« Kūshyār ibn Labbān’s glossary of astronomy ». Sciamvs, 7, 2006, pp. 145-174.

This article presents an edition and translation of a useful chapter of the Jāmi‘ Zīj (ca. AD 1025), the Arabic astronomical handbook with tables by the Persian astronomer Kūšyār ibn Labbān (see also review 304). This chapter, number 31 of Book III in the Zīj, but also distributed separately, contains a glossary of 131 numbered astronomical terms with definitions or descriptions. There is only a small number of other zīj-es with listings of technical terms, the Ḫāqānī Zīj by al-Kāšī (ca. AD 1..

Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.). Istanbul, Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2003.

This is an extended version of the Russian bio-bibliographical work on Islamic scholars published in 1983 by G. P. Matvievskaya and B. A. Rosenfeld, which in turn was footed in H. Suter’s “Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke” from 1900. The present work has been supplemented, in particular, with information from the volumes on “Ottoman mathematics, astronomy and geography” edited by the second author, and it now includes 1423 chronologically ordered entries for scholars ..

Books I and IV of Kūshyār ibn Labbān’s Jāmi‘ Zīj: An Arabic astronomical handbook by an eleventh-century Iranian scholar. (doctoral dissertation), Mathematical Institute, University of Utrecht, 2006.Also obtainable online from the digital archive of Utrecht University at:http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2007-0109-200521/UUindex.html

This two-volume doctoral dissertation contains an edition and translation of the first and last books of the important and popular astronomical handbook (zīj) by the Persian astronomer Kūšyār ibn Labbān al-Gīlānī, who lived around the year AD 1000. Contrary to many of his colleagues, Kūšyār included in his zīj not only an extensive set of tables (in Book 2) and explanations for their use (Book 1), but also an overview of cosmological aspects and the underlying planetary models (Book 3) as wel..

« Al-Samaw'al versus al-Kūhī on the Depression of the Horizon ». Centaurus, 45 (2003), pp. 116-129.

What is Seen of Sky and Sea (edited and translated by Rashed in Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 11 (2001), pp. 157-204) is one of only very few treatises by the 10th century geometer Abū Sahl al-Kūhī that deals with topics outside of mathematics proper, namely the area of the surface of the sea and the part of an altitude circle that can be seen by an observer at the top of a tower on an island. Al-Kūhī's method is criticized by the 12th century physician Ibn Yaḥyā al-Samaw'al al-Maghribī, wh..

An Index of Authors to A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library

In 1986, David A. King published an English survey of his Arabic catalogue of the scientific manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo, which had appeared in two large volumes in 1981 and 1986. This survey is arranged chronologically by author within a number of geographical regions. Although a list of all authors is found at the beginning of thework, no alphabetical index of authors is included. On the occasion of King’s retirement, and with an eye on the recent renewed interest in the bio-bibliography of Islamic scholars, this article presents such an index, generated from a computer database by Benno van Dalen

Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th-19th c.). Istanbul, Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA), 2003.

This is an extended version of the Russian bio-bibliographical work on Islamic scholars published in 1983 by G. P. Matvievskaya and B. A. Rosenfeld, which in turn was footed in H. Suter’s “Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke” from 1900. The present work has been supplemented, in particular, with information from the volumes on “Ottoman mathematics, astronomy and geography” edited by the second author, and it now includes 1423 chronologically ordered entries for scholars ..

In Synchrony with the Heavens. Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. 2 vol., Leiden, Brill, 2004-2005, vol 1: lvii+930 p.; vol. 2: lxxvi+1066 p.

These two massive volumes constitute an extended version of what the author had announced and referred to for nearly 30 years as SATMI (Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islam), but has now in fact become much more than that. The 18 parts (9 in each volume) represent the vast amount of sources, both manuscripts and instruments, that the author has studied and evaluated during the last 30 years. The twelve studies in Volume 1, entitled “The Call of the Muezzin”, deal with the fol..

« Al-Māhānī's Commentary on the Concept of Ratio ». Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 12 (2002), pp. 9-52.

Abū ‘Abdallāh Muḥammad ibn ‘Īsā ibn Aḥmad al-Māhānī (fl. 865) was the author of one of the earliest Arabic commentaries on the treatment of ratio and proportionality in Book V of Euclid's Elements. In this commentary, extant in nine manuscripts, he provides an alternative, equivalent definition of ratio by means of anthyphairesis, a process similar to the Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers. In this article al-Māhānī's definition is explained and some po..

« The Ashkâl al-ta’sîs of al-Samarqandî: a Translation and Study ». Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 14 (2001), pp. 57-117.

This article provides an English translation of, and a commentary on, the important mathematical treatise Aškāl al-ta’sīs by Šams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ašraf al-Ḥusaynī al-Samarqandī, a contemporary of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī and Quṭb al-Dīn al-Šīrāzī, but not himself active at the observatory of Maragha. The Aškāl is strongly dependent on the Elements of Euclid and was the subject of numerous commentaries and super-commentaries

« Barresī va taḥlīl-e moqaddamātī-ye tarjome-ye fārsī-ye Zīj-i Šustaka » (A survey and preliminary analysis of [the Persian translation of] the “Zīj-i Shustakah”). Tārīḫ-e ‘Elm (Journal of the Institute for the History of Science in Tehran), 2, 2004, pp. 93-118.

The Šustaka Zīj by Ḥusayn ibn Mūsā al-Hurmūzī, which, judging from a number of sample calculations, was compiled in the early 11th century, is of a very different nature from the Arabic and Persian astronomical handbooks with tables that are usually called “zīj”. In fact, the Šustaka Zīj (possibly meaning “Sexagesimal Zīj” or “Pocket Zīj”) consists of only fourteen brief chapters, explaining for each of the seven planets, how to calculate its position from that of a certain period of time ago..