Ουλούγ Μπεκ: ο Αστρονόμος Σουλτάνος του Τουρκεστάν, ο πιο Πολυμαθής Αυτοκράτορας των Τελευταίων 2500 Ετών, Εγγονός του Ταμερλάνου

ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΑΝΕΝΕΡΓΟ ΜΠΛΟΓΚ “ΟΙ ΡΩΜΙΟΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΤΟΛΗΣ” 

Το κείμενο του κ. Νίκου Μπαϋρακτάρη είχε αρχικά δημοσιευθεί την 5η Αυγούστου 2019.

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Ουλούγ Μπεκ: ο Αστρονόμος Σουλτάνος του Τουρκεστάν, ο πιο Πολυμαθής Αυτοκράτορας των Τελευταίων 2500 Ετών, Εγγονός του Ταμερλάνου

https://greeksoftheorient.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/ουλούγ-μπεκ-ο-αστρονόμος-σουλτάνος-το/ 

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Οι Ρωμιοί της Ανατολής – Greeks of the Orient

Ρωμιοσύνη, Ρωμανία, Ανατολική Ρωμαϊκή Αυτοκρατορία

Ουλούγ Μπεκ: ο Αστρονόμος Σουλτάνος του Τουρκεστάν, ο πιο Πολυμαθής Αυτοκράτορας των Τελευταίων 2500 Ετών, Εγγονός του Ταμερλάνου

 

 

 Τα αστρονομικά συγγράμματά του μεταφράζονταν στα λατινικά από τους Ευρωπαίους ακόμη αιώνες αργότερα. Ο ίδιος βασίλευσε ήδη πριν πέσει η Κωνσταντινούπολη στους Οθωμανούς. Ρωμιοί μαθηματικοί εργάζονταν στα ερευνητικά κέντρα, το πανεπιστήμιο και τις βιβλιοθήκες του. Το αστεροσκοπείο του ήταν το σημαντικώτερο στον κόσμο ως βελτίωση εκείνου της Μαραγέ (σήμερα στο Ιράν), όπου εκείνος είχε σπουδάσει. Η πρόοδος των επιστημών στα χρόνια του ήταν εντυπωσιακή και οι μελέτες και τα συμπεράσματά του διαδόθηκαν από την μια άκρη του κόσμου στην άλλη. Οι αστρικοί κατάλογοί του ήταν οι ακριβέστεροι, κι ο ίδιος έκανε με το μυαλό του αδιανόητους υπολογισμούς – ακόμη κι όταν ήταν έφιππος σε εκστρατεία – που απόλυτα επιβεβαιώνονταν υστερογενώς πάνω στο χαρτί.

 

 

Απήγγειλε από στήθους το Κοράνι (που έχει περίπου τόση έκταση όση κι η Καινή Διαθήκη) αλλά ήταν ένας εξαιρετικός επιστήμονας και θαυμάσιος δάσκαλος που έντονα επιζητούσε την αμφισβήτηση για να υπάρχει αντίλογος και στην συνέχεια επαλήθευση των συμπερασμάτων. Ο ίδιος αποτελούσε την ζωντανή παρακαταθήκη των ισλαμικών επιστημών και των επιστημών όλων των προϊσλαμικών πολιτισμών που είχαν μελετηθεί από μουσουλμάνους επιστήμονες και σοφούς στο Μπέιτ αλ Χέκμα της Βαγδάτης, 700 χρόνια νωρίτερα. Και το μνημειώδες αστεροσκοπείο του (σε εποχή που δεν υπήρχαν ακόμη τα μικροσκόπια) δεν είχε τίποτα να ζηλέψει από κείνα που αναγέρθηκαν 150 χρόνια αργότερα από τον Τύχο Μπράχε στην Δανία και από τον Τακιεντίν Εφέντη στην Σταμπούλ. Στα μέσα του 15ου αιώνα, όλοι οι δρόμοι οδηγούσαν στην Σαμαρκάνδη του Ουλούγ Μπεκ!

Εγγονός του Ταμερλάνου και γιος του Σαχρούχ, ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ ήταν η ζωντανή επιβεβαίωση του γεγονότος ότι δεν υπάρχει ουσιαστικά καμμιά διαφορά ανάμεσα σε Ιράν και Τουράν και ότι οι νεώτεροι δυτικοί οριενταλιστές έχουν παραχαράξει ολότελα την Ιστορία της Ασίας για να δημιουργήσουν ψευδείς εντυπώσεις και γενικευμένη σύγχυση.

Προσέξτε: ο Τουρανός πατέρας του Ουλούγ Μπεκ βασίλευσε στην Σαμαρκάνδη, η μητέρα του Ουλούγ Μπεκ, Γκοχαρσάντ, συνεισέφερε στην ανέγερση ενός από τα πιο σημαντικά ‘ιρανικά’ τζαμιά στο σύμπλεγμα ιερών της Μασάντ, στο σημερινό ΒΑ Ιράν (όπου βρίσκονται ενταφιασμένοι ο Αβασίδης χαλίφης Χαρούν αλ Ρασίντ κι ο πέμπτος ιμάμης του Ισλάμ, Ρεζά), ενώ ο ίδιος ο αστρονόμος σουλτάνος βασίλευσε επίσης στη Σαμαρκάνδη (Αφρασιάμπ) στο σημερινό Ουζμπεκιστάν.

Με τα δεδομένα των δυτικών οριενταλιστών, η μητέρα του Ουλούγ Μπεκ αποτελεί θέμα ιρανολογίας αλλά ο ίδιος ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ τμήμα τουρκολογίας! Αστείο!

 

Πρέπει να ομολογήσω ότι για δεκαετίες δεν είχα ιδιαίτερα προσέξει τον Ουλούγ Μπεκ, αν και βέβαια είχα ταξιδέψει στο Ουζμπεκιστάν και επισκεφθεί την Σαμαρκάνδη ήδη στα χρόνια της ΕΣΣΔ (στην δεκαετία του 1980). Το όνομα μου ήταν γνωστό αλλά αυτό ήταν όλο! Βεβαίως είχα δει από κοντά το εντυπωσιακό και τεράστιο πανεπιστήμιο (μεντρεσά) του Ουλούγ Μπεκ στην περιοχή Ρετζιστάν της Σαμαρκάνδης – ένα τόπο όπου, αν περπατήσεις, νομίζεις ότι ονειρεύεσαι. Αλλά δεν ήξερα τίποτα περισσότερο και οι οργανωμένες εκδρομές στην ΕΣΣΔ (όπως και όλες οι οργανωμένες εκδρομές εν παντί τόπω και καιρώ) ήταν μια αθλιότητα που δεν σου επέτρεπε να αφιερώσεις όσο χρόνο θέλεις σε ένα ξεχωριστό μνημείο που ερεθίζει την περιέργειά σου.

Αλλά πριν από μερικά χρόνια, η γνωριμία μου με τον Έλληνα ανατολιστή ιστορικό και πολιτικό επιστήμονα, καθ. Μουχάμαντ Σαμσαντίν Μεγαλομμάτη, και οι συζητήσεις μου μαζί του αποτέλεσαν την ευκαιρία να κατανοήσω κάτι το πολύ καθοριστικό που λίγοι δυστυχώς αντιλαμβάνονται: δεν έχει σημασία να πας κάπου και να δεις το ό,τιδήποτε. Σημασία έχει να αντιλαμβάνεσαι το που βρίσκεσαι, το τι βλέπεις, και το τι κρύβεται πίσω από αυτά.

Έτσι, χάρη σε μερικές καθοριστικές αναφορές του κ. Μεγαλομμάτη στους Ζιτζ-ε Σολτάνι (Αστρικοί Κατάλογοι ή Πίνακες του Σουλτάνου), ένα μνημειώδες αστρονομικό έργο του Ουλούγ Μπεκ, το οποίο διασώζεται μέχρι σήμερα, και στο πως και μετά από πόση και ποια έρευνα γράφονταν τα στοιχεία που αναφέρονται στο έργο αυτό, κατάλαβα ότι έπρεπε να … ‘ξανα-επισκεφτώ’ τον εγγονό του Ταμερλάνου – έστω μέσω του Ιντερνέτ και αρκετών αναγνωσμάτων.

Βασιλεία, Σοφία και Επιστήμη

Αναμφίβολα υπήρξαν αρκετοί αυτοκράτορες στην Ιστορία που επέδειξαν ιδιαίτερο ή και σπάνιο ζήλο για την θεουργία, την ενόραση, την σοφία, την γνώση, την επιστήμη, τα γράμματα, και τις τέχνες. Ένας από αυτούς ήταν ο Ασσουρμπανιπάλ (669-625), αυτοκράτορας της Ασσυρίας, ο οποίος ως μέγας αρχιερέας ήταν γνώστης των σφηνοειδών ασσυροβαβυλωνιακών, των ασσυριακών επιστημών, κοσμογονιών και θεουργιών. Ο ίδιος ήταν και ο πρώτος επώνυμος στην Παγκόσμια Ιστορία που είχε μάθει μια ήδη στα χρόνια του νεκρή γλώσσα: τα σουμεριακά, τα οποία ήταν τότε ό,τι τα λατινικά για τους Ευρωπαίους επιστήμονες των τελευταίων αιώνων. Στα χρόνια του αυτοκράτορα της Νινευή, τα σουμεριακά ήταν ήδη νεκρή γλώσσα για 1300 χρόνια! Μοναδικός ηγεμόνας και στρατηλάτης τον οποίο ζήλεψε ακόμη και ο Μέγας Αλέξανδρος, επειδή ο Ασσύριος αυτοκράτορας είχε καταλάβει την Τύρο μετά από ιδιαίτερα σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα πολιορκίας!

