SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF HIPPARCHUS. 237 



notice one or two points before I treat of the 

 stationary period in general. 



When the sceptre of western Asia had passed 

 into the hands of the Abasside caliphs 36 , Bagdad, 

 "the city of peace," rose to splendour and refine- 

 ment, and became the metropolis of science under 

 the successors of Almansor the Victorious, as Alex- 

 andria had been under the successors of Alexander 

 the Great. Astronomy attracted peculiarly the 

 favour of the powerful as well as the learned ; and 

 almost all the culture which was bestowed upon 

 the science, appears to have had its source in the 

 patronage, often also in the personal studies, of 

 Saracen princes. Under such encouragement, much 

 was done, in those scientific labours which money 

 and rank can command. Translations of Greek 

 works were made, large instruments were erected, 

 observers were maintained ; and accordingly as 

 observation showed the defects and imperfection 

 of the extant tables of the celestial motions, new 

 ones were constructed. Thus under Almansor, the 

 Grecian works of science were collected from all 

 quarters, and many of them translated into Arabic 37 . 

 The translation of the " Megiste Syntaxis" of Pto- 

 lemy, which thus became the Almagest, is ascribed 

 to Isaac ben Homain in this reign. 



The greatest of the Arabian astronomers comes 

 half a century later. This is Albategnius, as he 

 is commonly called ; or more exactly, Muhammed 

 46 Gibbon, x. 31 " Id. x. 36. 



