Note 63 — APPENDIX I

Almagest was the name given to the great work of Aboulwéfa and was afterwards often applied to astronomical writings treating of celestial phenomena in general. The word is of Greek, not Arabic, origin, and signifies a composition made up on a very extensive scale (“Journ. des Savants,” December 1843, p. 725, and March 1845, p. 150). Almagest was also the name given to the extensive astronomical work by Ptolemy of Alexandria, which established the Ptolemaic System as astronomical science for 1400 years, until overthrown by the system of Copernicus. Ptolemy’s work (originally entitled “The Great Composition”), the Arabs called by the Greek word, magisté, “greatest,” and, with the addition by Arabic translators of their article al, “the,” the hybrid name “Almagest” came into use (“Encycl. Amer.,” Vol. I. n. p.; “Encycl. Britan.,” Edin., 1886, Vol. XX).