he acquired the homage, fealty -- and daughters -- of local land chiefs in exchange for his administrative, judicial and military talents.
Glimpses of Batonun are found in the journals of travelers, traders and would be conquerors as early as the fifteenth century, but their ethnological origin remains elusive. Historians agree that they are a Sudanic people whose language stems from Voltaic and Manding substocks and whose culture emerged from a confluence of autochthonous (native or indigenous) as well as immigrant populations. Their political history shows the alliance of powerful landed families and clans with a group of equally powerful roving horsemen, the gradual extension of control over weaker agrarian and pastoral populations and, finally, the evolution of a social hierarchy responsive to the economic and military needs of the aristocratic group.
The Batonun (Bariba) are the fourth largest ethnic group in Benin and comprise approximately one-twelfth of the population. The Batonun are concentrated primarily in the north-east of the country, especially around the city of Nikki, which is considered the Batonun capital. They originally migrated from the Kwara state Nigeria and were renowned horsemen. One of their noted festivals is the annual Gani festival which is a showcase for the horseriding that is very much a part of, and is engrained in, the Batonun culture.
The Batonun tribe holds an important place in the history of the country. During the late 19th century, Batonun (Bariba) was known to constitute independent states and dominate with kingdoms in cities like Nikki and Kandi in the northeast of the country.
The Batonun society consists of a higher-ranking official as chief of the town and subordinate chiefs. Social status and titles are inherited in families, but the status of a person may be given by the families’ nature of work. Notable subdivisions of the Bariba include the ruling Wasangari nobles, Baatombu commoners, slaves of varying origin, Dendi merchants, Fulbe herders, and other divisional ethnic groups.
Agriculture is the dominant occuption for the Batonun. They grow corn, sorghum, rice, cotton, cassava (tapioca), yams, beans, palm oil, peanuts and some poultry and livestock. Religion plays an important part in Batonun tribes and they are primarily Islamic. The religion was introduced to the Batonun people by Dendi traders who were preaching in the north. However, a number of Batonun communities have their own indigenous beliefs.
Bariba see Batonun
Batonu see Batonun
Botombu see Batonun
Battani
Battani (Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani) (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Battani (al-Battani) (Albategnius) (Albatenius) (c.858-929). Astronomer who examined and corrected, through application of trigonometry, astronomical theories first put forward by the second century Alexandrian Ptolemy.
Born near Haran in north-central Syria in 858, the young Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani al-Sabi’ moved with his and several other families to Rakka on the Euphrates River midway on the caravan route between Aleppo and the Upper Mesopotamian city of Mosul. This migration may be explained in part by the nisba, or nickname, retained by the future Islamic astronomer. “Al-Sabi” may refer to his family’s earlier adherence to the so-called Sabian sect, which was reputed to follow a mixture of Christian and Islamic principles. Whatever the family’s original religious orientation, Abu ‘Abd Allah’s later fame was won under the banner of Islam, the faith he ultimately followed. After his move to Rakka as a youth, al-Battani spent the remainder of his life in the same geographical and cultural environment.
No specific information is available on al-Battani’s formal education. It is not known, for example, whether his original training was obtained in a fully secular “scientific” or in a religious setting. It was as a youth in Rakka, however, that al-Battani decided to devote himself to careful study of ancient texts, especially those of Ptolemy, which provided him with the knowledge needed to carry out the series of astronomical observations which would make him famous, not only in the Islamic world but in the medieval European West as well.
Al-Battani, known to the West as Albatenius, contributed greatly to advances in the field of trignometry. To carry out key calculations, he relied on algebraic rather than geometric methods. Like his somewhat lesser known follower Abul Wefa (940-998), al-Battani focused much of his attention on the theories of the second century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. Several Islamic scholars before him had been intrigued by Ptolemy’s approach to the phenomenon of the oscillatory motion of the equinoxes. Al-Battani’s contemporary Thabit ibn Qurrah tried to account for this by supplementing Ptolemy’s theory, merely adding a ninth sphere to the Greek scientist’s assumption of eight spheres. Al-Battani, however, remained doubtful. He was convinced that trigonometry should be developed more effectively for the purpose of achieving greater precision in already known methods of making these and other astronomical calculations. This goal led him to explore and expand the relevance of sines. His use of the Indian sines, or half chords, enabled him to criticize Ptolemy’s conclusions in several areas.