Και σε πολλούς μονάρχες αποδίδονται ξεχωριστά έργα και κείμενα που αποτελούν ορόσημα της Παγκόσμιας Ιστορίας. Αλλά αυτά τα έργα δεν είναι πάντοτε ακριβώς ‘δικά’ τους. Θα αναφέρω μερικά παραδείγματα:

Στον Πτολεμαίο Β’ αποδίδονται πολλά και ανάμεσά τους η μετάφραση της Παλαιάς Διαθήκης των αρχαίων Εβραίων στα ελληνικά (η μετάφραση των Ο’). Αλλά δεν μετέφρασε ο ίδιος ο Πτολεμαίος Β’ την εβραϊκή Βίβλο. Προσκάλεσε 70 ραβίνους που έκαναν την δουλειά εργαζόμενοι σε ένα κτήριο στο νησί του Φάρου στην Αλεξάνδρεια.

Η Κλεοπάτρα ήταν γνωστό ότι μιλούσε άπταιστα επτά γλώσσες. Αλλά δεν συνέγραψε τίποτα.

Στον Καίσαρα αποδίδεται το περίφημο Ιουλιανό ημερολόγιο που ακόμη τηρούν οι κακώς λεγόμενοι ‘παλιοημερολογίτες’. Αλλά αυτό δεν ήταν έργο του ίδιου του Καίσαρα αλλά του αστρονόμου Σωσιγένη τον οποίο ο Καίσαρας γνώρισε στην αυλή της Κλεοπάτρας και από τον οποίο ζήτησε ο Ρωμαίος στρατηλάτης ένα νέο ημερολόγιο.

Στον κορυφαίο αυτοκράτορα Ιουστινιανό αποδίδεται η σημαντικώτερη χριστιανική νομοθεσία, η οποία αποτελούσε συγκερασμό της χριστιανικής πίστης και ηθικής, των χριστιανικών αξιών, και του παλαιότερου, προ-χριστιανικού ρωμαϊκού Δικαίου: αλλά δεν συνέγραψε ο ίδιος ο Ιουστινιανός τις Νεαρές και τα άλλα τμήματα του Corpus Δικαίου το οποίο εισήγαγε. Αυτό ήταν το έργο του Τριβωνιανού.

Για να έλθουμε πιο κοντά στα χρόνια του Ουλούγ Μπεκ, θα αναφερθώ στον Κωνσταντίνο Ζ’ Πορφυρογέννητο που γύρω στα μισά του 10ου αιώνα έγραψε ανάμεσα σε άλλα έργα το Περί βασιλείου τάξεως, το Προς τον ίδιον υιόν Ρωμανόν, και το Περί θεμάτων. Πολύ αξιόλογα έργα, αναμφίβολα. Λόγιος ο αυτοκράτορας της Ρωμανίας, σίγουρα. Αλλά το περιεχόμενο αυτών των έργων είναι η περιγραφή της διοικητικής μηχανής και του αυλικού εθιμοτυπικού της Ρωμανίας – όχι επιστημονική παρατήρηση και καταγραφή.

Εξίσου λόγιος ήταν και ο πατέρας του Πορφυρογέννητου Λέων ΣΤ’ Σοφός. Συγγραφέας, ρήτορας και ποιητής. Αλλά όχι επιστήμονας, μαθηματικός κι αστρονόμος.

Σύγχρονος του Ουλούγ Μπεκ ήταν ο Μανουήλ Β’ Παλαιολόγος (1350-1425). Εδώ ερχόμαστε πολύ κοντά όταν κάνουμε συγκρίσεις. Ο προ-προτελευταίος βασιλεύς της Ρωμανίας ήταν ένας ευρυμαθής ηγεμόνας και λόγιος, θεολόγος και συγγραφέας: είχε συγγράψει μια τεράστια πραγματεία για την Λιτανεία του Αγίου Πνεύματος. Είχε συνδιαλεχθεί με Ιρανούς (Πέρσες) θεολόγους και σοφούς, εκτεινόμενος σε θέματα θεολογικά και ιστορικοθησκευτικά και συνδιαλεγόμενος σχετικά με συγκρίσεις της Χριστιανωσύνης και του Ισλάμ.

Αυτοί οι διάλογοι που έγιναν στην Άγκυρα το 1391 έγιναν αντικείμενο αναφοράς από τον Πάπα Βενέδικτο ΙΣΤ’ το 2006, όταν ξέσπασε – πολύ κακώς – σχετικός σάλος.

Ο Μανουήλ Β’ Παλαιολόγος, ο οποίος ήταν 44 χρόνια μεγαλύτερος του Ουλούγ Μπεκ και πέθανε 24 χρόνια πριν δολοφονηθεί ο σουλτάνος του Τουρκεστάν, δεν ήταν μαθηματικός κι αστρονόμος.

Ουλούγ Μπεκ (1394-1449)

Το πραγματικό όνομα του Ουλούγ Μπεκ ήταν Μιρζά Μουχάμαντ Ταραγάυ μπιν Σαχρούχ (λατ. Mīrza Muhammad Taraghay bin Shahrukh, τσαγατάυ: میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, φαρσί: میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ). Η πατρική του γλώσσα ήταν τα τσαγατάυ, μια τουρκική (Turkic) γλώσσα που σήμερα πλέον δεν ομιλείται, μείγμα μογγολικών και ανατολικών τουρκικών. Έμεινε περισσότερο γνωστός ως Ουλούγ Μπεκ, δηλαδή ‘Μέγας Ηγεμόνας’ (λατ. Ulugh Beg, φαρσί: الغ بیگ). Στα σύγχρονα τουρκικά οι δυο λέξεις είναι ulu bey, αλλά στα οθωμανικά χρόνια η λέξη bey (μπέης) έχασε την αρχικά μεγάλη σημασία της, λόγω της ανόδου της σημασίας άλλων όρων (σουλτάν, παδισάχ). Ως όρος, το ‘Ουλούγ Μπεκ’ είναι το τουρκικό (Turkic) αντίστοιχο του περσο-αραβικού Αμίρ-ε Καμπίρ.

Ο ίδιος ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ μιλούσε άπταιστα αραβικά, περσικά, τουρκικές και μογγολικές γλώσσες, και επίσης κινεζικά. Γεννήθηκε σε μια κοσμοπολίτικη πρωτεύουσα κτισμένη 200 χρόνια νωρίτερα όπου συνέρρεαν επιστήμονες και σοφοί, θεολόγοι και ιστορικοί από όλη την Ασία: την Σουλτανίγιε (Σουλτανική), όταν ο νεαρός πατέρας του δεν είχε ακόμη ανακηρυχθεί σάχης και σουλτάνος στην Σαμαρκάνδη. Ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ σπούδασε τριγωνομετρία, σφαιρική γεωμετρία και αστρονομία στην Μαραγέ, όπου βρισκόταν το πιο σημαντικό αστεροσκοπείο του τότε κόσμου, στο οποίο 200 χρόνια πιο πριν εργαζόταν, ερευνούσε κι έγραφε ο Νασρεντίν αλ Τούσι, ένας από τους μεγαλύτερους σοφούς όλων των εποχών.

Υπάρχει μια ανθρώπινη πλευρά που φέρνει τον Ουλούγ Μπεκ σε παράλληλη τροχιά με τον σημερινό πρίγκιπα Κάρολο της Αγγλίας! Ο Σαχρούχ (1377-1447) γέννησε τον Ουλούγ Μπεκ (1394-1449) σε πολύ νεαρή ηλικία (όταν ήταν 17 ετών) και πριν ανεβεί στον θρόνο, όπως και η βασίλισσα Ελισάβετ Β’ τον Κάρολο (και πριν εκείνη γίνει βασίλισσα).

Στην συνέχεια, ο Σαχρούχ ανακηρύχθηκε σάχης και σουλτάνος στα 28 του και βασίλευσε για πολλά (42) χρόνια (1405–1447), όπως κι η Ελισάβετ Β’ μέχρι σήμερα. Ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ ήταν 11 ετών, όταν πέθανε ο παπούς του, ο Ταμερλάνος, κι ο πατέρας του ανακηρύχθηκε βασιλιάς.

Κι έτσι παρέμεινε διάδοχος του θρόνου (όπως κι ο Κάρολος ακόμη) για μια πολύ μεγάλη χρονική περίοδο, μέχρις ότου ανακηρυχθεί ο ίδιος βασιλιάς σε σχετικά μεγάλη ηλικία, στα 53 του (στην περίπτωση του Καρόλου της Αγγλίας η κατάσταση έχει βέβαια φτάσει σε ακόμη πιο ακραία σημεία!).

Συνέπεια αυτής της κατάστασης ήταν η απρόσκοπτη στροφή κι αφοσίωση του διαδόχου του θρόνου στις επιστήμες και στην έρευνα. Ανέγειρε το πανεπιστήμιο (μεντρεσά) το 1417-1420, όταν ο ίδιος ήταν 23-26 ετών, και στην συνέχεια, αστεροσκοπείο της Σαμαρκάνδης στην περίοδο 1424-1429, όταν ο ίδιος ήταν 30-35 ετών.

Το αστεροσκοπείο ήταν ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα κτίσματα εκείνων των χρόνων και ο φαχρί εξάντας του είχε ακτίνα 40.4 μέτρα! Σπουδαίοι ερευνητές, επιστήμονες και μαθηματικοί προσέτρεξαν να εργαστούν εκεί, όπως ο Πέρσης Τζαμσίντ αλ Κασί και ο Ρωμιός Καντί Ζαντέ ερ-Ρουμί (1364-1436). Επειδή αυτός γεννήθηκε στην Προύσα λίγες δεκαετίες μόνον μετά την οθωμανική κατάκτηση της πόλης είναι πιθανώτατο ότι είτε ο ίδιος είτε ο πατέρας του είχε γεννηθεί Χριστιανός Ορθόδοξος και στην συνέχεια αλλαξοπίστησε. Το γεγονός ότι επονομαζόταν Ρωμιός σε συνδυασμό με το δεδομένο ότι προτίμησε την τιμουριδική επικράτεια αντί της οθωμανικής, όπου ανήκε, δείχνει καθαρά ότι δεν ήταν Οθωμανός.

