al'Battani

Abu Allah Mohammad ibn Jabir al'Battani

Born: about 850 in Haran (near Urfa), Syria
Died: 929 in Samarra, Iraq

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Al'Battani was mainly interested in astronomy. He is often known by the Latinised name Albategnius. He refined the existing values for the length of the year and of the seasons. He made his remarkably accurate astronomical observations at ar-Raqqah in Syria. Rather than using geometrical methods as Ptolemy had done, al'Battani used trigonometrical methods.

Al'Battani wrote On the motion of the stars , which in addition to astronomical tables, gives important trigonometric formulas such as
b sin(A) = a sin(90degrees-A).
A printed edition appeared in 1537.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. al'Battani, Encylopedia of Islam (Leiden, 1960).
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JOC/EFR February 1996