Uzbekistan has set itself the mission of identifying, cataloging and showcasing all the art objects related to its heritage scattered around the world. While its territory was once crossed by the Silk Road, the The cultural history of this country is rich.
The last meeting of the initiative entitled “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections” brought together some 350 scientists from all over the world and was the flagship event of Uzbekistan Cultural Heritage Week.
The first copy of the manuscript of the “Catalog of Fixed Stars” commissioned in the 15th century by Ulugh Beg, Sultan of the Timurid dynasty, respected astronomer and mathematician, was presented at this meeting. This work is that of one of the most famous Muslim astronomers of all time, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903-986).
This manuscript, the copy of which is in the form of a book, is of historical importance for several reasons: it illustrates in particular the ancestral fascination with the starry sky, the golden age of Islamic science and the long Arab tradition in astronomy. .
When art and science come together
This Catalog is considered a masterpiece of Central Asian art: it includes 74 miniatures of constellations produced using the finest techniques. It is also part of this tradition of producing more and more illustrated manuscripts over the centuries and is one of the oldest treatises of this type still in existence. We discover illustrations representing the sultan in the form of the constellation Cepheus.
Beyond its artistic value, the work is of considerable scientific value. It has 48 constellations known as fixed stars and is based on knowledge passed down by the Greeks, but includes, for the first time, the principles of ancient Arab astronomy.
Before Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, it was the Greeks who made the first known attempts to describe the starry sky. The first was Claudius Ptolemy (100-160), ancient philosopher, mathematician and astronomer from Alexandria. His writings, the most important of which is “Almagest”, a detailed guide to mathematical astronomy, were regarded as references in celestial science until the dissemination of the work of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and the beginning of the modern era.
La contribution d’Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi à l’astronomie
The Catalog of Fixed Stars is based on Ptolemy’s Almagest, but corrects various assertions and supplements them with its own empirical conclusions. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi took all the names of stars mentioned in Ptolemy’s inventory and merged them with those present in Arabic literature.
In his observations, the astronomer first described and illustrated the Andromeda galaxy and mentioned the Large Magellanic Cloud, the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth.
In the Astronomer’s Catalog, all the mythological figures representing the constellations are represented as they are seen in the sky, but also from space. Thanks to this, his work has been used for many centuries as the most important star guide for the Muslim and Christian worlds.
Astronomy is part of Uzbek cultural heritage
The original manuscript of the Catalog of Fixed Stars dating from the 10th century has not survived, but thanks to the Islamic tradition of manuscripts, the work of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was transmitted thanks to the copies made by the following.
The contemporary version presented on the occasion of “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections” responds to Uzbekistan’s objective of using advanced scientific technologies to preserve historical objects and manuscripts linked to its past.
Dozens of other works devoted to Uzbek works have already been published as part of this initiative. Projects are also being carried out to digitize and publish facsimiles of exceptional works held in libraries around the world.
UNESCO representatives commended Uzbekistan for its initiative to preserve its historical and cultural heritage. Renato Ramírez, UNESCO Deputy Director General for Culture, said he was “an example for many countries. Research is a means of transferring knowledge not only to the business world, but also to younger and new generations,” he indicated.
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