 

Το έργο του Ουλούγ Μπεκ Ζιτζ-ε Σουλτάνι είναι ο μεγαλύτερος αστρικός πίνακας από την εποχή του Πτολεμαίου μέχρι τα χρόνια του Τύχο Μπράχε. Μεταφραζόταν ακατάπαυστα από Ευρωπαίους σε λατινικά για πολλούς αιώνες αργότερα.

Zij 1437

Ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ βασίλευσε μόνο για δύο χρόνια (1447-1449). Αν και επιστήμονας ήταν ένας καλός στρατιωτικός και πολεμιστής. Είχε όμως την τραγική ατυχία να έχει ένα ανάξιο γιο, ο οποίος από τρομερό φθόνο οργάνωσε και διεκπεραίωσε ύπουλα την δολοφονία του τόσο λαμπρού πατέρα του. Όταν πήγαινε ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ για προσκύνημα (χατζ) στην Μέκκα, πράκτορες τον δολοφόνησαν μαζί με τον αδελφό του, ο οποίος τον ακολουθούσε.

Ο πατροκτόνος Αμπντελατίφ δεν στάθηκε άξιος ούτε ένα χρόνο να συμπληρώσει στον άνομο θρόνο του κι έτσι το 1450 ο ‘πανταρκούς’ (στα φαρσί ‘πατροκτόνος’: پدر کش) δολοφονήθηκε όπως του άξιζε. Ο ανηψιός του Ουλούγ Μπεκ Αμπντουλάχ Μιρζά απεκατέστησε την τάξη, διαδεχόμενος τον ανάξιο γιο του μεγάλου πατέρα, και μετέφερε την σορό του Ουλούγ Μπεκ στο ταφικό μνημείο του Ταμερλάνου.

Sic transit gloria mundi ….

 

Στην συνέχεια θα βρείτε πολλούς συνδέσμους κι επιλεγμένα αναγνώσματα.

Στοιχειώδη:

Επιστημονική συζήτηση για τον Ουλούγ Μπεκ στα ρωσσικά:

https://echo.msk.ru/programs/vsetak/51334/

Σχετικά με τους τόπους όπου γεννήθηκε και σπούδασε ο Ουλούγ Μπεκ:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_Soltaniyeh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soltaniyeh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilkhanate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maragheh_observatory

Σχετικά με το πανεπιστήμιο και το αστεροσκοπείο του Ουλούγ Μπεκ στη Σαμαρκάνδη:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulugh_Beg_Madrasa,_Samarkand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulugh_Beg_Observatory

https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114956/http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/JOURNAL/NATURE/02_02/ULUGBEK.HTM

http://e-samarkand.narod.ru/Mojeyko_Ulugbek.htm

Σχετικά με το έργο του Ουλούγ Μπεκ Ζιτζ-ε Σουλτάνι:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zij-i_Sultani

http://www.astromyth.ru/Catalogs/Ulughbeg/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sextant_(astronomical)

Σχετικά με τους κυριώτερους επιστημονικούς συνεργάτες του Ουλούγ Μπεκ:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamsh%C4%ABd_al-K%C4%81sh%C4%AB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C4%81%E1%B8%8D%C4%AB_Z%C4%81da_al-R%C5%ABm%C4%AB

Σχετικά με τους συγγενείς του Ουλούγ Μπεκ (πατέρα, μητέρα, γιο και ανηψιό):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Rukh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goharshad_Begum

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-latif-mirza-sultan-timurid-ruler-in-samarqand-1449-50

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdal-Latif_Mirza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_Mirza

Σχετικά με τον ίδιο τον Ουλούγ Μπεκ:

https://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ulugh_Beg_BEA.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulugh_Beg

http://www.ahmerov.com/book_446_chapter_2_1.html

 

В 1964 году рядом с местом, где находилась обсерватория, был открыт мемориальный музей Улугбека. Здесь выставлены отрывки из знаменитых таблиц со сведениями о звёздах, вычисленных Улугбеком и его соратниками, фотографии раскопок, коллекция древних астрономических инструментов, фрески, изображающие эпизоды жизни астронома

http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/telegraph/history/350/

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Περισσότερα Αναγνώσματα:

Al-Kashi’s letter

A letter from Jamshid al-Kashi to his father has survived and gives us a rare glimpse into details of the intellectual life at UIugh Beg’s court. In this letter (translated in the book by David A King and Mary Helen Kennedy (eds.), Studies in the Islamic exact sciences. Reprints of papers by E S Kennedy, colleagues and former students (American University of Beirut, 1983), p. 724]) al-Kashi describes at length the accomplishments of UIugh Beg who, he says:-

… has by heart most of the glorious Quran … and every day he recites two chapters in the presence of (Quran) memorizers and no mistake is made. He knows (Arabic) grammar well and he writes Arabic composition extremely well, and like-wise he is well posted in canon law; he has knowledge of logic, rhetoric, and elocution, and likewise of the Elements, and he himself cultivates the branches of mathematics, and this has reached the extent that one day while riding he wanted to determine the date, which was a Monday of [the month of] Rajab, between the fifth and the tenth in the year eight hundred and eighteen (A. H.), as to what day it was of the (astronomical) season of the year. From these very given data, by mental computation, and from horseback, he determined the true longitude of the sun (correct) to degrees and minutes. When he came back he asked this humble servant about it. Truly, since in mental computation the quantities must be retained by memory and others determined, and there is a limit to one’s strength of retention, he (i.e. I) was not able to extract it to degrees and minutes, but contented myself with degrees.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Al-Kashi_letter.html

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 Улугбек

Единственный прижизненный портрет Улугбека. Он значительно отличается от поздних выдуманных и идеализированных изображений. Это групповой портрет, на котором вполне достоверно изображены сыновья Улугбека Абд ал-Латиф (старший) и Абд ал-Азиз (младший) — стоят в нижнем правом углу; в монгольского фасона головных уборах сидят на коврах его жёны, самые ближние: Ак-Султан Ханике и Хуси-Нигар Ханике; рядом с Улугбеком стоят трое его генералов (эмиров) с саблями, слуги, и в верхнем углу справа — сокольничие. Рядом с ними можно видеть лук и колчан полный стрел, то есть Улугбек, который был страстным охотником, приготовился к охоте. На крыше павильона, в котором сидит Улугбек, надпись гласит: «Султан величайший, Улугбек Гурган, благословение царству его». Вероятно, это правая часть диптиха, поскольку взоры всех присутствующих направлены на левую часть, где были изображены какие-то любопытные события. Миниатюра создана неизвестным придворным художником в 1425—1450 гг. Художественная галерея Фрира, Вашингтон.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Улугбек

 

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The Legacy of Ulugh Beg

By Kevin Krisciunas 1

Muhammed Taragai Ulugh Beg (1394-1449) was a Turk who ruled the province of Transoxiana (Maverannahr), a region situated between the River Oxus (Amu Darya) and the River Jaxartes (Syr Darya), the principal city of which was Samarkand. Ulugh Beg’s grandfather was the famous conqueror Timur (1336-1405). Ulugh Beg became the ruler of Transoxiana in 1447 upon the death of his father. But his rule was of short duration. Two years later he was killed by an assassin hired by his son ‘Abd al Latif.

Were it only for his role as prince, viceroy, and martyr, few scholars would know of Ulugh Beg. But his memory lives on because he was an observatory builder, patron of astronomy, and astronomer in his own right. He was certainly the most important observational astronomer of the 15th century. He was one of the first to advocate and build permanently mounted astronomical instruments. His catalogue of 1018 stars (some sources count 1022) was the only such undertaking carried out between the times of Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 170 A.D.) and Tycho Brahe (ca. 1600). And, as we shall briefly discuss here, his attitude towards scientific endeavors was surprisingly modern.

The administration of Transoxiana was the responsibility of Ulugh Beg’s father for most of Ulugh Beg’s life. The prince had the opportunity (and the inclination) to pursue scholarly matters. His interest in astronomy dates from an early age, when he visited the remains of the Maragha Observatory, made famous by the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74). The principal accomplishment at Maragha was the Zij-i ilkhani, or Ilkhanic Tables. 2

A principal source of our information about the astronomical activity at Samarkand is a letter of one Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid al-Kashi (d. 1429), which is available in Turkish and English (see Sayili 1960). This letter, originally in Persian, was written in 1421 or 1422. From it we deduce that serious astronomical activity began in Samarkand in 1408-10, and that the construction of Ulugh Beg’s observatory was begun in 1420. Among the astronomers known to have been active at Samarkand, we know only a few by name, but according to al-Kashi there were sixty or seventy scholars at the madrasa who were well enough versed in mathematics to participate in some capacity in the astronomical observations and/or seminars.

The observations were carried out systematically from 1420 to 1437. While observatories today are expected to carry on indefinitely, this was not the case in olden times. Rather, observations were carried out, for example, to update tables of planetary motions in order to predict their future positions. al-Kashi tells us (see Sayili 1960, p.106):

As to the inquiry of those who ask why observations are not completed in one year but require ten or fifteen years, the situation is such that there are certain conditions suited to the determination of matters pertaining to the planets, and it is necessary to observe them when these conditions obtain. It is necessary, e.g., to have two eclipses in both of which the eclipsed parts are equal and to the same side, and both these eclipses have to take place near the same node. Likewise, another pair of eclipses conforming to other specifications is needed, and still other cases of a similar nature are required. It is necessary to observe Mercury at a time when it is at its maximum morning elongation and once at its maximum evening elongation, with the addition of certain other conditions, and a similar situation exists for the other planets.

