Introduction
Al-Biruni or in full Abū al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī was a Persian-Khwarezmian Muslim scholar and polymath. He was born in 973 and his contributions to science made him one of the greatest Muslim scientists and astronomers. He was well versed in physics, mathematics, geography, history, ethnography, anthropology and astronomy. During his time of becoming a great polymath, he survived some unusual political changes such as change of six princes. There is not enough information about his early life available but from what it is known; khwarezm was located beyond “Amu Darya” river, a river that was called Oxus River at those times. Al-Biruni’s educator, Khwarezm-Shah was a member of the parliament or in better words dynasty that controlled and ruled the area. The dynasty that al-Biruni’s educator was a prince of was called the Banu Iraq. His real name was Abu Nasr Mansur and there are not any clear sources and reasoning of what happened to him during the civil war of the time. The events at that time went in a way that al-Biruni himself described them as: “After I had barely settled down for a few years, I was permitted by the Lord of Time to go back home, but I was compelled to participate in worldly affairs, which excited the envy of fools, but which made the wise pity me.” [1]
Al-Biruni was a great Muslim scientist in his era and his books and theories are still subjects of study in higher level educations, i.e. Masters and PhD. His mathematical and physics theories and findings caused great discoveries to clarify questions about life, stars and in general astronomy. He plays an important role in science, especially astronomy. His scientific explorations and theories made him one of the retest scientists ...
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[8] George Saliba, "BĪRŪNĪ, ABŪ RAYḤĀN iii. Mathematics and Astronomy" in Encyclopaedia Iranica
[9] Al-Biruni 1017, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology, translated by R. Ramsey Wright.1934.
[10] Burckhardt. 1977. Titus, Mystical Astrology According to ibn Arabi
[11] Campion, Nicholas .1982. An Introduction to the History of Astrology
[12] Nasr, S.H. 1978. Islamic Cosmological Doctrines
[13] David Plant .1994. Al-Biruni and Arabic Astrology, text available at: http://www.skyscript.co.uk/albiruni.html
[14] Christopher Warnock. 2012. Renaissance Astrology: Islamic Astrology and Astronomy of Al-Biruni, text available at: http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/albiruni.html
[15] Dr. Conor Burns, (Winter2014), CHST787 Course-pack, reading #16 (excert from the book of the elements and arts of astrology by al-Biruni)
Ibn al-Athīr, in full Izz al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan Alī ibn al-Athīr, born May 12, 1160, in what is now Turkey, was an influential Arab historian whose chief work was a history of the world, al-Kāmil fī al-tārīkh (“The Complete History”), starting with the creation of Adam. He also wrote a work titled al-Bāhir, a history of the former Seljuq army officers, called atabegs, who founded dynasties, drawn from his own experience and from that of his father, who held office under the Zangids of Mosul. Ibn al-Athīr spent a scholarly life in Mosul, but often visited Baghdad, and was, for a time, with Saladin’s army in Syria, later living in Aleppo and Damascus, dying in Mosul, Iraq in 1233. Ibn al-Athīr, writing many years after the occurrence of the events that he describes, and long after the city of Jerusalem and be...
& MCMILLAN, S. 2008. Astronomy Today - Sixth Edition, United States of America, Pearson Education, Inc.
A great astronomer, King Nezahualpilli used his position as king to find others with similar knowledge to work on the tribe’s calendar (Document 4). Document 6 shows the several studies in religion which were carried through by priests and the philosophers that wrote the books of science to educate others about their discoveries. Document 2 describes the determination and will of warriors to fight to prove their own bravery and courage.
Azim A. Nanji, ed., The Muslim almanac : a reference work on the history, faith, culture, and peoples of Islam: Muslim Women Writers,(Detroit, MI : Gale Research, 1996), 315
...Optica and Dioptrice, laying the groundwork for all future optical discoveries to come. After him came Newton, who questioned the commonly held belief about light and discovered a fundamental property of how light worked and what prisms did. Fraunhofer had spent his whole life working with the same optical principles as Kepler. He performed the same experiment as Newton, but he explored further, and opened up whole new worlds of discovery. Today, we still use spectroscopy and Fraunhofer lines to determine what far off planets and stars are made of, and if it would be possible for life to exist on them. Thanks to the discovery of Fraunhofer lines, Niels Bohr was able to come up with his model of the atom, expanding our knowledge of how the universe works. All of these scientific discoveries were built on top of one another, and who knows what we will discover next?
the Accuracy of the Chronicle of Al-Jabarti." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. No. 2 (1970): 283-294. http://www.jstor.org/stable/613005 (accessed November 30, 2013).
