Creator Bio
Dunash Ibn Tamīm
ca. 890–ca. 956
Astronomer, grammarian, and physician Abū Sahl Dunash Ibn Tamīm lived in North Africa and wrote in Judeo-Arabic. He was a student of Isaac al-Isrā’īlī and served as court physician to the Fātimids in Qayrawān. Dunash wrote a commentary on the Book of Creation (Sefer yetsirah), which exists now only in a later Hebrew translation, a work on the configuration of the celestial orbs, a treatise on the armillary sphere (an astronomical instrument), and a comparative lexicon of Hebrew and Arabic that has not survived.
Content by Dunash Ibn Tamīm
Primary Source
Book on the Configuration of the Orb
In fact, the surface of fire which is next to the contact of the Moon’s orb becomes spherical, being the end of moving bodies’ proceeding from the middle, so the contact of fire with the surface of…
Primary Source
Commentary: On the Book of Creation (Sefer yetsirah)
Commentary on Sefer yetsirah (Book of Creation), Chapter 1 (selections)
[Sefer yetsirah]: With thirty-two mystical paths of wisdom engraved . . . He created His universe with three books, with book, number, and story. Ten sefirot of nothingness [belimah]…
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Treatise on the Armillary Sphere
Treatise on the Armillary Sphere, Part 1
Before beginning that [i.e., the section on the operation], it is necessary for us to impress on our intellects with manifestation of our knowledge and prove that the Earth is spherical and the orb is…