Now, all these circumstances do not obtain within a single year, so that observations cannot be made in one year. It is necessary to wait until the required circumstances obtain and then if there is cloud at the awaited time, the opportunity will be lost and gone for another year or two until the like of it occurs once more. In this manner there is need for ten or fifteen years.

One might add that because it takes Saturn 29 years to return to the same position amongst the stars (that being its period of revolution about the Sun), a period of 29 years might have been the projected length of the Samarkand program of observations. A number of instruments were used for the observations of the planets and for determining the relative positions of the stars. 3 The largest instrument in Samarkand was the so-called Fakhri sextant.

It was a 60-degree stone arc mounted on the north-south meridian line. Such an instrument was used to determine the transit altitudes of stars (i.e. their maximum angular distances above the horizon). From the most southern and northern positions of the Sun, observed over the course of a year, one can easily determine the obliquity of the ecliptic (i.e. the tilt of the Earth’s axis of rotation with respect to the plane of its orbit.) The mean of these extrema, or the meridian altitude of the Sun at the moment of the vernal or autumnal equinox allows one (by definition) to determine one’s latitude. 4

According to Ulugh Beg the obliquity of the ecliptic was 23 degrees 30′ 17″ (differing by only 32″ from the true value for his time). His value for the latitude of Samarkand was 39 degrees 37′ 33″. Now, to the reader unaccustomed to astronomical topics, these might seem like just numbers, the accuracy of which may mean nothing. The most interesting thing about the Fakhri sextant in Samarkand was that its radius was 40 meters! (This is very nearly equal to the height of the dome of the 200-inch reflector at Palomar Mountain, California.)

The Fakhri sextant was by far the largest meridian instrument ever built. It could achieve a resolution of a several seconds of arc — on the order of a six-hundredth of a degree, or the diameter of an American penny at a distance of more than half a kilometer. Because the Fakhri sextant was an arc fixed on the meridian, it could only be used for determining the declinations of celestial bodies. (This being before the invention of accurate clocks, it could not be used for the determinations of relative right ascensions.)

Because it was a 60-degree arc, it could not be used to observe stars along the full north-south meridian. Thus, it could not be used, say, to determine the angular separations of pairs of stars, or for observing stars near the northern or southern horizons. Consequently, other observational instruments were used at Samarkand, among them parallactical lineals and equinoctial and solstitial armillary spheres. These were made of metal and wood and were on the order of 1 meter in size. Hand held astrolabes are not to be included in this list, because they were “star finders” and they were used for rough time determination, rather than for the accurate determination of stellar or planetary positions.

Typically, two people were required to make individual observations at any given time. At Samarkand it was the practice for a larger number of people to discuss the results. In modern terms, this is like peer review, the purpose of which is to eliminate sources of error and to ensure the health of the observational program. Ulugh Beg himself has allowed that in scientific questions there should be no agreeing until the matter is thoroughly understood and that people should not pretend to understand in order to be pleasing. Occasionally, when someone assented to His Majesty’s view out of submission to his authority, His Majesty reprimanded him by saying ‘you are imputing ignorance to me.’ He also poses a false question, so that if anyone accepts it out of politeness he will reintroduce the matter and put the man to shame. 5

The foreword to Ulugh Beg’s Zij contains four parts: 1) the chronology, describing various systems of time reckoning; 2) practical astronomy (how observations are made and used); 3) the apparent motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets, based on a geocentric system of the universe; and 4) astrology. Besides the tables of motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets,Ulugh Beg’s Zij was significant for its catalogue of about 1000 stars, giving their names and ecliptic coordinates. In an appendix to this paper I give a list of published works that contain all or part of Ulugh Beg’s Zij. 6 In Flamsteed’s Historia Coelestis Britannica (1725) and Baily’s 1843 treatise we can directly compare Ulugh Beg’s positions with those of Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, and others. With modern stellar positions, proper motions, and an accurate treatment of precession, it would be interesting to make a statistical analysis of, say, the 100 brightest stars, to see how these catalogues compare as to average accuracy. 7

In The Observatory in Islam Sayili concludes (pp. 391, 393) by stating:

The observatory as an organized and specialized institution was born in Islam; it went through very important stages of evolution within Islam itself; it passed on in a rather highly developed state to Europe, and this was followed, shortly afterwards, by the creation of modern observatories of Europe, in an unbroken process of evolution superposing upon the traditions borrowed from Eastern Islam…The question is of significance…in the case of the Samarqand Observatory because it appears as probably the most important Islamic observatory from the standpoint of influences exerted upon Europe.

I can accept the first half of Sayili’s perspective. The astronomical programs carried out at Baghdad (9th century), Cordova (10th century), Cairo (10th to 12th centuries), Toledo (11th century), Castile (under the Christian King Alfonso X; 13th century), Maragha (13th century), and at Samarkand (15th century) were far more extensive than anything carried out by the ancient Greeks, with the possible exception of Hipparchus. The Arabs honored learning and kept alive the study of astronomy by preserving Ptolemy’s Almagest and adding to its mathematical formulation.

The Ma’munic, Hakemite, Toledan, Ilkhanic and Alphonsine Tables, along with the tables contained in Ulugh Beg’s Zij have come down to us because scholars knew they were important. But the influence of the Samarkand Observatory on European astronomy was more indirect than direct. While copies of Ulugh Beg’s Zij existed in various libraries such as Oxford and Paris not long after its composition (see Razvi 1985), it only became known in Europe in the mid-17th century, nearly five decades after the publication of Tycho Brahe’s much more accurate data (see appendix to this paper).

If the activities in Samarkand influenced European ones, why does Ulugh Beg only get cursory mention (on pp. 328 and 347, but not in the index) of Dreyer’s classic 1890 biography of Tycho Brahe? In Thoren’s even more authoritative 1990 biography of Tycho there is no mention of Ulugh Beg at all. It was work such as Tycho’s, not Ulugh Beg’s, that led in turn to the efforts at Greenwich (founded 1675), Pulkovo (founded 1839), and the United States Naval Observatory (founded 1844), among other institutions, and these modern, national, facilities did not need or use Ulugh Beg’s work as a fundamental component of the construction of accurate star catalogues.

Yet, to be fair, astronomers and historians have found many uses for ancient and medieval observations, such as studies of the spin down rate of the Earth, studies of the motion of the Moon and planets, and the dating of historical events. Ulugh Beg’s observations being the best of their century allow them to stand as a permanent observational archive for our benefit. For example, Shcheglov (1977) has recently used information from the modern excavation of Ulugh Beg’s large meridian instrument for a study of continental drift.

The most direct influence of the Samarkand Observatory was on the construction of the five observatories, or Jantar Mantars, built by Maharajah Jai Singh (1686-1743) in India. Jai Singh was a Hindu prince in the court of a Muslim Mogul emperor. These observatories were built at New Delhi, Ujjain, Mathura, Varanasi, and Jaipur. The largest instrument was 27 meters high. For more information see Kaye (1918), Mayer (1979), Sharma (1987), and Bedding (1991).

While recognition of Ulugh Beg’s contributions to astronomy was delayed, an extensive body of information now exists on the activity of his observatory in Samarkand. 8 We now know that at the time Ulugh Beg’s observatory flourished it was carrying out the most advanced observations and analysis being done anywhere. In the 1420’s and 1430’s Samarkand was the astronomical capital of the world. As such it is deserving of further study.

A model of the huge quadrant

Notes:

1. Member, International Astronomical Union, Commission 41 (History of Astronomy).

2. A zij is an astronomical treatise that usually contains tables for calculating the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. It might also contain a star catalogue.

3. For a discussion of the astronomical instrumentation of the Arabs, see Sedillot (1841), Repsold (1908), and Krisciunas (1988,chapter 2). Note that the telescope was only first used for astronomical purposes in 1609.

4. Strictly speaking, one must also account for atmospheric refraction. For a review of astronomical coordinate systems see Krisciunas (1988, chapter 1).

5. Sayili (1960, pp. 109-110).

6. The appendix is largely based on information found in Shcheglov (1968; 1979) and in the National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints. I thank Paul Luther for additional information.

7. Vogt (1925) found 22′ for the average error of 122 Ptolemaic celestial latitudes. The best of Tycho’s stellar positional measures are good to 1′. See Dreyer (1890, pp.387-8), Wesley (1978), and Thoren (1990, pp. 287-299, and references therein).

8. See Kary-Niiazov (1967) and Sirazhdinov (1979).

The trench with the lower section of the meridian arc

References and Further Readings   

Barthold, W. W., Ulugh Beg und seine Zeit. Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morganlandes 21, No. 1, 1935.

Bedding, James, “Playground for the stars: The Jantar Mantars, Astronomical Observatories in India,” New Scientist, 31 August 1991, p. 49.

Dreyer, J. L. E., Tycho Brahe: A Picture of Scientific Life and Work in the Sixteenth Century (Gloucester, Mass.:Peter Smith), 1977 reprint. (Original edition published by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1890)

Kar[y]-N[i]iazov, T. N., “Ulugh Beg”, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography 13, pp. 535-537

Kary-Niiazov, T. N., Astronomicheskaia shkola Ulugbeka, (Tashkent), 1967

Kaye, G. R., The Astronomical Observatories of Jai Singh, (Janpath, New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India), reprint of 1918 edition

Krisciunas, Kevin, Astronomical Centers of the World (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 1988

Mayer, Ben, “Touring the Jai Singh Observatories,” Sky and Telescope 58, No. 1, July 1979, pp. 6-10

Razvi, Abbas, “The Observatory at Samarqand (Marsad-e-Ulugh Beg, 15th C),” Central Asia, No. 17, 1985, pp. 97-150

Repsold, Johann A., Zur Geschichte der Astronomischen Mess-werkzeuge von Purbach bis Reichenbach (1450 bis 1830) (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann), 1908. I have a rough (unpublished) English translation, which I would be happy to provide anyone, of the first six sections of this work, covering the astronomical instrumentation of the ancient Greeks, the Arabs, Purbach, Regiomontanus, Copernicus, Apian, Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Cassel, and Tycho Brahe

Sarton, George, Introduction to the History of Science (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins), 1948, vol. 3, pp. 1120, 1467-1474

Sayili, Aydin, Ulug Bey Ve Semerkanddeki Ilim Faaliyeti Hakkinda Giyasuddin-i Kasi’nin Mektubu (Ghiyath al Din al Kashi’s Letter on Ulugh Bey and the Scientific Activity in Samarqand) (Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi), 1960. In note 1, pp. 32-33 of this work it is stated that another English translation was published by E. S. Kennedy (Orientalia 29, 1960, pp. 191-213), which differs in many particulars, and that the Persian text of the letter was published twice before that.