For example, Ptolemy had insisted that the solar apogee was a fully immobile phenomenon. Al-Battani, however, was able to observe that in the seven centuries since Ptolemy’s time there had been a notable increase in the sun’s apogee. His further observations suggested that the apogee was affected by the precession of the equinoxes. To explore this theory required a substantial revision of methods of proposing equations to represent the passage of time in accurate astronomical terms. Room had to be made for accommodating slow secular variations. As part of this process, al-Battani set out to correct Ptolemy’s theory of the precession of the equinoxes.
The phenomenon of eclipses was also a field incompletely pioneered by Ptolemy. Interest in this subject motivated al-Battani to make a variety of studies that aided subsequent astronomers in their calculations to determine the time of the visibility of the new moon. His treatment of the phenomena of lunar and solar eclipses provided the basic information that would be used by European astronomers as late as the eighteenth century.
In a somewhat more practical vein easily appreciated by the layman, al-Battani’s observations allowed him to determine the length of the tropic year and, significantly, the precise duration of the four seasons of the year.
One of the most original areas of al-Battani’s work involved the use of horizontal and vertical sundials. Through their use, he was able to denote the characteristics of a so-called “horizontal shadow” (umbra extensa). These he used to reveal cotangents, for which he prepared the first known systematic tables. Similarly, his study of “vertical shadows” (umbra versa) provided pioneer data for calculating tangents.
Most of al-Battani’s important findings in the field of astronomy were contained in his major work, Kitab al-zij (De scientia stellarum or De motu stellarum -- c.900-901). As the Latin titles suggest, this magnum opus was first circulated widely among scholars of the early period of the European Renaissance.
Unfortunately, modern scholars’ familiarity with other important writings by al-Battani is limited to what can be gleaned from references to them in other Islamic authors’ works. A “Book of the Science of Ascensions of the Signs of the Zodiac,” a commentary on Ptolemy’s Apotelesmatika tetrabiblos, and a third work on trigonometry, for example, are all lost in their original versions.
The scholarly career of al-Battani provides an example of the diversity of pre-Islamic sources that contributed to the rise of Islamic science. It also illustrates the importance of such scientists’ work in saving traces of pre-Islamic contributions to knowledge during the Dark Ages of European history, when much of the classical heritage of Western civilization was lost. To speak of al-Battani’s role as that of an interim transmitter of knowledge, however, would be to miss the essential importance of scientific endeavors in his era. It is clear, for example, that al-Battani was dissatisified with interpretations offered by his classical and Indian forerunners. By the time his work of reinterpretation was translated for transmission to the European world, it reflected numerous original contributions. Thus, in regard to the re-emergence of Western science during the classical revival period of the Renaissance, it can be said that many of the principles upon which it was based came from Islamic sources.
The fact that such advances in several fields of “pure” science were actively sponsored by the early Islamic caliphs -- themselves assumed to be primary guardians of the religious interests of their realm -- is of major significance. In al-Battani’s age, knowledge was still recognized as something necessarily derived from syncretic sources. Tolerance for the exploration of different secular scientific traditions did not, however, survive too many successive generations. Narrowness of views in the eastern Islamic world a mere century and a half after al-Battani’s contributions would make the role of Western translators of Arabic scientific works just as vital to the conservation of cumulative knowledge in world culture as the work of Islamic translators and commentators had been after the end of the classical era. Outstanding figures such as al-Battani, therefore, definitely span world civilizations and reflect values that are universal. These are easily recognized as such beyond the borders of their chronological time or geographic zone.
Al-Battani was the leading Arab astronomer and mathematician of his time. His astronomical observations at ar-Raqqah, Syria, extended for a period of more than forty years.
Al-Battani has been recognized as the greatest astronomer of his time and one of the greatest of the Middle Ages. Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sin'an al-Battani was born around 858 in or near Battan, a state of Harran. He belonged to the princely Sa’bi family of Harran and he was a Muslim. Al-Battani was first educated by his father Jabir ibn Sin’an al-Battani, who was also a well-known scientist. He then moved to Raqqa, situated on the bank of the Euphrates, where he received advanced education in sciences. At the end of the ninth century, he migrated to Samarra, where he worked until his death in 929.
