Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Yaḥyā al-Naqqāsh al-Zarqālī (1029–1087), Latinized as Arzachel, was an instrument maker and one of the leading theoretical and practical astronomers In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in the Far East of his time. Although his name is conventionally given as al-Zarqālī, it is probable that the correct form was al-Zarqālluh.^[1] He lived in Toledo Toledo ) is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo. It is also the capital of autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire in Castile Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It was one of the kingdoms that founded the Crown of, Al-Andalus Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Berbers and African Muslims (given the generic name of Moors), at various times in the period between 711 and 1492 (now Spain Spain (pronounced /ˈspeɪn/ spayn; Spanish: España, pronounced [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.[note 6] Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for), moving to Córdoba Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. An Iberian and Roman city in ancient times, in the Middle Ages it was a capital of an Islamic caliphate and one of the largest cities in the world. Its population in 2008 was 325,453 later in his life. His works inspired a generation of Islamic astronomers In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in China and in Andalusia Andalusia is an autonomous community of Spain and recognized as a historical nationality. It is the most populous (8,285,692 inhabitants in 2009) and the second largest, in terms of land area, of the seventeen autonomous communities of the Kingdom of Spain. Its capital and largest city is Seville (Spanish: Sevilla). The region is divided into.

The crater Arzachel on the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite[nb 4] and is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. It is the largest natural satellite in the Solar System relative to the size of its planet, a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass, and is the second densest satellite after Io. It is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always is named after him.

Early life

Al-Zarqālī was born to a family of Visigoth The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe; the Ostrogoths being the other. Together these tribes were among the barbarians who disturbed the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period. The romanized Visigoths first emerged as a distinct people during the fourth century, initially in the Balkans, where they converts to Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of their one, incomparable God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (in Arabic called in a village near the outskirts of Toledo Toledo ) is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo. It is also the capital of autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire, then a famous capitol of the Taifa of Toledo, known for its co-existence between Muslims A Muslim or Moslem is an adherent of the religion of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits (to God)". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. All Muslims observe Sunnah, but differences in the definition of what is and what is not Sunnah has led to the emergence of sectarian movements.[ and Christians A Christian (pronounced /ˈkrɪstʃən/ ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, and the son of God. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of.

At an early age al-Zarqālī, was educated in the various Maktabs Maktab (other transliterations include mekteb, mektep, meqteb, maqtab), also called kuttab (Arabic: “school”), is an Arabic word meaning elementary schools. Though it was primarily used for teaching children in reading, writing, grammar and Islamic subjects (such as Qur'an recitations), other practical and theretical subjects were also often in the city patronized by Al-Mamun of Toledo, he was particularly talented in Geometry Geometry "Earth-measuring" is a part of mathematics concerned with questions of size, shape, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. Geometry is one of the oldest sciences. Initially a body of practical knowledge concerning lengths, areas, and volumes, in the 3rd century BC geometry was put into an axiomatic form by and Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe. He is known to have taught and visited Córdoba Córdoba is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. An Iberian and Roman city in ancient times, in the Middle Ages it was a capital of an Islamic caliphate and one of the largest cities in the world. Its population in 2008 was 325,453 on various occasions his extensive experience and knowledge eventually made him the foremost foremost astronomer of his time In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in the Far East. Al-Zarqālī was not only just a Theoretical scientist but an inventor as well. His inventions and works put Toledo Toledo ) is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo. It is also the capital of autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage as one of the former capitals of the Spanish Empire at the intellectual center of Al-Andalus Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Berbers and African Muslims (given the generic name of Moors), at various times in the period between 711 and 1492.

His works profoundly influenced the works of: Ibn Bajjah (Avempace), Ibn Tufail Ibn Tufail (full Arabic name: أبو بكر محمد بن عبد الملك بن محمد بن طفيل القيسي الأندلسي Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Tufail al-Qaisi al-Andalusi; Latinized form: Abubacer Aben Tofail; Anglicized form: Abubekar or Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail) was an Andalusian-Arab Muslim polymath: an (Abubacer), Ibn Rushd Abū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd (Arabic: ابن رشد‎), and in European literature as Averroes (pronounced /əˈvɛroʊ.iːz/) (1126 – December 10, 1198), was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, (Averroës), and Nur ad-Din al-Betrugi (Alpetragius).

Astronomy

Instruments

Combining theoretical knowledge with technical skill, he excelled at the construction of precision instruments for astronomical use. He invented a flat astrolabe An astrolabe is a historical astronomical instrument used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars; determining local time (given local latitude) and vice-versa; surveying; triangulation; and to cast horoscopes. They were used in Classical a device that was 'universal,' for it could be used at any latitude. This instrument came to be known as the Saphaea in Latin Europe.^{[2][not in citation given]}.

