Ibrahim al-Fazari

Ibrahim al-Fazari

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Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulaiman ibn Samura ibn Jundab al-Fazari (Arabic / Persian: أبو إسحاق إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمورة بن جندب الفزاري) was an 8th century Muslim mathematician and astronomer of either Arab or Persian background.

He was the mathematician and astronomer at the Abbasid court of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. He is not to be confused with his son Mohammad al-Fazari, also an Astronomer. He composed various astronomical writings (on the astrolabe, on the armillary spheres, on the calendar).

The Caliph ordered him and his son to translate the Indian Astronomical text, The Sindhind along with Yaqub ibn Tāriq, which was completed in Baghdad about 750 CE, and entitled Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the Hindu numerals were transmitted from India to Islam.

He died in 777AD.

References

1. ^ Scott L. Montgomery. Science in Translation: movements of knowledge through cultures and time. p. 81.

2. ^ Ervin Lewis, Mildred Bain, From Freedom to Freedom: African roots in American soils: selected readings

3. ^ E. S. Kennedy, A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables, (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46, 2), Philadelphia, 1956, pp. 2, 7, 12 (zijes no. 2, 28, 71).