Al-Battani made his observations and studies in al-Raqqah from 877 to 929 and made many important discoveries in astronomy. He made several corrections to Ptolemy’s work and rectified the calculations for the orbits of the moon and certain planets. He proved the possibility of annular eclipses of the sun and determined with greater accuracy the obliquity of the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the ecliptic, the length of the tropical year and the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the sun. Al-Battani’s remarkably accurate calculation of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds is very close to the latest estimates. He found that the longitude of the Sun’s apogee had increased by sixteen degrees since Ptolemy. If inferred the important discovery of the motion of solar apsides and of a slow variation in the equation of time. He did not believe in the trepidation of the equinoxes, although Copernicus, several centuries later, held that erroneous notion.
In a sharp contrast to Ptolemy, al-Battani proved the variation of the apparent angular diameter of the sun and the possibility of annular eclipses. He revised orbits of the Moon and the planets and proposed a new and very ingenious theory to determine the conditions of visibility of the new moon. Eighteenth century scientists used al-Battani’s excellent observations of the lunar and solar eclipses to determine the acceleration of motion of the moon. He determine many astronomical coefficients with great accuracy. Al-Battani also provided very ingenious solutions for some problems of spherical trigonometry using the methods of orthographic projection. It was from a perusal of al-Battani’s work on apparent motion of fixed stars that Hevilius discovered the circular variation of the moon.
Al-Battani’s greatest fame came in mathematics with the use of trigonometric ratios as we used them today. He was the first to replace the use of Greek chords by Sines, with a clear understanding of their superiority. He also developed the concept of cotangent and furnished their tables in degrees.
Al-Battani wrote many books on astronomy and trigonometry. His most famous book was an astronomical treatise with tables, which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and is known by the title De Scienta Stellarum - De Numeris Stellarum et motibus. The third chapter of al-Battani’s book on astronomy is devoted to trigonometry. His treatise on astronomy was extremely influential in Europe until the Renaissance and was translated in several languages.
The work of such Muslim scholars as al-Battani paved the way for the great advances in science that we enjoy today. It is no overstatement to say that in the domain of trigonometry the theory of sine, cosine and tangent is directly attributable to the mathematical genius of al-Battani. Al-Battani’s original discoveries both in astronomy and trigonometry were of great consequence to the development of the sciences, particularly during the Renaissance. Copernicus in his trailblazing (and revolutionary) book De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium pays tribute to al-Battani and acknowledges his indebtedness to al-Battani.
Indeed, from a more global perspective, the brilliant advances of not only Copernicus, but also Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton cannot be, and should not be, recalled without paying tribute to the fundamental and preparatory labor of such Arab mathematicians as al-Khwarizmi, Thabit ibn Qurrah, al-Biruni, Ulugh Beg and al-Battani.
In small recognition of al-Battani’s contributions to the advancement of mankind, one of the surface features of the moon (a plain eighty miles in diameter) was named after al- Battani, or as he is known in the West -- Albategnius.
Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani see Battani
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Battani see Battani
Albategnius see Battani
Albatenius see Battani
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani al-Sabi’ see Battani
Battani (Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani) (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Battani (al-Battani) (Albategnius) (Albatenius) (c.858-929). Astronomer who examined and corrected, through application of trigonometry, astronomical theories first put forward by the second century Alexandrian Ptolemy.
Born near Haran in north-central Syria in 858, the young Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani al-Sabi’ moved with his and several other families to Rakka on the Euphrates River midway on the caravan route between Aleppo and the Upper Mesopotamian city of Mosul. This migration may be explained in part by the nisba, or nickname, retained by the future Islamic astronomer. “Al-Sabi” may refer to his family’s earlier adherence to the so-called Sabian sect, which was reputed to follow a mixture of Christian and Islamic principles. Whatever the family’s original religious orientation, Abu ‘Abd Allah’s later fame was won under the banner of Islam, the faith he ultimately followed. After his move to Rakka as a youth, al-Battani spent the remainder of his life in the same geographical and cultural environment.
No specific information is available on al-Battani’s formal education. It is not known, for example, whether his original training was obtained in a fully secular “scientific” or in a religious setting. It was as a youth in Rakka, however, that al-Battani decided to devote himself to careful study of ancient texts, especially those of Ptolemy, which provided him with the knowledge needed to carry out the series of astronomical observations which would make him famous, not only in the Islamic world but in the medieval European West as well.