Boyle, Kay. "Astronomer's Wife." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 619-623.
For centuries, people from all latitudes have been fascinated by the night sky. The unreachable stars, the Moon, the comets and all the events happening in the sky, fired up imaginations and became symbols of life and death, of war, peace and the passing of time and the seasons. The movement of the stars was used to establish the time for planting and harvesting, to prepare for the long winters and to try to discover the future and destiny, the eternal unknown destiny of the human race. Three large human groups, the Mayans, the Aztecs and the Zapotecs populated the Central and Southeastern regions of Mexico long before the discovery of the continent by Columbus. These ancient cultures developed a very complex knowledge of Astronomy and built a large number of structures destined to be used as observatories. They made precise measurements and kept records of all the important events in the skies. This paper will explore some of the most important discoveries of these ancient astronomers and the precision of the alignments of their buildings. It will also establish the importance the astronomical knowledge had in their lives and societies.
Ibn al Haytham was a Muslim innovator born in 965 in Basra. He is also known as Alhazen and The First Scientist. In his time, Alhazen was able to invent the first pinhole camera and a camera obscura. Before Alhazen, scientists believed that they did not have to scientifically prove their findings, however, he knew better. Every experiment or hypothesis Alhazen came up with, he submitted it to a physical test and/or proof using mathematic equations. (“Arab Inventors”)
Sidney, Philip. "Astrophel and Stella." Online. Renascence Editions. U of Oregon P. 6 Apr. 1999. Available HTTP: darkwing.uoregon.edu.
Carl Friedrich Gauss is revered as a very important man in the world of mathematicians. The discoveries he completed while he was alive contributed to many areas of mathematics like geometry, statistics, number theory, statistics, and more. Gauss was an extremely brilliant mathematician and that is precisely why he is remembered all through today. Although Gauss left many contributions in each of the aforementioned fields, two of his discoveries in the fields of mathematics and astronomy seem to have had the most tremendous effect on modern day mathematics.
Astronomy is a natural science focusing on the study of celestial objects such as moons, stars, planets, nebulae and galaxies. Astronomy is considered to be one of the oldest natural sciences; early civilizations throughout history such as the Babylonians, Egyptians and Greeks performed methodical observations of the sky. The Babylonians had different astronomical records regarding the position of the moon, sun and stars, on the other hand the Egyptians used astronomy to know the time and afterwards they developed a calendar based on the solar year. The following paper will focus on the ancient Greek astronomy, interestingly the origin of the word astronomy is Greek it comes from two words; astron meaning "star" and nemien refers to "to name". This paper will explain and highlight the methods used, famous figures and the achievements attained during the ancient Greek astronomy era.
...ime period in a positive scientific light. The distinction between modern and medieval science was described as medieval science being more theoretical in nature and modern being of the more applied variety. Through the further presentation of the plethora of Islamic scientists, covering fields as diverse as astronomy, medicine, chemistry, and physics it has been shown, without a doubt, that significant scientific contributions were made in this period. Finally, the source of this misconception was exposed through the common accidental perception of the past as a European narrative. History can easily be focused around Europe, and to do so produces a view of the medieval era being stagnant. However, when one looks at the greater global picture, it is clear that the Islamic world more than makes up for this lull in innovation, successfully brightening the “Dark Age”.
Al-Razi was one of the greatest eastern scholars, he made a lot of contributions which have a great impact on eastern society and many sciences. He was born in Rayy, Iran in the year 865 AD (251 AH), and died there in 925 AD. During his life Razi was physician, philosopher, and scholar who made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, and philosophy, he wrote more than 184 books and articles in various fields of science, his most important accomplishment being the discovery of alcohol(Wikipedia,2006). He was well versed in Greek medical knowledge and added substantially to it from his own observations.
Smith, Houston (1986). The Illustrated World Religions, A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions. Labyrinth Publishing.