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Ulugh Beg with scientists (modern cast) at Ulugh Beg Madrasa (15th century CE), Samarkand

The history of Islamic sciences is complex and dates back to the early days of Islam, the so-called Golden Age, in the second half of the 8th and the 9th centuries CE. During the reign of the 2nd Caliph Al Mansur (754-775 CE) time, the Bait al-Hikma (House of Knowledge), where numerous pre-Islamic texts from Greece, Mesopotamia, and India were studied and translated, was established in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid dynasty (r. 750-1250 CE).

Scholars hail Ulugh Beg´s (1394–1449) 15th-century observatory in Samarkand and associated madrasa as one of the most famous scientific institutions in the Islamicate world. The observatory produced unequaled astronomical observations that resulted in a star catalog called the Zij-i Sultani. A team of dedicated astronomers created the astronomical tables at the Samarkand observatory, and their work stood out for the accuracy with which the tables were computed. This web-edition of Ulugh Beg´s Zij presents three different editions: a complete digitized 18th century Arabic edition at the National Library of Egypt, a sample from a Persian edition at the Oxford Bodleian Library that belonged to 17th century Oxford Mathematician and Astronomer John Greaves, a printed edition of a 17th century Latin translation by Thomas Hyde at Stanford Special Collections. From the various manuscript and printed editions of Zij-i Sultani found and preserved in the libraries around the world, it can be deduced that it was immensely influential and remained actively in use.  Source: Fyza Parviz Jazra  https://web.stanford.edu/~fparviz/introduction.html#footnote-7-ref

Link to copy in the Bodleian Library  https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/8772a1fe-ab37-45d6-80ff-f1430f0e6585

 

Related image can be found in these folders 

 

A copy of Ulugh Beg's Zij, kept in Samarkand can be seen here