There is a record of an al-Zarqāl who built a water clock A water clock or clepsydra is any timepiece in which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel where the amount is then measured, capable of determining the hours of the day and night and indicating the days of the lunar months, but it is thought that this is probably a different person.^[1]

Al-Zarqālī also wrote two works on the construction of an instrument (an equatorium) for computing the position of the planets using diagrams of the Ptolemaic model. These works were translated into Spanish in the 13th century by order of King Alfonso X Alfonso X was a Castilian monarch who ruled as the King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1252 until his death. He also was elected King of the Germans (formally King of the Romans) in 1257, though the Papacy prevented his confirmation in a section of the Libros del Saber de Astronomia entitled the "Libros de los laminas de los vii planetas".

Theory

Al-Zarqālī corrected Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy (pronounced /ˈtɒləmɪ/), was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer and a poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in's geographical data, specifically the length of the Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely separate.^{[citation needed]} In his treatise on the solar year, which survives only in a Hebrew translation, he was the first to demonstrate the motion of the solar apogee An apsis, plural apsides , is the point of greatest or least distance of a body from one of the foci of its elliptical orbit. In modern celestial mechanics this focus is also the center of attraction, which is usually the center of mass of the system. Historically, in geocentric systems, apsides were measured from the center of the Earth relative to the fixed background of the stars. He measured its rate of motion as 12.9 seconds per year, which is remarkably close to the modern calculation of 11.6 seconds.^[3] Al-Zarqālī's model for the motion of the Sun, in which the center of the Sun's deferent moved on a small, slowly-rotating circle to reproduce the observed motion of the solar apogee, was discussed in the thirteenth century by Bernard of Verdun^[4] and in the fifteenth century by Regiomontanus and Peurbach. In the sixteenth century Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe employed this model, modified to heliocentric form, in his De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , first printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543). The book offered an alternative model of the universe to Ptolemy's geocentric system, which had been widely accepted since ancient times.^[5]

Al-Zarqālī also contributed to the famous Tables of Toledo Gerard of Cremona edited for Latin readers the Tables of Toledo (Toledan Tables), the most accurate compilation of astronomical/astrological data (ephemeris) ever seen in Europe at the time. The Tables were partly based on the work of al-Zarqali (known to the West as Arzachel), an Arab mathematician, astronomer and astrologer who flourished in, an adaptation of earlier astronomical data to the location of Toledo along with the addition of some new material.^[1] Al-Zarqālī was famous as well for his own Book of Tables. Many "books of tables" had been compiled, but his almanac An almanac is an annual publication that includes information such as weather forecasts, astronomical information, and tide tables, containing tabular information in a particular field or fields often arranged according to the calendar etc. Astronomical data and various statistics are also found in almanacs, such as the times of the rising and contained tables which allowed one to find the days on which the Coptic, Roman, lunar, and Persian months begin, other tables which give the position of planets at any given time, and still others facilitating the prediction of solar and lunar eclipses.

He also compiled an almanac that directly provided "the positions of the celestial bodies and need no further computation". The work provided the true daily positions of the sun for four Julian years In astronomy, a Julian year is a unit of measurement of time defined as exactly 365.25 days of 86,400 SI seconds each, totalling 31,557,600 seconds. The Julian year is the average length of the year in the Julian calendar used in Western societies in previous centuries, and for which the unit is named. Nevertheless, because a Julian year measures from 1088 to 1092, the true positions of the five planets every 5 or 10 days over a period of 8 years for Venus, 79 years for Mars, and so forth, as well as other related tables.^[6][7]

His work^[which?] was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona Gerard of Cremona , was a Lombard translator of Arabic scientific works found in the abandoned Arab libraries of Toledo, Spain in the 12th century, and contributed to the rebirth of a mathematically-based astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere (such as the cosmic background radiation). It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the formation and development of the universe in Christian Europe. It^[which?] was later incorporated into the Tables of Toledo Gerard of Cremona edited for Latin readers the Tables of Toledo (Toledan Tables), the most accurate compilation of astronomical/astrological data (ephemeris) ever seen in Europe at the time. The Tables were partly based on the work of al-Zarqali (known to the West as Arzachel), an Arab mathematician, astronomer and astrologer who flourished in in the 12th century and the Alfonsine tables The Alfonsine tables provided data for computing the position of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars. They are named for Alfonso X of Castile, upon whose order they were prepared in Toledo, Spain around 1252 to 1270 in the 13th century.^[6]

