Mustafa ibn Ali al-Muwaqqit
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Mustafa ibn Ali al-Muwaqqit (died 1571, the epithet al-Muwaqqit means "the timekeeper"), also known as Müneccimbaşı Mustafa Çelebi and Koca Saatçi, was an Ottoman astronomer and author of geography from the sixteenth century. Because of his works on the science of timekeeping and practical astronomy, he is considered "the founder of the Ottoman tradition" of those fields. He was one of the pioneers of astronomy literature in
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
—instead of Arabic which was more common in the Islamic world—following
Muhammad al-Qunawi Muhammad ibn al-Katib Sinan al-Qunawi (died ), also known as Muhammad ibn Yusuf, was an Ottoman astronomer and '' muwaqqit'' (timekeeper) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. A pioneer of Ottoman astronomy, especially in the fie ...
. Since his youth he served as the ''muwaqqit'' (religious timekeeper) attached to the Mosque of Selim I in Istanbul, in which capacity he produced most of his writing. In 1560 or later he was appointed to the office of ''
müneccimbaşı Müneccimbaşı (sometimes also spelled as ''Müneccimbashi,'' ''Müneccimbasi,'' ''Munejjimbashi,'' or ''Munejjim-bashi'') was the title given to the chief court astrologer in the Ottoman Empire. The title was held in succession from the 15th ce ...
'', the highest post for astronomers of the Empire.


Early life

Muslih al-Din Mustafa ibn Ali al-Qustantini al-Rumi was born in Istanbul, the capital of the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, in the early sixteenth century. Among his teachers were the astronomer
Mirim Çelebi Mirim Çelebi was a 16th-century Ottoman astronomer. ''Çelebi'' was an honorific title meaning "gentleman". His father Kutbiddin Muhammed was the grandson of the famous Ottoman astronomer Ali Kuşçu (1403–1474). Mirim Çelebi was born in ...
(1475–1525), as well
Muhammad al-Qunawi Muhammad ibn al-Katib Sinan al-Qunawi (died ), also known as Muhammad ibn Yusuf, was an Ottoman astronomer and '' muwaqqit'' (timekeeper) in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. A pioneer of Ottoman astronomy, especially in the fie ...
(d. ) a ''
muwaqqit In the history of Islam, a ''muwaqqit'' ( ar, مُوَقَّت, more rarely ''mīqātī'') was an astronomer tasked with the timekeeping and the regulation of prayer times in an Islamic institution like a mosque or a madrasa. Unlike the mue ...
'' (religious timekeeper) in the tradition of
Shams al-Din al-Khalili Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Khalīlī ( ar, شمس الدين عبد الله محمد بن محمد الخليلي ; 1320–1380) was a Mamluk-era Syrian astronomer who compiled extensive tables for astronomical ...
and
Ibn al-Shatir ʿAbu al-Ḥasan Alāʾ al‐Dīn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ansari known as Ibn al-Shatir or Ibn ash-Shatir ( ar, ابن الشاطر; 1304–1375) was an Arab astronomer, mathematician and engineer. He worked as '' muwaqqit'' (موقت, religious ...
, and Ottoman astronomer who began the attempt to write about his field in
Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extens ...
rather than Arabic.