Al-Battani, known to the West as Albatenius, contributed greatly to advances in the field of trignometry. To carry out key calculations, he relied on algebraic rather than geometric methods. Like his somewhat lesser known follower Abul Wefa (940-998), al-Battani focused much of his attention on the theories of the second century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. Several Islamic scholars before him had been intrigued by Ptolemy’s approach to the phenomenon of the oscillatory motion of the equinoxes. Al-Battani’s contemporary Thabit ibn Qurrah tried to account for this by supplementing Ptolemy’s theory, merely adding a ninth sphere to the Greek scientist’s assumption of eight spheres. Al-Battani, however, remained doubtful. He was convinced that trigonometry should be developed more effectively for the purpose of achieving greater precision in already known methods of making these and other astronomical calculations. This goal led him to explore and expand the relevance of sines. His use of the Indian sines, or half chords, enabled him to criticize Ptolemy’s conclusions in several areas.
For example, Ptolemy had insisted that the solar apogee was a fully immobile phenomenon. Al-Battani, however, was able to observe that in the seven centuries since Ptolemy’s time there had been a notable increase in the sun’s apogee. His further observations suggested that the apogee was affected by the precession of the equinoxes. To explore this theory required a substantial revision of methods of proposing equations to represent the passage of time in accurate astronomical terms. Room had to be made for accommodating slow secular variations. As part of this process, al-Battani set out to correct Ptolemy’s theory of the precession of the equinoxes.
The phenomenon of eclipses was also a field incompletely pioneered by Ptolemy. Interest in this subject motivated al-Battani to make a variety of studies that aided subsequent astronomers in their calculations to determine the time of the visibility of the new moon. His treatment of the phenomena of lunar and solar eclipses provided the basic information that would be used by European astronomers as late as the eighteenth century.
In a somewhat more practical vein easily appreciated by the layman, al-Battani’s observations allowed him to determine the length of the tropic year and, significantly, the precise duration of the four seasons of the year.
One of the most original areas of al-Battani’s work involved the use of horizontal and vertical sundials. Through their use, he was able to denote the characteristics of a so-called “horizontal shadow” (umbra extensa). These he used to reveal cotangents, for which he prepared the first known systematic tables. Similarly, his study of “vertical shadows” (umbra versa) provided pioneer data for calculating tangents.
Most of al-Battani’s important findings in the field of astronomy were contained in his major work, Kitab al-zij (De scientia stellarum or De motu stellarum -- c.900-901). As the Latin titles suggest, this magnum opus was first circulated widely among scholars of the early period of the European Renaissance.
Unfortunately, modern scholars’ familiarity with other important writings by al-Battani is limited to what can be gleaned from references to them in other Islamic authors’ works. A “Book of the Science of Ascensions of the Signs of the Zodiac,” a commentary on Ptolemy’s Apotelesmatika tetrabiblos, and a third work on trigonometry, for example, are all lost in their original versions.
The scholarly career of al-Battani provides an example of the diversity of pre-Islamic sources that contributed to the rise of Islamic science. It also illustrates the importance of such scientists’ work in saving traces of pre-Islamic contributions to knowledge during the Dark Ages of European history, when much of the classical heritage of Western civilization was lost. To speak of al-Battani’s role as that of an interim transmitter of knowledge, however, would be to miss the essential importance of scientific endeavors in his era. It is clear, for example, that al-Battani was dissatisified with interpretations offered by his classical and Indian forerunners. By the time his work of reinterpretation was translated for transmission to the European world, it reflected numerous original contributions. Thus, in regard to the re-emergence of Western science during the classical revival period of the Renaissance, it can be said that many of the principles upon which it was based came from Islamic sources.
The fact that such advances in several fields of “pure” science were actively sponsored by the early Islamic caliphs -- themselves assumed to be primary guardians of the religious interests of their realm -- is of major significance. In al-Battani’s age, knowledge was still recognized as something necessarily derived from syncretic sources. Tolerance for the exploration of different secular scientific traditions did not, however, survive too many successive generations. Narrowness of views in the eastern Islamic world a mere century and a half after al-Battani’s contributions would make the role of Western translators of Arabic scientific works just as vital to the conservation of cumulative knowledge in world culture as the work of Islamic translators and commentators had been after the end of the classical era. Outstanding figures such as al-Battani, therefore, definitely span world civilizations and reflect values that are universal. These are easily recognized as such beyond the borders of their chronological time or geographic zone.