Sayili, Aydin, The Observatory in Islam and its Place in the General History of the Observatory (New York: Arno Press), 1981 reprint (Original edition published by Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, Ankara, 1960)

Sedillot, L. [P. E. A.], Memoire sur les instruments astron. des Arabes, Paris, 1841

Sharma, V. N., “The Astronomical Efforts of Sawai Jai Singh,” in G. Swarup [et al.], eds., History of Oriental Astronomy (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 1987, pp. 233-240

Sh[ch]eglov, V. P., Jan Hevelius: The Star Atlas (Tashkent: “Fan” Press), 1968

Shcheglov, V. P., “Astronomical azimuths of terrestrial objects as indicators of the rotational motions of the continental blocks,” Soviet Astronomy 21, No. 4, July-August 1977, pp. 499-502

Shcheglov, V. P., “Rasprostranenie <> v evropeiskoi pechati,” in Sirazhdinov (1979, see below), pp. 143-151

Sirazhdinov, S. KH., ed., Iz istorii nauki epokhi Ulugbeka, (Tashkent: Academy of Sciences of the Uzbek SSR), 1979

Thoren, Victor E., The Lord of Uraniborg: A Biography of Tycho Brahe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1990

Vogt, H., “Versuch einer Wiederherstellung von Hipparchs Fixsternverzeichnis,” Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 5354-55 (1925):23

Wesley, Walter, “The accuracy of Tycho Brahe’s instruments,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 9 (1978), pp.42-53

Jade dragon cup that once belonged to Ulugh Beg

Editions Containing All or Part of Ulugh Beg’s Zij

1648. John Greaves (1602-1652). Quibus accesserunt, Insigniorum aliquot Stellarum Longitudines, et Latitudines, Ex Astronomicis Observationibus Ulug Beigi, Tamerlani Magni Nepotis. Oxoniae. Contains latitudes and longitudes of [98] stars

1648. John Greaves (1602-1652). Binae Tabulae Geographicae, una Nassir Eddini Persae, altera Vlug Beigi Tatari: Opera et Studio J. Gravii. Lugduni, Batavorum. Geographical tables of the Zij

1648. John Bainbridge (1582-1643). Canicularia. Una cum demonstratione ortus Sirii heliaci, pro parallelo inferioris Aegypti. Auctore Iohanne Gravio. Quibus accesserunt, insigniorum aliquot stellarum longitudines, et latitudines, ex astronomicis observationibus Vlug Beigi. Oxoniae, H. Hall. The citation in the U. S. Naval Observatory copy states that Greaves added the catalogue of 98 Ulugh Beg stars to the Bainbridge treatise

1650. John Greaves (1602-1652). Epochae Celebriores, Astronomis, Historicis, Chronologis, Chataiorum, Syro-Graecorum Arabum, Persarum, Chorasmiorum usitatae (Arabice et Latine): Ex traditione Ulugi Beigi; eas primus publicavit, recensuit, et Commentarius illustravit Johannes Gravius. Londini, J. Flesher. Latin and Persian on opposite pages. That part of the Zij dealing with chronology

1652. John Greaves (1602-1652). Binae Tabulae Geographicae, una Nassir Eddini Persae, altera Vlug Beigi Tatari: Opera et Studio J. Gravii nunc primum publicatae. Londini, Typis Jacobi Flesher: prostant apud Cornelium Bee. 2nd edition of geographical tables

1665. Thomas Hyde (1636-1703). Tabulae long. ac lat. stellarum fixarum, ex observatione Ulugh Beighi, Tamerlanis Magni Nepotis, Regionum ultra citraque Gjihun (i. Oxum) Principis potentissimi. Ex tribus invicem collatis MSS. Persicis jam primum Luce ac Latiodonavit, & commentariis illustravit, Thomas Hyde. In calce libriaccesserunt Mohammedis Tizini tabulae declinationum & rectarium ascensionum. Additur demum Elenchus Nominum Stellarum. Oxonii: Typis Henrici Hall, sumptibus authoris. Tables in Latin and Persian for 1018 stars of which about 700 were based exclusively on Ulugh Beg and the balance were reduced from Ptolemy in one or both coordinates. Hyde appears to have worked totally independent of Greaves

1690. Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687). Prodromus Astronomiae. Danzig. Contains a comparison of data in Ulugh Beg’s tables with other star catalogues known at that time — those of Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, Giambattista Riccioli, Wilhelm IV (Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel), and Hevelius

1698-1712. Geographiae veteris scriptores graeci minores. Cum interpretatione latina, dissertationibus, ac annotationibus… Oxoniae, e Theatro Sheldoniano. A work containing Ulugh Beg’s geographical tables

1725. John Flamsteed (1646-1719). Historia Coelestis Britannica. London, 3 vols. Includes Ulugh Beg’s catalogue, along with those of Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, Wilhelm IV, and Hevelius

1767. Gregory Sharpe. Syntagma dissertationum quas olim auctor doctissimus Thomas Hyde, S. T. P. separatim edidit. Accesserunt nonnulla ejusdem opuscula hactenus inedita, &c. &c. Omnia diligenter recognita a Gregorio Sharpe, LL.D. Reg. Maj. a sacris. Templi Magistro S.S.R. et A.S. Oxonii. Reprint, with corrections, of Hyde’s 1665 work on the Zij, in a 2 vol. collection of Hyde’s work

1807. Duo pinakez geographikoi, d men Nassir ‘Eddinou Persou, d de Ouloug Mpei Tatarou. ‘Epimeleia kai opoudh Dhmhtriou ‘Alexandridou … Kata thn en ‘Oxonia ekdosin tou sophou Grauiou. ‘En Biennh thz Austriaz, ek thz tupographiaz ‘A. Sxmidiou. Ulugh Beg’s geographical tables published in Vienna in a Greek-language edition

1843. Francis Baily (1774-1844). “The Catalogues of Ptolemy, Ulugh Beigh, Tycho Brahe, Halley and Hevelius, Deduced From the Best Authorities, With Various Notes and Corrections,” Memoires of the Royal Astronomical Society 13, pp. 19-28, 79-125, London. Reprinted from Thomas Hyde’s translation, as edited by Gregory Sharpe in 1767

 1839. L. P. E. A. Sedillot (1808-1875). Tables astronomiques d’Oloug Beg, commentees et publiees avec le texte en regard, Tome I, 1 fascicule, Paris. A very rare work, but referenced in the Bibliographie generale de l’astronomie jusqu’en 1880, by J. C. Houzeau and A. Lancaster (Brussels, 3 vols. 1887-9; reprinted London, 1964)

1847. L. P. E. A. Sedillot (1808-1875). Prolegomenes des Tables astronomiques d’Oloug Beg, publiees avec Notes et Variantes, et precedes d’une Introduction. Paris: F. Didot

1853. L. P. E. A. Sedillot (1808-1875). Prolegomenes des Tables astronomiques d’Oloug Beg, traduction et commentaire. Paris

1917. Edward Ball Knobel (1841-1930). Ulugh Beg’s Catalogue of Stars, Revised from all Persian Manuscripts Existing in Great Britain, with a Vocabulary of Persian and Arabic Words. Washington, D. C.: The Carnegie Institute of Washington

http://vlib.iue.it/carrie/texts/carrie_books/paksoy-2/cam6.html

 

Ulugh Beg's headstone at the foot of Timur's in the Gur-e-Amir

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Ulugh Beg (Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh) الغ بیگ

Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh (Chagatai: میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, Persian: میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ) better known as Ulugh Beg (الغ بیگ) (March 22, 1394 in Sultaniyeh, Persia – October 27, 1449, Samarkand) was a Timurid ruler as well as an astronomer, mathematician and sultan. His father, Shahrukh had five sons, but only Ulugh Beg, who was an excellent mathematician but an incapable ruler, was left to succeed his father.

His commonly known name is not truly a personal name, but rather a moniker, which can be loosely translated as “Great Ruler” or “Patriarch Ruler” and was the Turkic equivalent of Timur’s Perso-Arabic title Amīr-e Kabīr.

He ruled Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, southern Kazakhstan and most of Afghanistan for almost half a century from 1411 to 1449.

He was a grandson of the great conqueror, Timur (Tamerlane) (1336–1405), and the oldest son of Shah Rukh, both of whom came from the Turkicized Barlas tribe of Transoxiana (now Uzbekistan).

His mother was a noblewoman named Goharshad, daughter of the representative Turkic of tribal aristocracy Giyasitdin Tarhan. Ulugh Beg was born in Sultaniyeh in Persia during Timur’s invasion. As a child he wandered through a substantial part of the Middle East and India as his grandfather expanded his conquests in those areas. After Timur’s death, however, and the accession of Ulugh Beg’s father to much of the Timurid Empire, he settled in Samarkand, which had been Timur’s capital. After Shah Rukh moved the capital to Herat (in modern Afghanistan), sixteen-year-old

Ulugh Beg became his governor in Samarkand in 1409. In 1411, he became the sovereign ruler of the whole Mavarannahr khanate. Ulugh Beg was also notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry.

