Published : 2025-09-30

The Myth of the Lone Genius: Arabic Astronomy as the Missing Context of Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory

Abstract

Nicolaus Copernicus is often portrayed as a solitary genius who radically broke with the Ptolemaic tradition. This article offers an alternative perspective, presenting Copernicus as part of a long continuum in the development of astronomical knowledge – one that also includes Arab scholars from the Maragheh school, such as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Ibn al- Shāṭir, and Ali Qushji. Drawing on the work of historians of science as well as the conceptual framework of Bruno Latour and the Science and Technology Studies (STS) tradition, the article interprets the heliocentric theory not as a sudden rupture, but as the result of gradual theoretical and mathematical transformations. Instead of reinforcing the mythology of the self-made discoverer, this approach views science as a networked and historically situated process in which innovation arises from the shared contributions of many traditions, languages, and generations of scholars.

Keywords:

arabic astronomy, history of astronomy, history of science, Copernicus, Maraghe school



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Roczniki Kulturoznawcze · ISSN 2082-8578 | eISSN 2544-5219 | DOI: 10.18290/rkult

© Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II

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