Career

Mustafa ibn Ali was appointed as the ''muwaqqit'' of the Mosque of Selim I in Istanbul, when he was young. He produced most of his works during this tenure. Instead of Arabic, the customary scientific language of the Islamic World at the time, he wrote mostly in Ottoman Turkish. This decision was made in order to popularise the field of astronomy in the Ottoman state, to make it accessible to more students, and to facilitate the mention of non-Arabic place names. Many of his works were dedicated for Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
and his
grand vizier Grand vizier ( fa, وزيرِ اعظم, vazîr-i aʾzam; ota, صدر اعظم, sadr-ı aʾzam; tr, sadrazam) was the title of the effective head of government of many sovereign states in the Islamic world. The office of Grand Vizier was first ...
s, possibly aimed to be used by the state bureaucracy; this application was facilitated by the use of Turkish. According to the historian of science İhsan Fazlıoğlu, the relatively high number of extant copies of his works was an indication of the success of his attempt to reach a wider audience by using Turkish. His works were reproduced up to the middle of the nineteenth century and were used as textbooks in
madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...
and muvakkithanes (offices of the ''muwaqqits''). Fazlıoğlu characterised his works by their "high level of geometry, trigonometry (especially spherical trigonometry), and numerical analysis", and their style of writing that is easy to understand and apply. Among his earliest works was a book of mathematical geography titled ''I'lam al-'ibad fi a'lam al-bilad'' ("Notices on the Distances of Cities of the World"), written in Ottoman Turkish. It includes a list of 100 major cities from Morocco to China, and the coordinates, distance from Istanbul, the
qibla The qibla ( ar, قِبْلَة, links=no, lit=direction, translit=qiblah) is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the s ...
(direction that indicates
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
) of each city. It was written in 1525 and was dedicated to Suleiman the Magnificent. His subsequent work on geography, ''Tuhfat az-zaman wa-kharidat al-awan'' (also in Ottoman Turkish), discusses the discipline of geography and its roots, the celestial objects, the Earth, its geographical features, and its division into seven climes. It was built on works by earlier scholars, including astronomers
Jaghmini Mahmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Umar al-Jaghmini () or 'al-Chaghmīnī', or al-Jaghmini, was a 13th or 14th-century Arab physician, astronomer and author of the '' Qanunshah'' (''The Canon of Medicine'') a short epitome of by Avicenna in Persian, and ...
, Qadizade al-Rumi, and
Zakariya al-Qazwini Zakariyya' al-Qazwini ( , ar, أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني), also known as Qazvini ( fa, قزوینی), born in Qazvin (Iran) and died 1283, was a Persian cosmographer and geographer of Arab ances ...
, as well as the zoologist
Al-Damiri Al-Damiri (1341–1405), the common name of Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Musa al-Damiri ( ar, كمال الدين محمد بن موسى الدميري), was an Arab Muslim writer from Egypt on canon law and natural history. He wrote the first work ...
. Many of his other works were about astronomical instruments. Among these, ''Faraḥ Fazā'' was dedicated to the grand vizier
Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha ("Ibrahim Pasha of Parga"; c. 1495 – 15 March 1536), also known as Frenk Ibrahim Pasha ("the Westerner"), Makbul Ibrahim Pasha ("the Favorite"), which later changed to Maktul Ibrahim Pasha ("the Executed") after his ex ...
and describes the horizontal quadrant (''al-rub' al-afaqi''), which according to Mustafa was his own invention. Another work, ''Kifayat al-qanu' fi al-'amal bi'r-rub' al-maqtu'' was written in Arabic and was a commentary on the works of an earlier ''muwaqqit''
Sibt al-Maridini Sibt al-Maridini, full name Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad Abū ʿAbd Allāh Badr hamsal‐Dīnal‐Miṣrī al‐Dimashqī (1423 – 1506 AD), was an astronomer and mathematician. () His father came from Damascus. The word "Sibt al-Ma ...
. His other works, ''Kifayat al-waqt'', also known as ''Risala fi al-muqantarat'' (1529), was written in Turkish and describes an instrument called the astrolabic quadrant, as well as other themes in geometry, trigonometry, and astronomy. Today 120 copies of this work are extant in various libraries. His ''Tashil al-miqat'' (1529) discusses the science of
timekeeping Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to co ...
and the
sine quadrant 250px, Sinecal Quadrant or as it is known in Arabic: Rub‘ul mujayyab The sine quadrant (Arabic: , ), sometimes known as the "sinecal quadrant", was a type of quadrant used by medieval Arabic astronomers. The instrument could be used to measur ...
(''al-rub' al-mujayyab''). This work appeared to have been continuously updated, and today it is found in 100 extant copies of five distinct versions. He describes another instrument, ''al-mujayyab al-afaqi'' in the work ''Risalah-i jayb-i afaqi'' (1529, Turkish) and describes its use for the coordinates of Istanbul in the work ''Hall da'irat mu'addil al-nahar'' (1531, Turkish) which was commissioned by the grand vizier
Ayas Mehmed Pasha Ayas Mehmed Pasha (1483–1539) was an Ottoman statesman and grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1536 to 1539.İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı, Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 15. (Turkish) He was an Albanian born ...
. His longest work was Risalat al-asturlab al-Selimi ("Selim's Treatise on the Astrolabe"), which was written in 1544, also in Turkish, and discusses the construction of the astrolabe, its mathematical properties, and its uses, based on
Zij-i Sultani ''Zīj-i Sulṭānī'' ( fa, زیجِ سلطانی) is a Zij astronomical table and star catalogue that was published by Ulugh Beg in 1438–1439. It was the joint product of the work of a group of Muslim astronomers working under the patronage ...
published by the astronomer
Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
in 1438 or 1439. In or after 1560, he was appointed
müneccimbaşı Müneccimbaşı (sometimes also spelled as ''Müneccimbashi,'' ''Müneccimbasi,'' ''Munejjimbashi,'' or ''Munejjim-bashi'') was the title given to the chief court astrologer in the Ottoman Empire. The title was held in succession from the 15th ce ...
(or ''munajjim-bashi'', "head astrologer"), the highest office for astronomers in the Ottoman Empire, hence his other name "Müneccimbaşı Mustafa
Çelebi Çelebi is a town and district of Kırıkkale Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. At the 2000 Turkish census The 2000 Turkish census was held in 2000 and recorded the population and demographic details of every settlement in Turk ...
". He replaced Yusuf ibn Umar and held the post until his death in 1571. He was the primary reference in the Ottoman Empire on the science of timekeeping, and according to the Turkish explorer
Evliya Çelebi Derviş Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi ( ota, اوليا چلبى), was an Ottoman explorer who travelled through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years, recording ...
his works were cited in Western Europe. Other than the title ''al-muwaqqit'' and ''müneccimbaşı'', based on his offices, he was also known by the honorific ''Koca Saatçi'' ("the great timekeeper"). After Mustafa's death, Sultan
Selim II Selim II ( Ottoman Turkish: سليم ثانى ''Selīm-i sānī'', tr, II. Selim; 28 May 1524 – 15 December 1574), also known as Selim the Blond ( tr, Sarı Selim) or Selim the Drunk ( tr, Sarhoş Selim), was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ...
appointed the prominent scholar
Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf ash-Shami al-Asadi ( ar, تقي الدين محمد بن معروف الشامي; ota, تقي الدين محمد بن معروف الشامي السعدي; tr, Takiyüddin‎ 1526–1585) was an Ottoman poly ...
—who just returned to Istanbul in 1570 after his service in the
Egypt Eyalet The Eyalet of Egypt (, ) operated as an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 to 1867. It originated as a result of the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by the Ottomans in 1517, following the Ottoman–Mamluk War (1516–17) and the a ...
—as his successor.


