In Aristotelian meteorology the sublunar region was the realm of the four essential elements of earth, water, air and fire. Interactions of these four elements were thought to account for such natural phenomena as meteors, comets, and the Milky Way in the upper atmosphere, clouds, lightning, rain, winds, storms and rainbows in the lower atmosphere, and rivers, seas, earthquakes, salts, metals, and stones on and under the Earth’s surface.

There is some evidence which suggest that about the onset of the religion of Islam the pagan Arabs had adopted a modified version of Aristotelian meteorology to explain the occasional fall of meteorites through the Aristotelian theory of lightning. In this early Arabic tradition, the meteorites were considered as an atmospheric phenomenon, created due to accretion of wet and dry exhalations which were contaminated by earthy particles.

The atmospheric accretion theory was later reinvented independently by the Persian natural philosopher Avicenna in order to explain his personal observations and experiments on several meteorite falls of his time. The evidence for exactly how the early scholars reached the conclusion that Aristotelian theory of lightning can be used to explain the meteorite falls, and the nature of the modifications introduced into Aristotle’s theory, is found in the early Arabic translations of the meteorology, which most probably were not directly made from the Greek manuscripts, but possibly through intermediary Syriac commentaries on Aristotle. The evidence from Qur’an suggests that manuscripts of these early Syriac commentaries were probably available in Arabia from as early as the 6th century CE.

As this study suggests there is substantial evidence in the Qur’an and other Islamic sources to conclude that the “atmospheric accretion” theory of meteorites (aerolites) was raised by pagan Arabs of Mecca in opposition to another rivaling theory, endorsed by Qur’an, about the celestial origin of the meteorites. Both of these theories are presented in the current research, through a study of manuscripts and printed original sources.

©Hossein Alizadeh Gharib 2012