Some of the most significant contributions to astronomical science by Muslim scholars
- The Zij-i Ilkhani, also known as the Ilkhanic Tables, was a major astronomical treatise completed in 1272.
It was penned by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, a Persian polymath and astronomer who also contributed to scholarship related to mathematics, architecture, philosophy, and theology.
2. Book of Tables
Written by Al-Zarqali, a Spanish Muslim who is known for his outstanding contributions to astronomy and for inventing a form of the astrolabe. To his credit are also the famed Water Clocks of Toledo.
It is worth noting that amongst all Kutub al-Zij (discussed in this article), it is only his Book of Tables which allowed readers to find the beginning and end of Solar, Lunar, Coptic, Roman, and Persian months. Besides this, the manuscript also includes tables on longitude, latitude, and the positioning of planets whilst also predicting eclipses.
3. Toledo Tables
The Tables of Toledo, also a work of Al-Zarqali, are a compilation of astronomical data which demonstrated an unprecedented accuracy, not only in his time but for several centuries to come. Toledan Tables were used to predict the movements of the Sun, Moon and planets relative to the fixed stars.
4. Melkite Calendar, or Les Fetes des Melchites
The Melkites were a sect of Christians. Along with the Coptics, Nestorians and Jacobites, they did not identify with other Orthodox churches in 11th-14th Century Europe, owing to distinctive attributes.
It was inked by Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni, a scholar from Khwarazmian, who has earned himself a place in history as the founder of various fields, including geometry, geodesy, ethnography, anthropology, Indology, and of comparative religion.
5. Risala fi istikhraj tarikh al-yahud
A comprehensive treatise on the Hebrew calendar, it was also contributed by al-Biruni.
6. Zij al-Sind
An astronomical treatise authored by Al-Biruni, which is famed to be one of his most famous works. It is not to be confused with the Zij al-Sindhind, an 8th-century Indian astronomical work that was translated into Arabic by al-Fazari and Yaqub ibn Tariq.
7. Kitab al-Zij as Sabi
Al-Battani, one of the most influential mathematicians and astronomers in history, is best known for introducing a number of trigonometric relations and for his manuscript, The Book of Sabian Astronomical Tables. The almanac updated and corrected Ptolemaic works along with other Greco-Syriac sources.
8. al-Zij al-Kabir al-Hakimi
Written by Ibn Yunus, an Egyptian astronomer and polymath, The Great Hakimid Ephemeris is a futuristic book of meticulous calculations dedicated to the Fatimid Caliph Abu Ali Mansur al-Hakim.
The astronomical handbook of tables was intended to replace the al‐Zīj al‐Mumtahan, a book composed nearly two centuries earlier during the Abbasid reign in Baghdad, at the time of Caliph al-Mamun. Interestingly enough, Ibn Yunus expressed solutions in his book without using mathematical symbols.
9. Sharh-i Zij-i Ulugh Begh
It is a compilation of The Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Begh by Al-Qushji. Ulugh Begh was one of the most critically acclaimed names in the sciences of astronomy and mathematics of his time. He was also a Timurid Sultan, with his full name being Mirza Muhammad Taraghay bin Shahrukh. Al-Qushji himself was known for a number of innovative and valuable works, particularly within the natural sciences of mathematics and astronomy.
10. Zij al-Wadih
The Zij al-Wadih, whilst lost, is known for being chronicled by bibliographers and referred to for the unprecedented accuracy of calculations presented in the tables collected from various observatories across the Muslim World.
Abul Wafa, a scientist, is known not only for his own observations on astronomy, contributions to spherical trigonometry, and pioneering the use of negative numbers but also for his commentary on earlier scholarship pertaining to mathematics.
