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Seeking Seamless Scientific Wonders: Review of Emilie Savage-Smith's Work |
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By: Najma Kazi, Sat 24 November, 2007 |
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Najma Kazi reviews some salient aspects of Emilie Savage-Smith's work. Emilie Savage-Smith, who is a Professor of History of Science at the Oriental Institute (Oxford University), is an internationally recognised authority on the History of Islamic Science, and is a key figure within a small band of historians that are spearheading the discovery of Muslim Heritage and its impact on civilisation.
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"Three Times Greater than Venus": Ibn Ridhwan's Observation of Supernova 1006 |
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By: FSTC Limited, Sat 24 November, 2007 |
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1001 years ago, an extraordinary astronomical event occurred in the sky: the most intense supernova ever witnessed and recorded by human beings appeared in the Earth's sky in the year 1006 CE. The blast was seen from Europe to China. One of the witnesses who saw it was a young man from Cairo, Ali ibn Ridwan, then 18 years old. Later on, he produced one of the most significant records about this astronomical event. Nowadays, astronomers scrutinize his record to collect information about the 1006 supernova.
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Illustrious Names in the Heavens: Arabic and Islamic Names of the Moon Craters |
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By: FSTC Limited, Fri 28 September, 2007 |
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24 craters of the Moon bear names of Arabic and Islamic origin. In majority, these names are those of famous scholars of Islamic civilisation. We present below a list of those crater-names on the Moon, with their geographical coordinates and biographical sketches on the scholars thus honoured and immortalized.
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Precious Records of Eclipses in Muslim Astronomy and History |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 29 August, 2007 |
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On the occasion of the lunar eclipse that occurs on 28 August 2007, we produce a short survey of some records of lunar and solar eclipses reported on in Muslim heritage, drawn from various sources, including astronomical texts of professional historians as well as the books of history, chronicles and annals.
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Al-Bitruji (d. 1204 C.E.) |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 18 July, 2007 |
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Nur Al-Din Ibn Ishaq Al-Bitruji was born in Morocco, lived in Ishbiliah (Seville) and died around 1204 CE. He worked hard, unsuccessfully, at modifying Ptolemy's system of planetary motions. Al-Bitruji's book Kitab-al-Hay'ah was popular in thirteenth century Europe.
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Masha'Allah (815) |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 18 July, 2007 |
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Masha'Allah was a Jew of Egypt who embraced Islam during the time of the Abbasid Khalifah, Al-Mansur.
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Abu Ishaq Ibrahim Ibn Yahya Al-Zarqali |
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By: FSTC Limited, Wed 18 July, 2007 |
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Al-Zarqali is an eminent Andalusian astronomer of the 11th century who was the foremost astronomer of his time. He excelled in different domains of theoretical and practical astronomy and left works that influenced greatly his followers in the Islamic Andalusian and North-African and Latin astronomical traditions, until Copernicus in the 16th century.
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Jabir ibn Aflah (d. 1145) |
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By: FSTC Limited, Mon 16 July, 2007 |
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Jabir ibn Aflah (d. 1145) Jabir Ibn Aflah was the first to design a portable celestial sphere to measure and explain the movements of celestial objects. He is specially noted for his work on spherical trigonometry.
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Al-Farghani (ca. 860) |
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By: FSTC Limited, Mon 16 July, 2007 |
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Al-Farghani wrote on the astrolabe, explaining the mathematical theory behind the instrument and correcting faulty geometrical constructions of the central disc that were current then.
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Al-Sufi (903-986) |
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By: FSTC Limited, Mon 16 July, 2007 |
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Al-Sufi made several observations on the obliquity of the ecliptic and the motion of the sun (or the length of the solar year).
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