Taqi ad-Din

This article describes the Ottoman polymath. For the founder of the Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir , see Taqī ad-Dīn an-Nabhānī .

Astronomers work at the Murad III observatory.
(Taqi ad-Din is believed to be one of the two men on the right behind the counter looking at the astrolabe.)

Taqī ad-Dīn (full name Taqī ad-Dīn Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Qādhī Ma'rūf ibn Ahmad al-Shāmī al-'Asadī ar-Rāsid , Arabic تقي الدين محمد بن معروف الشامي الأسدي, DMG Taqīyu d-Dīn Muḥammad b. Maʿrūf aš-Šāmī as-Saʿdī , Turkish Takîyüddîn ; * 1526 in Damascus ; † 1585 in Istanbul ) was an Ottoman polymath . He worked as an astronomer and astrologer , engineer, inventor and watchmaker , physicist and mathematician , biologist , pharmacist and doctor . He also worked as a university professor , Islamic judge , philosopher and theologian . Ottoman contemporaries unanimously called him the "greatest scientist in the world".

He wrote more than 90 books on various subjects, of which only 24 have survived. His most important inventions and discoveries include a steam turbine , a complex piston pump , various mechanical clocks , a telescope and various astronomical instruments. For the Ottoman Sultan Murad III. he built one of the largest observatories in the world at that time in Istanbul .

Life

Taqi ad-Din was born in Damascus in 1526. He received his scientific training in Damascus in Syria and Cairo in Egypt. Both places belonged to the Ottoman Empire at that time. For some time he worked in Damascus, Cairo and Nablus as a judge ( Qādī ) , theologian ( Ilm al-Kalam ) , astronomer and timekeeper (Mawaqit) at a mosque and university teacher at a madrasa . At the same time he wrote his first books.

In 1571 he moved to the center of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul to become court astronomer and interpreter (Müneccimbaşı) of Sultan Selim II . After his death in 1574, Taqi ad-Din convinced his successor Murad III to have an observatory built, arguing that it would make precise astrological predictions possible. The observatory was completed in 1577 and was intended to surpass the famous Ulug Beg observatory . With the help of the observatory Taqi ad-Din improved the accuracy of astronomical tables (Zīdsch) for the course of the sun, moon, planets and stars, especially Ulug Begs Zīdsch-i Sultānī .

When the observatory had only been in operation for a few months, Taqi ad-Din observed the Great Comet of 1577 , interpreted it as an omen and then predicted a military victory for the Ottoman Empire. This prophecy turned out to be false, whereupon the angry Sultan Murad III. saw the observatory as pointless, stopped funding and had the observatory demolished in 1580.

Works

Steam turbine

Almost 80 years before Giovanni Branca , who is well known in the western world as the inventor of steam turbines , Taqi ad-Din described a simple impulse steam turbine in his work Al-Turuq al-samiyya fi al-alat al-Ruhaniyya (The high methods of the spiritual machines) as a drive for a rotisserie grill . A closed copper kettle filled with water, which ended in a nozzle at the top, served as the steam source . The kettle was brought to a boil over a fire, the steam blew as a jet from the nozzle onto an impeller (similar to a Pelton turbine ), which in turn drove the grill spit.

A replica of the apparatus can be seen in the museum of the Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Piston pump

Also in the above Taqi ad-Din described a complex piston pump with 6 cylinders , counterweights and non-return valves, which were controlled and driven by a central camshaft . The pump was driven by water power and served as a pumping station .

A model of this pump can also be seen in the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences at the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Clocks

As tools for his work as an astronomer and muvakkit , responsible for determining the precise, prescribed times (waqt) for prayer ( Salat ) , Taqi ad-Din developed various astronomical clocks, alarm clocks and pocket watches : the clocks were driven by spring mechanisms and showed The time is accurate to the minute on three dials. Later he combined the three dials into one and improved the accuracy down to the seconds range (intervals of 1/5 minute = 12 seconds) - a precision that was hardly known until then. He also built a watch with a simple striking mechanism and - shortly after Peter Henlein - a watch that was so small that it could be worn on the body.

optics

Taqi ad-Din conducted a series of studies on the human eye and the nature of light, and published three books on the subject. He recognized that the color of light results from the superposition and refraction of light. He investigated the reflection (reflection) of light on plates made of polished copper and the refraction with lenses made of cut crystal. From this he developed a simple telescope .

astronomy

In addition to the astronomical clocks , Taqi ad-Din developed and improved a whole range of astronomical instruments, such as B. huge armillary spheres , astrolabes , rulers , quadrants and sextants (see picture). He also had a remarkably accurate globe of the then known world.

These instruments were used in the observatory constructed by Taqi ad-Din, mentioned above in the section CV , and were used for the temporal and spatial measurement of the positions and orbits of celestial objects. In this way Taqi ad-Din worked out astronomical and astrological tables, catalogs and maps that reached or even exceeded the accuracy of the western contemporaries Tycho Brahe and Nicolaus Copernicus .

mathematics

Taqi ad-Din was the first astronomer to use the decimal system to calculate trigonometric functions instead of the sexagesimal system that had been common up until then . He was the first to precisely calculate the sine of 1 °.

He wrote several books on geometry , trigonometry , arithmetic and algebra with a focus on application in astronomy.

literature

• Sezgin, F. et al. a .: Science and technology in Islam. Volume V, Publisher: Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt a. M., 2003

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dr. Salim Ayduz: Taqi ad-Din Ibn Ma'ruf: A Bio-Bibliographical Essay. June 26, 2008, accessed July 4, 2008 .  (English)
2. ↑ Chief Astronomer Taqi al-Din was born to a family of Turkish descent in Damascus. Hoffmann, Dieter; İhsanoğlu, Ekmeleddin; Djebbar, Ahmed; Günergun, Feza. Science, technology, and industry in the Ottoman world. In: Volume 6 of Proceedings of the XXth International Congress of History of Science. p. 19. Publisher Brepols, 2000. ISBN 2-503-51095-7
3. ↑ Ágoston, Gábor; Masters, Bruce Alan: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire. Infobase Publishing, 2009. p. 552 ISBN 0-8160-6259-5
4. ↑ Achmed Khammas - The Book of Synergies - Part C - Water vapor
5. ↑ Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt - Virtual Museum Tour - Physics I - Steam-powered roast turner ( Memento of the original from June 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt - Virtual Museum Tour - Physics I - Pump with six pistons  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.