The Travels of Astronomical Tables within Medieval Islam: A Summary

This survey of the movements of astronomical tables within medieval Islam provides a backdrop for the remaining articles in this volume. We discuss the types of document that contained astronomical tables, and some of the analytical tools that have produced discoveries with respect to the transmission of tables from one author or subculture to another. We conclude with a summary of table transmission: from origins with the appropriation of traditions of astronomical tables taken from Greece and India, through the establishment of a Ptolemaic tradition in the 9th century and a uniquely Islamic expansion of methods and concepts starting in the 10th, to important sub-traditions in al- Andalus and the Maghrib.