Everything about Muhammad Ibn J Bir Al-harr N Al-batt N totally explained
(c.
853,
Harran –
929, Qasr al-Jiss, near
Samarra)
Latinized as
Albategnius,
Albategni or
Albatenius was an
Arab astronomer,
astrologer, and
mathematician, born in
Harran near
Urfa, which is now in
Turkey. His epithet
as-Sabi suggests that among his ancestry were members of the
Sabian sect who worshipped the stars; however, his full name affirms that he was
Muslim.
Astronomy
One of his best-known achievements in
astronomy was the determination of the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds.
Al Battani worked in
Syria, at
ar-Raqqah and at
Damascus, where he died. He was able to correct some of
Ptolemy's results and compiled new tables of the
Sun and
Moon, long accepted as authoritative, discovered the movement of the Sun's
apogee, treats the division of the celestial sphere, and introduces, probably independently of the
5th century Indian astronomer
Aryabhata, the use of
sines in calculation, and partially that of
tangents, forming the basis of modern
trigonometry. He also calculated the values for the
precession of the equinoxes (54.5" per year, or 1° in 66 years) and the inclination of Earth's axis (23° 35'). He used a uniform rate for precession in his tables, choosing not to adopt the theory of
trepidation attributed to his colleague
Thabit ibn Qurra.
His most important work is his
zij, or set of astronomical tables, known as with 57 chapters, which by way of Latin translation as
De Motu Stellarum by
Plato Tiburtinus (Plato of Tivoli) in
1116 (printed
1537 by
Melanchthon, annotated by
Regiomontanus), had great influence on
European astronomy. The zij is based on Ptolemy's theory, showing little Indian influence. A reprint appeared at
Bologna in
1645. Plato's original manuscript is preserved at the
Vatican; and the
Escorial Library possesses in manuscript a treatise by Al Battani on astronomical chronology.
During his observations for his improved tables of the Sun and the Moon, he discovered that the direction of the Sun's
eccentric was changing, which in modern astronomy is equivalent to the Earth moving in an
elliptical orbit around the Sun. His times for the
new moon, lengths for the
solar year and
sidereal year, prediction of
eclipses, and work on the phenomenon of
parallax, carried astronomers "to the verge of
relativity and the
space age."
Copernicus mentioned his indebtedness to Al-Battani and quoted him, in the book that initiated the
Copernican Revolution, the
De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium.
Mathematics
Battānī produced a number of trigonometrical relationships:
» :
He also used
al-Marwazi's idea of Tangents ("shadows") to develop equations for calculating tangents and cotangents, compiling tables of them.
Honors
Further Information
Get more info on 'Muhammad Ibn J Bir Al-harr N Al-batt N'.
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