Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn Samra ibn Jundab^[1] al-Fazari (Arabic: محمد بن إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 796 or 806) was an Arab philosopher, mathematician and astronomer.^[2][3][4]

Biography

Al-Fazārī translated many scientific books into Arabic and Persian. He is credited to have built the first astrolabe in the Islamic world.^[5] He died in 796 or 806, possibly in Baghdad.^[6]

At the end of the 8th century, whilst at the court of the Abbasid Caliphate, al-Fazārī mentioned Ghana, "the land of gold."^[7]

Works

Along with Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq, al-Fazārī helped translate the 7th century Indian astronomical text by Brahmagupta, the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, into Arabic as 'Zij as-SindhindAz-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab,^[8] or the Sindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the mathematical methods of Indian astronomers were transmitted to Islam.^[9]

The caliph^[which?] ordered al-Fazārī to translate the Indian astronomical text, The Sindhind, along with Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq, which was completed in Baghdad about 750, and entitled Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the Hindu numeral system (the modern number notation) was transmitted from India to Iran.

Al-Fazari composed various astronomical writings ("On the astrolabe", "On the armillary spheres", "on the calendar").

See also

• Hindu and Buddhist contribution to science in medieval Islam

References

Sources

• van Bladel, Kevin (2015). "Eighth-Century Indian Astronomy in the Two Cities of Peace". In Sadeghi, Behnam; Ahmed, Asad Q.; Silverstein, Adam J.; Hoyland, Robert G. (eds.). Islamic Cultures, Islamic Contexts Essays In Honor Of Professor Patricia Crone. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-90042-5-201-1.
• Frye, Richard N. (2000). The Golden Age of Persia. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 1842120115.
• Kennedy, Edward Stewart (1956). "A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 46 (2). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: American Philosophical Society: 123–177. doi:10.2307/1005726. hdl:2027/mdp.39076006359272. ISSN 0065-9746. JSTOR 1005726.
• Levtzion, Nehemia (1973). Ancient Ghana and Mali. New York: Methuen & Co Ltd. ISBN 0841904316.
• Montgomery, Scott L. (2000). Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge through Cultures and Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-02265-3-481-7.
• Samsó, Julio (2016). "al-Fazārī". Encyclopedia of Islam (3rd ed.). pp. 91–93 – via Academia.
• Sarton, George (1962). Introduction to the History of Science. Vol. 1. Baltimore, Maryland: Published for the Carnegie Institution of Washington, by the Williams & Wilkins Co. OCLC 1157182492.
• Suter, Heinrich (1900). Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (in German). Leipzig: Teubner. OCLC 230703086.

Further reading

• Cantor, Moritz (1880). Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik. Vol. 1. Leipzig: B.G. Teubner. pp. 597–598. OCLC 1348147344.
• Plofker, Kim (2007). "Fazārī: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 362–3. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Pingree, David (1970). "The Fragments of the Works of Al-Fazari". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 29 (2). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press: 103–123. doi:10.1086/372055. JSTOR 543820. S2CID 68991124 – via JSTOR.
• Pingree, David; Gillispie, Charles Coulston (1981). "Al-Fazārī, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm". In Holmes, Frederick Lawrence (ed.). Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 4. New York: Scribner's. OCLC 755137603.