He built the great Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand between 1424 and 1429. It was considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world at the time and the largest in Central Asia. He built the Ulugh Beg Madrasah (1417–1420) in Samarkand and Bukhara, transforming the cities into cultural centers of learning in Central Asia.

He was also a mathematician of the 15th century — albeit his mental aptitude was perseverance rather than any unusual endowment of intellect.

His observatory is situated in Samarkand which is in Uzbekistan.

https://www.geni.com/people/Ulugh-Beg-Mīrzā-Muhammad-Tāraghay-bin-Shāhrukh-6000000040320078561/ الغ-بیگ

Ulugh beg Medresa

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 Ulugh Beg – Astronomer

22 March 2015

On March 22, 1394, Mongolian astronomer, mathematician and sultan Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh, better known as Ulugh Beg was (probably) born. Although the only important Mongol scientist, he was the greatest astronomer of his time. Pursuing this interest he built an observatory at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used.

Ulugh Beg was the grandson of the conqueror Timur. After Timur’s death, the empire was disputed among his sons including Skah Rukh, Ulugh Beg’s father. Starting from 1407, he controlled a great part of the empire including Iran and Turkistan regaining control of Samarkand. Two years later, Shah Rukh decided to make Herat in Khorasan his new capital and made it a center of trade and culture while Samarkand was given to Ulugh Beg, who was highly interested in making the city a cultural centre instead of dealing with politics and the military.

It is believed that already in his early years, Ulugh Beg was interested in science, especially astronomy. He visited the remains of Maragha Observatory in his younger years. However, Ulugh Beg also never neglected the arts, writing poetry himself and studying history. He built a center for higher education, especially mathematics, which was completed in 1420. Ulugh Beg began to appoint the best scientists he could find to positions there as lecturers.

Al-Kashi became one of the leading figures of the scientific life of Samarkand and in his letters, he praised the mathematical achievements of Ulugh Beg, who led scientific meetings where problems in astronomy were freely discussed. Soon, Ulugh Beg started to built an astronomy at Samarkand and the construction works probably began in 1428. The observatory was over 35 meters high and 50 meters in diameter.

The scientists working at the observatory were able to find methods for giving accurate approximate solutions of cubic equations and work with the binomial theorem. Also, Ulugh Beg’s accurate tables of sines and tangents correct to eight decimal places were established and formulae of spherical trigonometry were found. Further, Ulugh Beg’s Catalogue of the stars, the first comprehensive stellar catalogue since that of Ptolemy, counts to one of their greatest achievements.

The star catalogue, the Zij-i Sultani, was published in 1437 and gives the positions of almost 1000 stars. The catalogue was accomplished by Ulugh Beg himself, al-Kashi, and Qadi Zada. The work contained tables of observations made at the Observatory, calendar calculations and results in trigonometry. Further, several mistakes in the calculations of Ptolemy were found and with the help of the new findings, Ulugh Beg was able to calculate the length of the year as 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 15 seconds.

Unfortunately, after the death of Ulugh Beg’s father in 1447, he could not retain power and was put to death. In 1941, his tomb was discovered in the mausoleum built by Timur in Samarkand.

http://scihi.org/ulugh-beg-astronomer/

Ulugh Beg Madrasa

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Ulugh Beg

Born: 1393 in Soltaniyeh, Timurid, Persia (now Iran)

Died: 27 October 1449 in Samarkand, Timurid empire

By: J. J. O’Connor and E. F. Robertson

Ulugh Beg was the grandson of the conqueror Timur, who is often known as Tamerlane (from Timur-I-Leng meaning Timur the Lame, a title of contempt used by his Persian enemies). Although in this archive we are primarily interested in Ulugh Beg’s achievements in mathematics and astronomy, we need to examine the history of the area since it had such a major impact on Ulugh Beg’s life.

Timur, Ulugh Beg’s grandfather, came from the Turkic Barlas tribe which was a Mongol tribe that was living in Transoxania, today essentially Uzbekistan. He united several Turko-Mongol tribes under his leadership and set out on a conquest, with his armies of mounted archers, of the area now occupied by Iran, Iraq, and eastern Turkey.

Shortly after his grandson Ulugh Beg was born, Timur invaded India and by 1399 he had taken control of Delhi. Timur continued his conquests by extending his empire to the west from 1399 to 1402, winning victories over the Egyptian Mamluks in Syria and the Ottomans in a battle near Ankara. Timur died in 1405 leading his armies into China.

After Timur’s death his empire was disputed among his sons. Ulugh Beg’s father Shah Rukh was the fourth son of Timur and, by 1407, he had gained overall control of most of the empire, including Iran and Turkistan regaining control of Samarkand. Samarkand had been the capital of Timur’s empire but, although his grandson Ulugh Beg had been brought up at Timur’s court, he was seldom in that city. When Timur was not on one of his military campaigns he moved with his army from place to place and his court, including his grandson Ulugh Beg, travelled with him.

In 1409 Shah Rukh decided to make Herat in Khorasan (today in western Afghanistan) his new capital. Shah Rukh ruled there making it a trading and cultural centre. He founded a library there and became a patron of the arts. However Shah Rukh did not give up Samarkand, rather he decided to give it to his son Ulugh Beg who was more interested in making the city a cultural centre than he was in politics or military conquest. Although Ulugh Beg was only sixteen years old when his father put him in control of Samarkand, he became his father’s deputy and he became ruler of the Mawaraunnahr region.

Ulugh Beg was primarily a scientist, in particular a mathematician and an astronomer. However, he certainly did not neglect the arts, writing poetry and history and studying the Qur’an. In 1417, to push forward the study of astronomy, Ulugh Beg began building a madrasah which is a centre for higher education. The madrasah, fronting the Rigestan Square in Samarkand, was completed in 1420 and Ulugh Beg then began to appoint the best scientists he could find to positions there as lecturers.

Ulugh Beg invited al-Kashi to join his madrasah in Samarkand, as well as around sixty other scientists including Qadi Zada. There is little doubt that, other than Ulugh Beg himself, al-Kashi was the leading astronomer and mathematician at Samarkand. Letters which al-Kashi wrote to his father have survived. These were written from Samarkand and give a wonderful description of the scientific life there. The contents of one of these letters have only recently been published.

In the letters al-Kashi praises the mathematical abilities of Ulugh Beg but of the other scientists in Samarkand, only Qadi Zada earned his respect. Ulugh Beg led scientific meetings where problems in astronomy were freely discussed. Usually these problems were too difficult for all except al-Kashi and the letters confirm that al-Kashi was the closest collaborator of Ulugh Beg at his madrasah in Samarkand.

In addition to the madrasah, Ulugh Beg built an observatory at Samarkand, the construction of this beginning in 1428. The Observatory, which was circular in shape, had three levels. It was over 50 metres in diameter and 35 metres high. The director of the Observatory was Ali-Kudschi, a Muslim astronomer. Al-Kashi and other mathematicians and astronomers appointed to the madrasah also worked at Ulugh Beg’s Observatory.

Among the instruments specially constructed for the Observatory was a quadrant so large that part of the ground had to be removed to allow it to fit in the Observatory. There was also a marble sextant, a triquetram and an armillary sphere. The achievements of the scientists at the Observatory, working there under Ulugh Beg’s direction and in collaboration with him, are discussed in detail in. This excellent book records the main achievements which include the following: methods for giving accurate approximate solutions of cubic equations; work with the binomial theorem; Ulugh Beg’s accurate tables of sines and tangents correct to eight decimal places; formulae of spherical trigonometry; and of particular importance, Ulugh Beg’s Catalogue of the stars, the first comprehensive stellar catalogue since that of Ptolemy.

This star catalogue, the Zij-i Sultani, set the standard for such works up to the seventeenth century. Published in 1437, it gives the positions of 992 stars. The catalogue was the results of a combined effort by a number of people working at the Observatory including Ulugh Beg, al-Kashi, and Qadi Zada. As well as tables of observations made at the Observatory, the work contained calendar calculations and results in trigonometry.

The trigonometric results include tables of sines and tangents given at 1° intervals. These tables display a high degree of accuracy, being correct to at least 8 decimal places. The calculation is built on an accurate determination of sin 1° which Ulugh Beg solved by showing it to be the solution of a cubic equation which he then solved by numerical methods. He obtained

sin 1° = 0.017452406437283571

The correct approximation is

sin 1° = 0.017452406437283512820

which shows the remarkable accuracy which Ulugh Beg achieved.

Observations made at the Observatory brought to light a number of errors in the computations of Ptolemy which had been accepted without question up to that time. Data from his Observatory allowed Ulugh Beg to calculate the length of the year as 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 15 seconds, a fairly accurate value. He produced data relating to the Sun, the Moon and the planets. His data for the movements of the planets over a year is, like so much of his work, very accurate:

… the difference between Ulugh Beg’s data and that of modern times relating to [Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus] falls within the limits of two to five seconds.

Ulugh Beg’s politics were not up to his science and, after his father’s death in 1447, he was unable to retain power despite being an only son. He was eventually put to death at Samarkand at the instigation of his own son ‘Abd al-Latif. His tomb was discovered in 1941 in the mausoleum built by Timur in Samarkand. It was discovered that Ulugh Beg had been buried in his clothes which is known to indicate that he was considered a martyr. The injuries inflicted on him were evident when his body was examined:

 … the third cervical vertebra was severed by a sharp instrument in such a way that the main portion of the body and an arc of that vertebra were cut cleanly; the blow, struck from the left, also cut through the right corner of the lower jaw and its lower edge.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Ulugh_Beg.html

Ulugh Beg Madrasah

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Ulugh Beg

Ulugh Beg was a Timurid ruler as well as an astronomer, mathematician. His primary interest was in the sciences and intellectual matters. He built an observatory at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy. Ulugh Beg was also notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry. He built the great Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand, which was considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world at the time and the largest in Central Asia….

