Note of Postel on an Arabic astronomical manuscript in 1436 in Constantinople

Abū Muḥammad 'Abd al-Jabbār al-Kharaqī, also Al-Kharaqī (1084-1158) was a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

astronomer and mathematician of the 12th century, born in Kharaq near

Merv Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...

.''Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine'', ed.

Helaine Selin Helaine Selin (born 1946) is an American librarian, historian of science, author and book editor. Career Selin attended Binghamton University, where she earned her bachelor's degree. She received her MLS from SUNY Albany. She was a Peace Corps ...

p.478
/ref> He was in the service of Sultan Sanjar at the Persian Court. Al-Kharaqī challenged the astronomical theory of

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

in the ''

Almagest The ''Almagest'' ( ) is a 2nd-century Greek mathematics, mathematical and Greek astronomy, astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Ptolemy, Claudius Ptolemy ( ) in Koine Greek. One of the most i ...

'', and established an alternative theory of the spheres, imagining huge material spheres in which the planets moved inside tubes. He later wrote ''at-Tabṣıra fî ʿilmi’l-hayʾa'' as a second edition to his well-known book ''Muntahā al-idrāk fī taqāsīm al-aflāk'' in which he removed some parts and reshaped its structure as two parts instead of three. During his travels to the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1536,

Guillaume Postel Guillaume Postel (25 March 1510 – 6 September 1581) was a French linguist, Orientalist, astronomer, Christian Kabbalist, diplomat, polyglot, professor, religious universalist, and writer. Born in the village of Barenton in Normandy, Post ...

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.''Islamic science and the making of European Renaissance'', by George Saliba, p.218 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 Calculus is the mathematics, mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithmetic operations. Originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the ...

dirham The dirham, dirhem or drahm is a unit of currency and of mass. It is the name of the currencies of Moroccan dirham, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates dirham, United Arab Emirates and Armenian dram, Armenia, and is the name of a currency subdivisi ...

and

dinar The dinar () is the name of the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, with a more widespread historical use. The English word "dinar" is the transliteration of the Arabic دينار (''dīnār''), which was bor ...

Works

* ''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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Kharaqi 12th-century Iranian mathematicians 12th-century Iranian astronomers Astronomers of the medieval Islamic world Scholars from the Seljuk Empire People from Merv 1084 births 1158 deaths