The Rôle of Maragha in the Development of Islamic Astronomy : A scientific revolution before the renaissance (original) (raw)

THE NEW ASTRONOMY OF IBN AL-HAYTHAM

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 2009

In order to get rid of the contradictions he had identified in Ptolemy's Astronomy, Ibn al-Haytham abandons cosmology and develops a purely kinematic description of the movement of the wandering stars. This description culminates with the proof that such a star, during its daily movement, reaches exactly one time a maximum height above the horizon and that any inferior height is reached exactly twice. The proofs of these facts necessitates new mathematical tools and Ibn al-Haytham is led to establish very sophisticated statements concerning the variation of certain ratios of arcs of circles on the sphere. He also introduces the fruitful idea of assimilating a very small spherical triangle to a plane triangle.

A Brief Reflection on Islamic Astronomy in 13th Century, The Case of Qu?b Ad-Din Al-Shirazi

Deleted Journal, 2023

This paper focuses on the life and scholarship of Quṭb ad-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 1311 CE), a Muslim Persian polymath, who has contributed in many fields such as philosophy, astronomy and medicine. A talented and precocious student, and was tutored by his own father, the young man of Quṭb ad-Dīn al-Shīrāzī was already appointed as a physician even during his teenage years. Eventually the quest for knowledge led him to leave his hometown of Shīrāz and visit several scholars before he eventually settled in Marāghah. Here he learned and collaborated with many other great scholars such as Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 1274 CE) and Mu'ayyad al-Dīn al-'Urḍī (d. 1266 CE) in the field of observational astronomy. They set up and worked in the famous Marāghah observatory, and Quṭb ad-Dīn al-Shīrāzī collaborated in the production of Zīj-l Ilkhānī or the Ilkhānī Tables, which was one of the most important astronomical tables being produced from the Marāghah observatory. Other than his contribution in astronomy, we would also briefly mention his contribution in other fields such as philosophy and medicine. The methodology is a literature review, which we used both the secondary sources and the primary source. The primary source is the astronomical text of Quṭb ad-Dīn al-Shīrāzī which is called Nihāyat al-Idrāk, and it is in the form of a manuscript, which had been acquired from the British Library.

SCIENCE AND ASTRONOMY: INTELLECTUAL REFLECTIONS OF AL-BIRUNI

Abu Raihan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Biru-ni (973 A.D.-1048 A.D.) is one of the greatest scientists of Islam who opened a new era of independent research and scientific discoveries , and at the end of the day he became one of greatest of all times. It is hardly possible to confine al-Biruni to any branch of scientific knowledge, since his genius astonishingly mastered the vast range of science subjects of astronomy, mathematics, chronology, mathematical geography, physics, chemistry, mineralogy , precious stones, pharmacy, geology, botany, etc., etc.,. Although it is argued that almost half of his works largely encompasses the various areas of astronomy and related areas. One of his major works on astronomy is Kitab al-Tafhim li Awa'il ana'at al-Tanjim (The book of Instruction in the Elements of the art of Astronomy) which consists 530 babs (sections). This book covers the information on geometry, arithmetic, geography, pure astronomy , geography, astrological astronomy, chronology , astrolabe, signs of astrology, planets, divisions of signs, judicial astronomy and so on. Moreover, he scholarly describes his view on astrology and validity of the verdicts of astrological calculations. Another major work of al-Biruni on astronomy is Qanun al-Mas'udi, which provides substantial information about the knowledge of astronomy and mathematics possessed in that time. This paper will focus on an analytical study of al-Biruni's invaluable contributions towards science, especially to astronomy, his scientific method along with an exploration to his stand on the findings of astrological computations.

A little known astronomer in the late Islamic period. A study of Qasim ali al-Qayini's manuscripts

arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.2208, 2012

It is widely believed that the advance of science in the Islamic world after the midfifteenth century A.D. suffered a decline. For the purposes of examining this belief, a manuscript by Qâsim c Alī al-Qâyinî (ca. A.D.1685) was chosen based on previous works which considered it a valuable source on the history of optics that had not been studied before. After studying his major optical manuscript, titled Manâẓir wa Marâyâ, it was found very interesting that the majority of al-Qâyinî's propositions relating to natural phenomena were not merely geometrical definitions, but that the proofs related to astronomy. As an example, in one case, which had not been explained in previous astronomical and optical manuscripts, al-Qâyinî tried, despite lacking a vigorous proof, to show how a special point in a room could be lit up by sunlight throughout the year. His particular interest in astronomy led us to a general study of his other works, and it is worth noting that out of the nineteen works that have been attributed to him, eleven are devoted to astronomy and have not been thoroughly studied. Much more research is required on his astronomical manuscripts in order to obtain a better understanding of this author, the century in which he lived and the general state of science in the late Islamic period. After all, given the many as-yet unstudied manuscripts that still exist, maybe this decline was not as rapid as has previously been assumed.

Ṯābit B. Qurra and Arab Astronomy in the 9th Century

Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 1994

Ṯābit b. Qurra is especially known as a mathematician, but his work in astronomy is also important. This article reviews his eight surviving astronomical treatises, as well as relevant fragments of his lost works cited by later authors in Arabic and Latin. We conclude that, as an active participant in the scientific movement of 9th-century Baghdad, Ṯābit played a crucial role in the establishment of astronomy as an exact science. The argument is based on an assessment of his contribution in three areas: the relationship between observation and theory, the “mathematization” of astronomy, and the relationship between “mathematical” astronomy and “physical” astronomy.

Reassessment of Islamic Astronomical Sciences

This paper attempts to reevaluate Muslim input to astronomy. Underling the efforts and the contributions of Al-Biruni and Al-Battani to astronomy is the core concern of this paper. Astronomy is one of the sciences that have existed since the dawn of recorded civilization. It has been called the queen of sciences and it incorporates many disciplines such as physics, optics in particular, and mathematics, as well as celestial mechanics. Reassessing the contributions of Muslim scholars and Qur'anic views on astronomy is an urgent call in a time when knowledge is claimed by one civilization, the Western civilization.