Al-Kharaqī

Note of Guillaume Postel on the Arabic astronomical manuscript of al-Kharaqī, Muntahā al-idrāk fī taqāsīm al-aflāk ("The Ultimate Grasp of the Divisions of Spheres").

Abū Muḥammad 'Abd al-Jabbār al-Kharaqī, also Al-Kharaqī (1084-1158[1]) was a Persian[2] astronomer and mathematician of the 12th century, born in Kharaq near Merv.[3] He was in the service of Sultan Sanjar at the Persian Court. Al-Kharaqī challenged the astronomical theory of Ptolemy in the Almagest, and established an alternative theory of the spheres, imagining huge material spheres in which the planets moved inside tubes.[3]

During his travels to the Ottoman Empire in 1536, Guillaume Postel acquired an astronomical work by al-Kharaqī, Muntahā al-idrāk fī taqāsīm al-aflāk ("The Ultimate Grassp of the Divisions of Spheres"), annotated it, and brought it back to Europe.[4]

Al-Kharaqī also wrote mathematical treatises, now lost, Al-Risala al-Shāmila ("Comprehensive Treatise") and Al-Risala al-Maghribiyya ("The North African Treatise", related to the calculus of dirham and dinar).[3]

Works[edit]

  • Muntahā al-idrāk fī taqāsīm al-aflāk ("The Ultimate Grassp of the Divisions of Spheres") 1138/9
  • Al-Risala al-Shāmila ("Comprehensive Treatise")
  • Al-Risala al-Maghribiyya ("The North African Treatise")

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Akpınar, Cemil (1997). "HARAKĪ". TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Vol. 16. İstanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı. pp. 94–96.
  2. ^ Selin, Helaine (2008). Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures. Berlin New York: Springer. p. 134. ISBN 9781402049606. Abū Muh.ammad ˓Abd al-Jabbār ibn ˓Abd al-Jabbār al-Kharaqī was a Persian astronomer, mathematician and geographer.
  3. ^ a b c Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine, ed. Helaine Selin, p.478
  4. ^ Islamic science and the making of European Renaissance, by George Saliba, p.218 ISBN 978-0-262-19557-7
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