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THE GRECO-SYRIAC AND ARABIC SOURCES OF BARHEBRAEUS MINERALOGY
19. Halo [lacuna]
(321
20. Rainbow 1V.i. stones 5560: minerals
2 1. Mock-sun ii. mountains [3,4]
22. Lance iii. uses of mountains
23. Thunder1 lightning iv. class. of minerals [5]
24. Thunderbolt etc. u. metals
25. Shooting stars vi. format. of metals [6]
26. Comets vii. other minerals [7]
27. Conflagration viii. on alchemy
28. Milky way ix. floods
29. Wid
30. Whirlwind
3 1. Directions of winds
32. Earthquakes
5. Conclusion
earthquakes
One striking feature which emerges from the study whose results are sumrnarised
above is the heavy reliance Barhebraeus makes on non-Christian authors. In his
discussion of mineralogy and meteorology he relies almost exclusively on three
sources, K. al-mabdhith al-mashriqiyyah of the Muslim Fakhr al-Din al-Rm-,
and the Syriac versions of the De mundo and Nicolaus' Compendium, which are
works of pagan Greek authors. Similarly in his discussion of geography, he
seems to rely mostly on the Muslim Biriini and the pagan Ptolemy. Among
Christian authors whom we might have expected Barhebraeus to use, Bar Kepha
is used in the section on geography, but I have so far found no positive trace of
Bar Kepha's work in the parts on mineralogy and meteorology and no trace, for
example, of Bar Shakko's works in any of the parts examined here.
Even if we allow for the fact that all the passages studied here belong, as
stated in the introduction above, to the "philosophicaYscientific", as opposed to
"dogmatic", portions of Cand., the almost complete absence of quotations from
Christian authors is remarkable. One can here only speculate on the intentions
behind Barhebraeus' choice of his sources, but a partial explanation for the
choice is probably to be sought in his desire to use the best scientific literature
available. In using the works of Fakhr al-Din al-RM, he was using the most
uptodate material available in the 13th century, while in turning to the Pseudo-
Aristotelian De mundo and Nicolaus' compendium of Aristotle, he was going
back as close as he could to the Aristotelian sources.
Noteworthy also is the role given to the Mab&ith in the discussions of mineralogy
and meteorology. A look at Table 1 above shows that under each subheading for
the individual mineralogical or meteorological phenomena, the first place is usually
taken up by a passage taken from the Mab3ith. - Since in dealing with each
phenomenon Barhebraeus usually begins with a discussion of how the phenomenon
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