The Paradosis of the Persian Tables, A Source on Astronomy between the Ilkhanate and the Eastern Roman Empire

Abstract

Recent scholarship on a Byzantine astronomical handbook on how to use a set of astronomical tables stemming from Islamic tradition sheds new light on a transfer of knowledge that occurred in the fourteenth century between the Ilkhanate and Byzantium. As this source was so far unpublished, the present paper gives an outline of the main textual features, then discusses the source in the framework of the cross-cultural contacts between Byzantine and non-Byzantine scholars between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Ilkhanate.