In designing an instrument to deal with Ptolemy's complex model for the planet Mercury Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes three rotations about the axis for every two orbits. The perihelion of Mercury's orbit precesses around the, in which the center of the deferent moves on a secondary epicycle In the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the epicycle was a geometric model used to explain the variations in speed and direction of the apparent motion of the Moon, Sun, and planets. It was first proposed by Apollonius of Perga at the end of the 3rd century BC and formalized by Ptolemy of the Thebaid in his 2nd-century AD astronomical treatise the, al-Zarqālī noted that the path of the center of the primary epicycle is not a circle, as it is for the other planets. Instead it is approximately oval In technical drawing, an oval is a figure constructed from two pairs of arcs, with two different radii (see image on the right). The arcs are joined at a point, in which lines tangential to both joining arcs lie on the same line, thus making the joint smooth. Any point of an oval belongs to an arc with a constant radius (shorter or longer), and similar to the shape of a pignon Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines . About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food.^[8] Some writers have misinterpreted al-Zarqālī's description of an earth-centered oval path for the center of the planet's epicycle as an anticipation of Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer, and key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, codified by later astronomers, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. They also provided one of the's sun-centered elliptical paths In astronomy, Kepler's laws give an approximate description of the motion of planets around the Sun for the planets.^[9] Although this may be the first suggestion that a conic section In mathematics, a conic section is a curve obtained by intersecting a cone (more precisely, a right circular conical surface) with a plane. In analytic geometry, a conic may be defined as a plane algebraic curve of degree 2. It can be defined as the locus of points whose distances are in a fixed ratio to some point, called a focus, and some line, could play a role in astronomy, al-Zarqālī did not apply the ellipse to astronomical theory and neither he nor his Iberian or Maghrebi contemporaries used an elliptical deferent in their astronomical calculations.^[10]

See also

• Islamic astronomy In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language. These developments mostly took place in the Middle East, Central Asia, Al-Andalus, and North Africa, and later in the Far East
• Islamic scholars Categories: Islamic studies scholars | Orientalists | Lists of theologians and religious studies scholars | Lists of scholars and academics
• List of Arab scientists and scholars

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} s.v. "al-Zarqālī", Julio Samsó, Encyclopaedia of Islam The Encyclopaedia of Islam is the standard encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies. It embraces articles on distinguished Muslims of every age and land, on tribes and dynasties, on the crafts and sciences, on political and religious institutions, on the geography, ethnography, flora and fauna of the various countries and on the, New edition, vol. 11, 2002.
2. ^ M. T. Houtsma and E. van Donzel (1993), E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, Brill Publishers Brill (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill Academic Publishers) is an international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes more than 100 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year. In addition, Brill is a provider of primary source, ISBN 9004082654
3. ^ Toomer, G. J. (1969), "The Solar Theory of az-Zarqāl: A History of Errors", Centaurus 14 (1): 306–36, doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1111/j.1600-0498.1969.tb00146.x , at pp. 314-17.
4. ^ Toomer, G. J. (1987), "The Solar Theory of az-Zarqāl: An Epilogue", Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 500: 513–519, doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb37222.x .
5. ^ Toomer, G. J. (1969), "The Solar Theory of az-Zarqāl: A History of Errors", Centaurus 14 (1): 306–336, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.1969.tb00146.x , at pp. 308-10.
6. ^ ^{a b} Glick, Thomas F.; Livesey, Steven John; Wallis, Faith (2005), Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, Routledge, p. 30, ISBN 0415969301
7. ^ Toomer, G. J. (1969), "The Solar Theory of az-Zarqāl: A History of Errors", Centaurus 14 (1): 306–336, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0498.1969.tb00146.x , at p. 314.
8. ^ Willy Hartner, "The Mercury Horoscope of Marcantonio Michiel of Venice", Vistas in Astronomy, 1 (1955): 84-138, at pp. 118-122.
9. ^ Asghar Qadir (1989). Relativity: An Introduction to the Special Theory, p. 5-10. World Scientific. ISBN 9971506122.
10. ^ Samsó, Julio; Mielgo, Honorino (1994), "Ibn al-Zarqalluh on Mercury", Journal for the History of Astronomy 25: 292, http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994JHA....25..289S

Further reading

• E. S. Kennedy. A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables, (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46, 2.) Philadelphia, 1956.
• "Zarqālī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn Yaḥyā al-Naqqāsh al-". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1970–80. ISBN 0684101149.

External links

• Muslin Scientists Before the Renaissance: Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel)
• 'Transmission of Muslim astronomy to Europe'
• 'An Extensive biography'

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