Muhammad Taraghāy ibn Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr, known as Ulugh

Beg Born in Sultāniyya (Iran) on 22 March 1394

Died near Samarqand (Uzbekistan) on 27 October 1449

Muhammad Taraghāy ibn Shāhrukh ibn Tīmūr better known as Ulugh Beg (Sultāniyya (Iran) on 22 March 1394 and died near Samarqand (Uzbekistan) on 27 October 1449) was a Timurid ruler as well as an astronomer, mathematician. Ulūgh Beg was the grandson of the Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane). His primary interest was in the sciences and intellectual matters. Under his brief rule the Timurid dynasty reached its cultural peak. His father, Shāh Rokh, captured the city of Samarkand and gave it to Ulūgh Beg, who made it a centre of Muslim culture. There he wrote poetry and history and studied the Qurān. His greatest interest was astronomy, and he built an observatory (begun in 1428) at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used.

Ulugh Beg was also notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry. He built the great Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand, which was considered by scholars to have been one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world at the time and the largest in Central Asia. He also build the Ulugh Beg Madrasah (1417–1420) in Samarkand and Bukhara, transforming the cities into cultural center of learning in Central Asia.

In a long and detailed article on Astronomical Observatories in the Classical Islamic Culture, FSTC Research Team devoted a section to The Legacy of Ulugh Beg that we reproduce to celebrate the anniversary of this great scholar.

The Legacy of Ulugh Beg

In a noteworthy article by Kevin Krisciunas (University of Notre Dame, Department of Physics) on The Legacy of Ulugh Beg, the author presents an outline on the subject of Muslim observatories and especially the work performed in Samarqand observatory.

Krisciunas reminds us that Ulugh Beg is to be remembered not for his princely role, but for his role as patron of astronomy, an astronomer and observatory builder. His distinction was that he was one of the first to advocate and build permanently mounted astronomical instruments. The importance of his observatory is further enhanced by the large number of astronomers, between sixty and seventy, involved in observation and seminars. Of crucial importance, too, is that observations were carried on a systematic basis forlengthy periods of time, as from 1420 to 1437. The reason, as Krisciunas makes clear, why observations are not completed in one year but instead require ten or fifteen years, is:

“The situation is such that there are certain conditions suited to the determination of matters pertaining to the planets, and it is necessary to observe them when these conditions obtain. It is necessary, e.g., to have two eclipses in both of which the eclipsed parts are equal and to the same side, and both these eclipses have to take place near the same node. Likewise, another pair of eclipses conforming to other specifications is needed, and still other cases of a similar nature are required. It is necessary to observe Mercury at a time when it is at its maximum morning elongation and once at its maximum evening elongation, with the addition of certain other conditions, and a similar situation exists for the other planets.

“Now, all these circumstances do not obtain within a single year, so that observations cannot be made in one year. I is necessary to wait until the required circumstances obtain and then if there is cloud at the awaited time, the opportunity will be lost and gone for another year or two until the like of it occurs once more. In this manner, there is a need for ten or fifteen years. One might add that because it takes Saturn 29 years to return to the same position amongst the stars (that being its period of revolution about the Sun), a period of 29 years might have been the projected length of the Samarkand programme of observations.”

In his article, Krisciunas, although recognising the crucial role of Islamic observation, still finds sources of disagreement with the notion that the Samarqand observatory exerted decisive influence on Europe. Actually, the legacy of this scientific institution was indeed not transmitted to the West, where a thriving scientific tradition was being developed as a result of earlier contacts with Arabic science. It remains true, however, that the work of Ulugh Beg and his colleagues had an important impact on another Islamic team of scholars, those who worked in Istanbul in late 16th century under the leadership of Taqi al-Din ibn Ma’ruf. Now, the similarity of Taqi al-Din’s astronomical instruments with those of Tycho Brahe is amazing, and should stand as a strong evidence that the Danish astronomer certainly knew in a way or another of the achievements of his Muslim colleagues, at least in the field of astronomical instrumentation.

“The Samarkand observatory consisted of a monumental cylindrical building of a height of 30 meters and a diameter of 46, with a huge marble sextant, the “Sextant of Fakhri”, of a radius of about 40 meters, allowing a very high precision in the astronomical measurements during the passage of the Sun, the Moon or the planets along the meridian. This arch of 60° included staircases on each side to allow the assistants carrying out the measurements to move.”

End Notes

Kevin Krisciunas, “The Legacy of Ulugh Beg”, Bulletin of the Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring 1992, pp. 3-6. Reprinted in in Central Asian Monuments, edited by Hasan B. Paksoy, Istanbul: Isis Press, 1992, pp. 95-103 (for an online version click here). See also by the same author: “The accuracy of the measurements in Ulugh Beg’s star catalogue”, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, vol. 24, no. 4, 1992, 1166-7; “A more complete analysis of the errors in Ulugh Beg’s star catalogue”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 24, November 1993, pp. 269-280; and “Observatories”, Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Institute of Physics Publishing, 1999 (available on The astrophysics preprint server: arXiv:astro-ph/9902030.

These issues were studied by Sevim Tekeli, The Instruments of Istanbul Observatory (published on http://www.MuslimHeritage.com, 8 June 2008). See also Aydin Sayili, Observatories In Islam and Salim Aydüz, Ottoman Contributions to Science and Technology: Examples from Geography and Astronomy.

https://muslimheritage.com/ulugh-beg/

Ulugh Beg observatory

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Ulugh Beg and His Observatory

By Daniel C. Waugh

Ulugh Beg was the oldest son of Shahrukh, born in the city of Sultaniyah during his grandfather Timur’s (Tamerlane’s) campaign in northern Iran in 1394. At age 4 he accompanied his grandfather as far as Kabul, on the campaign that went on to take Delhi; almost immediately after the Indian campaign, he joined Tamerlane’s campaign to the west which resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman ruler Bayezid I at Ankara in 1402. As Tamerlane was preparing to invade China, he celebrated the marriages of several of his grandsons, among them Ulughbeg (then age 10), who also was designated to rule over a significant portion of Moghulistan (the region encompassing part of the Tien Shan Mountains and NW Xinjiang), which, of course, was yet to be conquered. It is likely that Ulugh Beg was one of the princes seen by the Spanish ambassador Clavijo when he visited Tamerlane’s court in 1403-1404.

Tamerlane’s death in early 1405 not only cancelled the invasion of China but ushered in a period of civil strife in which the young Ulugh Beg took an active part. When his father, Shahrukh, finally managed to regain control over Transoxiana, he appointed Ulugh Beg as the regent there. The latter assumed his full responsibilities in 1411, although he continued to be subordinate to his father, who ruled the empire from Herat. At Shahrukh’s death in 1447, Ulugh Beg succeeded him, but survived only two years as an independent ruler before being overthrown and beheaded in 1449.

Although for a time in the mid-1420s Ulugh Beg’s armies waged a successful war for control of parts of Moghulistan (including Kashgar), increasingly he seems to have devoted himself to scholarly pursuits and patronage of the arts. In 1417-1420 he had a large madrasa (school) built, which still stands on the Registan in the center of Samarkand. The Timurid founder of the Moghul Empire in the early sixteenth century, Babur, describes what this complex of buildings was like then (only the school has survived):

Amongst Ulugh Beg’s buildings inside the town are a college and a hospice (khanaqah). The dome of the hospice is very large: few so large are known anywhere else in the world. Near these two buildings he constructed an excellent hot bath…; he had the pavements in this made of all sorts of stone. There is no bath like this in Khurasan or anywhere else in Samarkand….To the south of the college is his mosque, known as the “Carved Mosque” because its ceiling and walls are all covered with carved islimi and pictures made of inlaid woods…

Babur goes on to describe Ulugh Beg’s observatory and some of the splendid gardens and pavilions that he had built, one of them apparently decorated with porcelain specially ordered from China. His conscious efforts to honor his grandfather included donation of the huge Koran stand that can still be seen in the Bibi Khanum Mosque and placement of of a striking jade cenotaph above Tamerlane’s grave in the Gur-i Amir mausoleum. There is reason to believe that this huge block of jade came as booty from one of Ulugh Beg’s campaigns in Moghulistan in the 1420s. Ulugh Beg was laid to rest in the Gur-i Mir at the feet of his grandfather (in the photo, Ulugh Beg’s grave is in the foreground; Tamerlane’s behind).

While the achievements of his reign were many, he is probably best remembered for his scientific contributions. The madrasa became a major center of learning in the Islamic world, whose influence spread widely and lasted beyond Ulugh Beg’s death, at which time some of the scholars he had supported left Samarkand for capitals such as Istanbul which promised more stability. The first director of his observatory was Qazizadeh Rumi, who had in fact come to Central Asia from Anatolia and was one of Ulugh Beg’s teachers. Tradition has it that he is buried the elegant double-domed tomb constructed for him in the Shah-i Zinde mausoleum complex at Ulugh Beg’s behest.

The tradition of Islamic science upon which Ulugh Beg and his scholars drew had long been valued by the rulers of Inner Asia. For example, the famous Mongol Emperor Khubilai Khan, staffed his new observatory in Beijing (shown on the left) with Muslim scientists. Muslim scholars made important contributions in mathematics (as is well known, our word “algebra” and the mathematics it embodies come from Arabic treatises). In astronomy, they drew heavily on the legacy of Classical Greece and Rome. One concern of royal astronomers was with calendars and astrological readings of heavenly signs (the boundary between astronomy and astrology was not clearcut as it is today).

Underlying such “practical” applications was serious measurement and study of the movement of heavenly bodies; it is in this area that Ulugh Beg made some of his most important contributions. The observatory built at Maragha in the late thirteenth century for the Mongol Ilkhanid rulers of Iran was probably the most important direct influence on the Samarkand observatory.

