Al-Battani

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.

Al-Battānī
A modern drawing of al-Battānī holding an astrolabe
Born	c. 858 CE Harran
Died	929 CE Qasr al-Jiss (near Samarra)
Notable work	Kitāb az-Zīj

Career

Al-Battani helped to calculate the distance between the Earth and the Sun, before the telescopes. This allowed him to refine existing values for the length of the year.

Works

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.

Al-Battani died of old age in the year 929. He had been protesting against the taxes in Baghdad, and died on the way home.

Al-Battani Media

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  A geometrical representation of the method used by al-Battānī to determine the qibla, shown as q from O (the observer) to M (Mecca)}

Related pages

• List of scientists from the Middle East

Other websites

• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "al-Battani, Mohammed ibn Jabir ibn Sinan". New International Encyclopedia. (1905). 
  • "Albategnius". Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh) 1. (1911). Cambridge University Press. 
  • "al-Battani". New International Encyclopedia. (1920).