Abstract

Based upon research over the past half century, there has been a growing recognition that a number of mathematical models used by Copernicus had originally been developed by Islamic astronomers. This has led to speculation about how Copernicus may have learned of these models and the role they played in the development of his revolutionary, heliocentric cosmology. Most discussion of this connection has thus far been confined to fairly technical issues related to these models; recently, though, it has been argued that the connections may go deeper, extending into the physics of a moving Earth and the way in which astronomy itself was conceived. The purpose of this ar-ticle is to give an overview of these possible connections between Copernicus and his Islamic predecessors and to discuss some of their implications for Copernican studies. The Mathematical Background That Copernicus was acquainted with a number of his Islamic prede-cessors has been evident since 1543, when Copernicus in De Revolutionibus explicitly cited five Islamic authors.1 The latest of these authors, al-Biṭrūjī, 1 These are: al-Battānī, al-Biṭrūjī, al-Zarqāllu, Ibn Rushd, and Thābit ibn Qurra. Coperni-cus also refers to al-Battānī in his Commentariolus, which remained unpublished during his lifetime. “Islamic ” here refers to the civilization of Islam, not the religion since a number of “Islamic ” astronomers, such as Thābit, were not Muslims.