Professor S.M. Razaullah Ansari (1932-2023) - By R. C. Kapoor
Prof. S.M. Razaullah Ansari was an eminent physicist and historian of science. After finishing his M.Sc. from Delhi University, he went to Germany on a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to pursue his doctorate. He was awarded D.Sc. in theoretical physics by Eberhard Karl University, Tübingen, Germany. He joined Physics Department at Aligarh Muslim University in 1969. Here he worked on solar physics and interstellar matter. He got inclined towards and began pioneering work in the field of history of science, particularly in the context of Indian subcontinent, in the Arabic-Islamic Astronomy and its transmission to Medieval India. He authored innumerable papers and articles for journals, books and encyclopaedias on the vast subject.
His work detailing the rise of modern western astronomy in India during 18-19 centuries (Ansari 2000) is widely appreciated. He constantly searched for the zijes compiled in India particularly during the 15th-19th centuries and produced an exhaustive survey for “The Encyclopaedia of Persian Language and Literature in the Subcontinent” of The Academy of Persian Language and Literature, Tehran (Ansari 2014, 2015). Its significance can be gauged from the fact that zijes are tables of astronomical observational data and guidelines for traditional astronomers to use for computations and predictions. These are specific to latitude and longitude of the place. These contain chronology (tables with conversion dates in different calendars used such as the Byzantine, Persian and Arabic etc.), rising and setting times of the Sun, the Moon and the planets, the conjunctions, the eclipses and the first visibility of the Lunar crescent, trigonometric functions, spherical astronomical values, latitudes and longitudes, fixed star positions etc. Ansari also explored many Indo-Persian writings of the early 19th century that introduced new knowledge of modern astronomy and the sciences where the authors tried to establish continuity with the Islamic scientific knowledge of the earlier centuries. Their authors’ introduction to the Western sciences came about through interactions with the officers of the early phase of the East India Company (EIC) opening up a new world before them (Ansari 2002). Ansari carried out studies of Arabic-Persian Sources on the Astrolabe Extant in India and on the Indian Astrolabe-Makers and brought to light the observations of the solar and lunar eclipses, comets, meteorites and fireballs in the Indo-Persian works of the medieval times. He was always in search of the original documents, manuscripts or archival sources to work on the subject of his interest. That is how he presented an authentic account of the Lucknow Observatory based on the archival sources (Ansari 2011). Similarly, his paper on Prof. K.D. Naegamvala was based largely on archival records and family papers he was able to have access to through personal efforts and contacts (Ansari 2017).
His association with Indian and international academic bodies is too numerous to mention. He was Member, Indian National Science Academy and had served on the IAU Commission 41 and the ICOA Organizing Committees and also as President of the IAU History of Astronomy Commission during 1994-1997.
Raza Ansari and, in fact Rajesh Kochhar too who left us early in 2022, were exploring history of science, largely in the context of Indian subcontinent in the pre-Internet and pre-ADS era. The only major source of information on works published in various fields of astronomy were the yearly Astronomy and Astrophysics Abstracts. They hunted for documents, manuscripts, books and images in any which library and institution they could reach and did marvellous work that is as relevant and authentic today.
In such a short write-up, it is not possible for me to do justice to the departed soul. One can appreciate the vastness and depth of Prof. Ansari’s work by going through his writings only. He was fond of Urdu poetry, Mirza Ghalib and Dr Allama Iqbal being the favourites. I had the opportunity to meet Raza, as he wanted me to call him, a few times in Indian Institute of Astrophysics, the ASI- or other meetings, but more often on email. His comments on my queries were always very helpful. In my papers on the history of astronomy in India, I have constantly referred to our personal communications.
Prof. Razaullah Ansari’s biography is available here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._M._Razaullah_Ansari
REFERENCES
1. Ansari, S.M.R., 1985/2000. Introduction of modern western astronomy in India during 18-19 centuries, Sen and Shukla (ed), History of Astronomy in India, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, Ch 12, pp. 395-453.
