A modern drawing of al-Battānī holding an astrolabe
|Born||c. 858 CE
Qasr al-Jiss (near Samarra)
|Notable works||Kitāb az-Zīj|
|Influenced||Abū al-Wafā', al-Bīrūnī, Copernicus|
Al-Battānī (other names include Albategnius, Albategni and Albatenius; born about 858 – died 929) was an Arab astronomer, astrologer and mathematician. He is considered an important astronomer and mathematician of the Islamic Golden Age. His discoveries about trigonometry were often quoted by medieval European astronomers; including by Copernicus. He was from Harran. His full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī al-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī.
He is most famous for his book the Kitāb az-Zīj (or the Zij). The Zij was a book with 57 chapters dedicated to astronomy. He influenced the works of Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, who were famous astronomers of later times. The book was translated many times into many different languages. Inside the Zij, Al-Battani made a map of the stars, naming a few of them.
References[change | change source]
- Hartner, Willy (1970–80). "Al-Battānī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ibn Jābir Ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī al–Ṣābi". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
- "Al-Battani". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 25. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Biography in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
- "al- Battani". Notable Mathematicians. Gale, 2008. Biography in Context. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Other websites[change | change source]
- "Albategnius". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh). (1911). Cambridge University Press.
- "al-Battani". New International Encyclopedia. (1920).