Al-Farghani
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Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Kathir al-Farghani known as Alfraganus in the West, was a Persian astronomer and one of the famous astronomers in ninth century.
Among other things, he measured the diameter of the Earth. Elements of Astronomy on the motion of celestial bodies written by Alfraganus about 833 AD was the most popular book in astronomy until the fifteenth century in the West and in the East, and had been used as a handbook in astronomy. This book was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and exerted a great influence upon European astronomy before Regiomontanus. Elements of Astronomy was a summary of Ptolemy’s Almagest, and had immensely influenced the Western astronomy as well as the Eastern astronomy for a long time. (By Yavuz Unat, Ankara University,Departmant of History of Science Sihhiye, ANKARA/TURKEY)
Bibliography
- Al-Farghânî, Kitâb Cevâmi’ ‘İlm el-Nücûm ve Usûl el-Harekât, (manuscript), Istanbul, Carullah, 1279/30 (384a - 393a).
- Al-Farghânî, Kitâb el-Fusûl el-Mudhâl fî Mecistî, (manuscript), Istanbul, Ayasofya, 2843/2 (61a - 102a, 772 H.).
- Al-Farghânî, Jawâmi’ ‘İlm al-Nujûm wa-Usûl al-Harakât al-Samâwîya, trans. into Latin by Jacob Golius, Frankfurt 1986.
- El-Fergânî, The Elements of Astronomy, textual analysis, translation into Turkish, critical edition & facsimile by Yavuz Unat, edited by Şinasi Tekin & Gönül Alpay Tekin, Harvard University 1998.