Shams ad-Din Abu Abdallah al-Khalili

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Tablets from al-Khalili for the direction of Mecca, manuscript from Damascus from the 15th to 16th centuries

Shams ad-Din Abu Abdallah al-Khalili ( Arabic شمس الدين أبو عبد الله الخليلي, DMG Šams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḫalīlī ) was a Syrian astronomer of the 14th century (fl. Around 1365).

Al-Khalili was responsible for time and calendar issues (muwaqqit) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . He published extensive astronomical table works primarily for religious purposes. In addition to his own observations, he also used the observations of Ibn Yunus from Cairo (10th century). Although he does not mention any Egyptian astronomers, a colleague of his, the instrument maker al-Mizzi (who died around 1350), had already made tablets and had come to Damascus from Cairo. Some of his tablets were used in Damascus until the 19th century. According to David King, they were the culmination of the Arabs' knowledge of spherical astronomy. They have come down to us in numerous manuscripts. Its astronomical content was not examined by David King until the 1970s .

In a table he gave the direction ( qibla ) to Mecca for all geographical locations with an accuracy of three to four decimal places .

literature

  • David A. King: Al-Khalīlī, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad Ibn Muḥammad , Dictionary of Scientific Biography , Volume 15, pp. 259-261
  • David A. King: Al-Khalili's auxiliary tables for solving problems of spherical astronomy , Journal for the History of Astronomy, Volume 4, 1973, pp. 99-110.
  • David A. King: Al-Khalili's qibla table , Journal of Near-Eastern Studies, Volume 34, 1975, pp. 81-122.
  • David A. King: Khalīlī: Shams al ‐ Dīn Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al ‐ Khalīlī , in: Thomas Hockey (ed.), Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, Springer 2007, pp. 625–626.
  • Glen Van Brummelen : The numerical structure of al-Khalili's auxiliary tables , Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza (NS), Volume 28, 1991, pp. 667-697.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ King, Article Al-Khalili in Dict. Sci. Biogr.
personal data
SURNAME Chalili, Shams ad-Din Abu Abdallah al
ALTERNATIVE NAMES al-Khalili, Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Syrian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH 14th Century
PLACE OF BIRTH Syria
DATE OF DEATH 14th Century