Legacy

Mustafa ibn Ali was one of the most important Ottoman astronomers of the sixteenth century. Because of his works on the theory and applications of the science of timekeeping and practical astronomy, Fazlıoğlu writes that he is considered to be "the founder of the Ottoman tradition" of those fields. He was one of the earliest authors of astronomy in Turkish, a tradition started by Muhammad al-Qunawi.


References


Bibliography

* * * {{cite encyclopedia , last = Fazlıoğlu , first = İhsan , title=ʿAlī al‐Muwaqqit: Muṣliḥ al‐Dīn Muṣṭafā ibn ʿAlī al‐Qusṭanṭīnī al‐Rūmī al‐Ḥanafī al‐Muwaqqit , editor1 = Thomas Hockey , editor2 = Virginia Trimble , editor3 = Thomas R. Williams , editor4 = Katherine Bracher , editor5 = Richard A. Jarrell , editor6 = Jordan D. MarchéII , editor7 = JoAnn Palmeri , editor8 = Daniel W. E. Green , encyclopedia = The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers , publisher = Springer , date = 2007 , location = New York , pages = 33–34 , url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ali_al-Muwaqqit_BEA.htm , isbn=9780387310220 Astronomers from the Ottoman Empire Scientists from Istanbul 16th-century births 1571 deaths 16th-century scientists from the Ottoman Empire