Abū al-Fath Abd al-Rahman Mansūr al-Khāzini or simply al-Khāzini (, flourished 1115–1130) was an Iranian astronomer of Greek origin from

Seljuk Persia The Great Seljuk Empire, or the Seljuk Empire was a high medieval, culturally Turko-Persian, Sunni Muslim empire, founded and ruled by the Qïnïq branch of Oghuz Turks. It spanned a total area of from Anatolia and the Levant in the west to ...

. His

astronomical table In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly vel ...

s written under the patronage of

Sultan Sanjar Senjer ( fa, ; full name: ''Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah Abul-Harith Ahmad Sanjar ibn Malik-Shah'') (''b''. 1085 – ''d''. 8 May 1157) was the Seljuq ruler of Khorasan from 1097 until in 1118,mathematical astronomy of the medieval period. Montelle, C. (2011). The ‘Well-Known Calendars’: Al-Khāzinī’s Description of Significant Chronological Systems for Medieval Mathematical Astronomy in Arabic. In Steele J. (Ed.), Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World (pp. 107-126). Oxford; Oakville: Oxbow Books. He provided the positions of fixed stars, and for oblique ascensions and time-equations for the latitude of Marv in which he was based.Meyerhof, M. (1948). 'Alī al-Bayhaqī's Tatimmat Siwān al-Hikma: A Biographical Work on Learned Men of the Islam. Osiris, 8, 122-217. He also wrote extensively on various calendrical systems and on the various manipulations of the calendars. He was the author of an encyclopedia on scales and water-balances.

Life

Al-Khazini was an emancipated slave in Marv, which was then one of the most important cities of

Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...

. He got his name from his master () who was the treasurer of Marv. The term ''khāzin'' was simply the title of the royal treasurer since the early Islamic period. His master made provisions so that al-Khazini could obtain a first-class education. Some believe that al-Khazini was a pupil of Omar Khayyam. While this is not known, he wrote about Khayyam, in particular, he gave a description of the water-balance invented by him (and improved upon by

Al-Isfizari Abū Ḥātim al-Muẓaffar al-Isfazārī (Floruit, fl. late 11th or early 12th century) was an Islamic mathematician, astronomer and engineer from Khurasan. According to the historian and geographer Ibn al-Athir and the polymath Qutb al-Din al ...

). And according to some sources, he collaborated with him on the reformation of the Persian calendar in 1079.Mehdi Aminrazavi, ''The Wine of Wisdom: The Life, Poetry and Philosophy of Omar Khayyam'', Oneworld Publications (2007) Al-Khazini was known for being a humble man. He refused thousands of

Dinar The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread. The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin of ...

for his works, saying he did not need much to live on because it was only his cat and himself in his household. Al-Khazini was one of only about twenty astronomers of the Islamic era who performed original observations. His works reached Byzantium in the 14th century, in particular, they were studied by George Chrysococces and later by

Theodore Meliteniotes Theodore Meliteniotes ( el, Θεόδωρος Μελιτηνιώτης; Constantinople, c. 1320 - 8 March 1393) was a Byzantine Greek astronomer, a ''sakellarios'' (treasurer) in the Byzantine bureaucracy, a supporter of Gregory Palamas and an oppon ...

Achievements

Al Khazini seems to have been a high government official under Sanjar ibn Malikshah and the sultan of the Seljuk Empire. He did most of his work in Merv, where they are known for their libraries. His best-known works are "The Book of the Balance of Wisdom", "Treatise on Astronomical Wisdom", and "The Astronomical Tables for Sanjar". "The Book of the Balance of Wisdom" is an encyclopedia of medieval mechanics and hydrostatics composed of eight books with fifty chapters. It is a study of the hydrostatic balance and the ideas behind statics and hydrostatics, it also covers other unrelated topics. There are four different manuscripts of "The Book of the Balance of Wisdom" that have survived. The balance al-Khazini built for Sanjar's treasury was modeled after the balance al-Asfizari, who was a generation older than al-Khazini, built. Sanjar's treasurer out of fear destroyed al-Asfizari's balance; he was filled with grief when he heard the news. Al-Khazini called his balance "combined balance" to show honor towards Al-Asfizari. The meaning of the balance was a "balance of true judgment". The job of this balance was to help the treasury see what metals were precious and which gems were real or fake. In "The Book of the Balance of Wisdom" al-Khazini states many different examples from the Koran ways that his balance fits into religion. When al-Khazini explains the advantages of his balance he says that it "performs the functions of skilled craftsmen", its benefits are theoretical and practical precision. The "Treatise on Astronomical Wisdom" is a relatively short work. It has seven parts and each part is assigned to a different scientific instrument. The seven instruments include: a triquetrum, a dioptra, a "triangular instrument," a quadrant, devices involving reflection, an astrolabe, and simple tips for viewing things with the naked eye. The treatise describes each instrument and its uses. "The Astronomical Tables for Sanjar" is said to have been composed for Sultan Sanjar, the ruler of Merv and his balance was made for Sanjar's treasury. The tables in "The Astronomical Tables for Sanjar" are tables of holidays, fasts, etc. The tables are said to have the latitudes and longitudes of forty-three different stars, along with their magnitudes and (astrological) temperaments. It is said that al-Khazini's observations for this work were probably done in Merv in various observatories with high quality instruments.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khazini 12th-century alchemists 12th-century Iranian astronomers 12th-century Iranian mathematicians Islamic philosophers Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world Greek Muslims Medieval physicists Persian alchemists Persian physicists Iranian slaves Iranian people of Greek descent Scholars from the Seljuk Empire Iranian chemists 12th-century deaths 11th-century births Medieval slaves

Life

Achievements

See also

References