Al-Battani was the leading Arab astronomer and mathematician of his time. His astronomical observations at ar-Raqqah, Syria, extended for a period of more than forty years.
Al-Battani has been recognized as the greatest astronomer of his time and one of the greatest of the Middle Ages. Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sin'an al-Battani was born around 858 in or near Battan, a state of Harran. He belonged to the princely Sa’bi family of Harran and he was a Muslim. Al-Battani was first educated by his father Jabir ibn Sin’an al-Battani, who was also a well-known scientist. He then moved to Raqqa, situated on the bank of the Euphrates, where he received advanced education in sciences. At the end of the ninth century, he migrated to Samarra, where he worked until his death in 929.
Al-Battani made his observations and studies in al-Raqqah from 877 to 929 and made many important discoveries in astronomy. He made several corrections to Ptolemy’s work and rectified the calculations for the orbits of the moon and certain planets. He proved the possibility of annular eclipses of the sun and determined with greater accuracy the obliquity of the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the ecliptic, the length of the tropical year and the seasons and the true and mean orbit of the sun. Al-Battani’s remarkably accurate calculation of the solar year as 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds is very close to the latest estimates. He found that the longitude of the Sun’s apogee had increased by sixteen degrees since Ptolemy. If inferred the important discovery of the motion of solar apsides and of a slow variation in the equation of time. He did not believe in the trepidation of the equinoxes, although Copernicus, several centuries later, held that erroneous notion.
In a sharp contrast to Ptolemy, al-Battani proved the variation of the apparent angular diameter of the sun and the possibility of annular eclipses. He revised orbits of the Moon and the planets and proposed a new and very ingenious theory to determine the conditions of visibility of the new moon. Eighteenth century scientists used al-Battani’s excellent observations of the lunar and solar eclipses to determine the acceleration of motion of the moon. He determine many astronomical coefficients with great accuracy. Al-Battani also provided very ingenious solutions for some problems of spherical trigonometry using the methods of orthographic projection. It was from a perusal of al-Battani’s work on apparent motion of fixed stars that Hevilius discovered the circular variation of the moon.
Al-Battani’s greatest fame came in mathematics with the use of trigonometric ratios as we used them today. He was the first to replace the use of Greek chords by Sines, with a clear understanding of their superiority. He also developed the concept of cotangent and furnished their tables in degrees.
Al-Battani wrote many books on astronomy and trigonometry. His most famous book was an astronomical treatise with tables, which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and is known by the title De Scienta Stellarum - De Numeris Stellarum et motibus. The third chapter of al-Battani’s book on astronomy is devoted to trigonometry. His treatise on astronomy was extremely influential in Europe until the Renaissance and was translated in several languages.
The work of such Muslim scholars as al-Battani paved the way for the great advances in science that we enjoy today. It is no overstatement to say that in the domain of trigonometry the theory of sine, cosine and tangent is directly attributable to the mathematical genius of al-Battani. Al-Battani’s original discoveries both in astronomy and trigonometry were of great consequence to the development of the sciences, particularly during the Renaissance. Copernicus in his trailblazing (and revolutionary) book De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium pays tribute to al-Battani and acknowledges his indebtedness to al-Battani.
Indeed, from a more global perspective, the brilliant advances of not only Copernicus, but also Tycho Brahe, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton cannot be, and should not be, recalled without paying tribute to the fundamental and preparatory labor of such Arab mathematicians as al-Khwarizmi, Thabit ibn Qurrah, al-Biruni, Ulugh Beg and al-Battani.
In small recognition of al-Battani’s contributions to the advancement of mankind, one of the surface features of the moon (a plain eighty miles in diameter) was named after al- Battani, or as he is known in the West -- Albategnius.
Abu-Abdullah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani see Battani
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad al-Battani see Battani
Albategnius see Battani
Albatenius see Battani
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani al-Sabi’ see Battani
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