Al-Battani
islamic astronomer and mathematician (died 929) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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.[1] He was from Harran. His full name was Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī al-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī.
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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.[2][3]
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References
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