2. Ansari, S.M.R., 2002. European Astronomy in Indo-Persian writings, History of Oriental Astronomy, Proceedings of the Joint Discussion- 17, S M R Ansari (Editor), Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 133-144.
3. Ansari, S.M. Razaullah, 2011. ‘Early Modern Observatories in India, 1792-1900’, in Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya (ed.), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization, New Delhi: Pearson Education, Ch. 13.
4. https://books.google.co.in/books?redir_esc=y&id=lrx3wLz4itkC&q=Lucknow#…
5. Ansari, S. M. Razaullah (2014). “The Compilation of Zijes in India”, (in Persian). To be published in The Encyclopaedia of Persian Language and Literature in the Subcontinent. Editor, Muhammad Raza Nasiri. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature, Tehran, Vol. III (forthcoming).
6. Ansari, S.M.Razaullah, 2015. Survey of Zijes Written in the Subcontinent, Indian Journal of History of Science 50(4), 575-601.
7. Ansari, S.M.R., 2017. K.D. Naegamvālā: The Founder of the First Astrophysical Observatory in India, in Vahia, M.N., Orchiston, W., and Sule, A. (eds.), 2017. Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region. Proc. 9th International Conference on Oriental Astronomy, Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
8. Ansari, S.M. Razaullah, 2018. K.D. Naegamvala: The Founder of the First Astrophysical Observatory in India, in Vahia, M.N., Orchiston, W., and Sule, A. (eds.), 2017. Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region. Proc. 9th International Conference on Oriental Astronomy, Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pp. 175-184.
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Shaikh Mohammad Razaullah Ansari (1932 - 2023) - by Mayank Vahia
In the passing away of Shaikh Mohammad Razaullah Ansari the country has lost one of the finest scholars of medieval astronomy in India and its interaction with the Arabs.
Prof Ansari was born to a family of scholars. He got his B.Sc. (Honours) in 1953 and M.Sc. in Physics in 1955 from Delhi University. In 1956, he joined as a lecturer in Physics at Delhi College (now called Zakir Hussain College). He secured a research fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn, Germany) in 1959. He worked initially at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and later moved to Eberhard Karl University in Tübingen (Germany). He completed his D.Sc. in 1966 in Mathematical Physics. In Germany, he specialized also in the history of physical sciences in India and Islamic countries. He researched during 1966-1969 as a research scholar/associate of the German Council of Research in various capacities.
In 1969, he was invited by the Aligarh Muslim University to join the Physics Department. There he established a research group in astrophysics. He worked in Solar physics and Interstellar Matter and was recognized both nationally and internationally. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) in 1972. He became a member of IAU in 1973. Besides joining IAU Commissions. He was a member of Commission 41 (History of Astronomy). He was elected as its Vice-president from 1991 to 1994, and President from 1994 to 1997. He was the first Indian/Asian President of Commission 41 since its inception.
Thereafter, Ansari shifted his research field to the history of astronomy and mathematics, particularly of Medieval India. This remained his passion after his retirement and worked on primary sources of the history of science. He was involved in a UNESCO project in Tehran (Iran) as an expert on Muslim contributions to sciences during Islamic Middle Ages.
He created a critically edited Persian text of the Astronomical Tables of Maharaja Sawā’i Jai Singh – the Zīj-i Muhammad Shāhī – a project sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.
He was also elected President of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and also worked as the founding President of the Commission for the History of Ancient and Medieval Astronomy.
Prof Ansari will be remembered for his path-breaking work about astronomy in India and its relation with West Asia between the 16th and 19th Centuries. This is a time period, which, though well documented, has not been well analysed by modern scholars due to a loss of interest in West Asia and a shortage of scholars in Persian and Indian languages in India.
Prof Ansari will be sorely missed as one of the finest scholars of the astronomy in 16th to 19th centuries during which an exchange of scholarship between the scholars in India and West Asia, enriched both cultures.