His observatory was built beginning around 1420 on a hill to the north of Samarkand. Since it was destroyed within a few generations of his death, by the twentieth century no one knew its exact location. All that remains of the building, now excavated by archaeologists, are the foundations and the lower part of the largest of its scientific instruments, a huge “sextant.” There is a small museum with exhibits about Ulugh Beg and his scientific achievements; one can contemplate there a bust sculpted on the basis of the study of his remains.

Babur described the building as it still stood in the early sixteenth century:

Another of Ulugh Beg Mirza’s fine buildings is an observatory, that is, an instrument for writing astronomical tables. this stands three storeys high, on the skirt of the Kohik upland. By its means the Mirza worked out the Gurkhani Tables, now used all over the world instead of earlier such compilations….

One modern reconstruction of the building’s appearance is shown here. 

The so-called “sextant” obviously would have extended well above the ground (as the drawing shows) and likely was closer to being a quadrant. As Krisciunas points out in his interesting discussion of the instrument, it “was by far the largest meridian instrument ever built.” Fragments of the curved measuring track have survived with markings for around 20 degrees; this is about the highest point that observations likely would have been made. The “sextant” would have been used to measure the angle of elevation of major heavenly bodies, especially at the time of the winter and summer solstices. Light from the given body, passing through a controlled opening, would have shone on the curved track, which is marked very precisely with degrees and minutes.

“It could achieve a resolution of several seconds of arc–on the order of a six-hundredth of a degree, or the diameter of an American penny at a distance of more than half a kilometer” (Krisciunas). It is not clear whether more than the sun and moon could have been measured in this fashion, since planets, for example, would not have cast sufficient light. The observatory was equipped with a variety of other instruments, which probably accounted for the largest part of its scientific measurement. While only written lists (not the actual instruments) have survived, one can at least get a feel for what some might have been like (among them armillary spheres) from those to be seen today atop Khubilai Khan’s observatory in Beijing.

One of the most important measurements carried out by Ulugh Beg’s astronomers was the obliquity of the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the circular path described by the the sun in the course of a year, and its obliquity is the angle at which it cuts the equator. Establishing this precisely is important for a variety of other astronomical measurements and calendrical calculations. The astronomers in the classical world had errors on the order of 7′-10′. Arab astronomers achieved for the most part much greater precision; in the case of Ulugh Beg, the error was only -0’32”.

His results for the calculation of the movement of the planets are also impressively close to those obtained by modern means. Some consider his most significant achievement to be the compilation of a catalogue of the stars and their locations. This was the first such catalogue based on new, direct observation since that complied some 1600 years earlier by the important Greek astronomer Hipparchus. Our appreciation for Ulugh Beg’s work increases when we remember that he was working nearly two centuries prior to the invention of the telescope.

His work eventually became known in Europe, with the publication in London in 1650 of a Latin translation of his “Chronology,” and fifteen years later the first of many European editions of his star tables. As Krisciunas points out, the impact on European astronomy was slight though, given the advances that had been made prior to the time when Ulugh Beg’s work became known. The Samarkand observatory was much more important for its influence on astronomy in Mughal India. That said, Ulugh Beg

was certainly the most important observational astronomer of the 15th century. He was one of the first to advocate and build permanently mounted astronomical instruments. His catalogue of 1018 stars (some sources count 1022) was the only such undertaking carried out between the times of Cladius Ptolemy (ca. 170 A.D.) and Tycho Brahe (ca. 1600). And…his attitude towards scientific endeavors was surprisingly modern.(Krisciunas)

References:

1) Aydin Sayili, The Observatory in Islam and Its Place in the General History of the Observatory (Ankara, 1960), Ch. VIII, pp. 260-289

2)Kevin Krisciunas, “Ulugh Beg’s Zij,” in H. B. Paksoy, ed., Central Asian Monuments (Istanbul, 1992). A professional astronomer’s assessment, with extensive bibliography

3) Iz istorii epokhi Ulugbeka (Tashkent, 1965)

4) Bernhard du Mont, “Ulugh Beg: Astronom und Herrscher in Samarkand,” Sterne und Weltraum, 2002, Nos. 9-10, pp. 38-46. The first of two beautifully illustrated articles on Ulugh Beg by German astronomers; published in a high-quality popular astronomy journal

5) Heiner Schwan, “Die Tabellen von Ulugh Beg: Die Sternkataloge des Ptolemäus, Ulugh Beg und Tycho Brahe im Vergleich,” Sterne und Weltraum, 2002, Nos. 9-10, pp. 48-51.

https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/uz/samarkand/obser.html

Ulugh Beg observatory

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 Mohammed Targai Ulugh Beg (1393 – 1449 C.E.)

By Dr. A. Zahoor

Ulugh Beg was a grandson of Timur (known in the West as Tamerlane), a Tartar prince and ruler of Turkestan. He was an exceptional astronomer and mathematician of the fifteenth century. Ulugh Beg was the son of Timurid king Shah Rukh and was born in 1393 at Sultaniyya in Central Asia. He was a Hafiz, someone who can recite the Qur’an by heart.

Ulugh Beg made Samarkand famous as one of the leading cities of Muslim civilization. In 1424 he built a madrasa, an institution of higher learning, where astronomy was taught. Later in 1428, Ulugh Beg began the construction of a magnificent three-story observatory in Samarkand. It was more than two hundred fifty feet in diameter and one hundred twenty feet high. He appointed Ali-Kudsi, a Muslim astronomer as the director of the Observatory. Several well-known mathematicians and astronomers including Al-Kashi and Kadizada worked there.

He equipped it with the best and most accurate astronomical instruments available then. The observatory included a Fakhri sextant (made of marble) which was used for determining the inclination of the ecliptic to the equator, the point of the vernal equinox, the length of the tropical year, and other astronomical constants measured from observation of the sun. It also included a quadrant so large that part of the ground was removed to allow it to fit in the Observatory. Other instruments included a triquetram and an armillary sphere.

In 1437 he published his most famous and enduring work, a new catalogue of stars entitled ‘Zidj-i Djadid Sultani.’ In it, he revisited the positions and magnitudes of stars observed by Ptolemy. He found many errors in the computations of Ptolemy. It includes a diverse collection of observations and computations, the position of the fixed stars, the course of the stars, and the knowledge of time. An English translation of this work was published in 1917.

Ulugh Beg computed the length of the year as 365 days 5 hours 49 minutes 15 seconds, a fairly accurate value. In addition, he prepared Tables of Planetary Motions which were very popular and in demand throughout the astronomical community. Ulugh Beg studied the yearly movements of the five bright planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. His data are still considered very accurate. In 1437, he also compiled a star catalogue giving the positions of 992 stars. His compilation of tables of sines and tangents at one-degree intervals are accurate to eight decimal places.

Ulugh Beg was assassinated in 1449 in Samarkand after a brief reign as ruler of Turkestan for three years. This catastrophe led to the neglect of the observatory and Samarkand slowly phased out as the leading center of astronomy. The observatory was eventually destroyed and its location was confirmed in 1908 by Russian archaeologists. Beer and Madler in their famous work Der Mond (1837) mention a surface feature of the moon after Ulugh Beg. It is the name of a prominent elliptical ring in the northwest of the Eighteenth section.

http://www.unhas.ac.id/rhiza/arsip/saintis/beg.html

Фрагмент двойного азимутального квадранта

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The Tragic Story of the Man Who Unlocked the Universe

By Jamie Carter

Nov 27, 2018

When it comes to places with an evocative name, Samarkand in Uzbekistan, Central Asia, on the old Silk Road is right up there with Marrakesh, Timbuktu and Shangri-La. It’s home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Registan, and it’s where every single tourist who ever visits Uzbekistan ends up. However, a few miles away in a far less dramatic a building is evidence that it was here that astronomers accurately calculated the length of a year to within a minute, measured the Earth, and plotted the positions of over a thousand stars.

The forgotten astronomer

Yet instead of taking his place next to the giants of pioneering astronomy, such as Tycho Brahe, Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo – all of whom he preceded – the name Ulugh Begh remains virtually unknown.

Where is Uzbekistan?

Most people cannot find Uzbekistan on a world map. This former Soviet state is in Central Asia, borders all of the other ‘Stans (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan), and is home to 33 million. Even fewer people, including astronomers, have heard of Begh.

Pioneering observations

The astronomical school he founded was fleeting, but it was nonetheless pioneering. Constructed around the year 1420 on a hill on the outskirts of Samarkand, ruler Begh’s cutting-edge observatory was destroyed less than 30 years later. As was Begh himself, murdered aged 55 years, while on the way to Mecca – by an assassin hired by his son! Archaeologists only found the observatory in 1908, and excavated it in 1948.

What’s left to see

The remains of his observatory are well worth a visit if you want a glimpse of what astronomy would have been like without the telescope ever being invented. It constitutes a huge trench along the line of the Meridian, a few meters wide, that once housed a mighty sextant with a radius of 40 meters used to measure the elevation of the Sun, Moon and stars. At one end is an arch used to measure midday. Starlight would have shone on to the track, which contains Arabic numerals. The result of this, and other observational astronomical instruments was the Zij-i Sultani in 1437, then the most accurate catalog of 1,018 stars, and Begh’s legacy.

Accurate calculations

In it, the astronomers accurately predicted, for the first time, the exact length of years and months, and the moment of midday, and of winter and summer solstices. The astronomers’ calculation of a year, at 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds, was later proved to be wrong. They were out by 1 minute and 2 seconds.

Predicting eclipses

The annual motion of the planets was plotted, part of some impressive work exploring the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the sun’s apparent path through the sky during a year. By measuring its inclination to the celestial equator, Begh’s astronomers calculated the Moon’s ascending and descending nodes, and as a result, the exact timing of solar eclipses (which only occur when the moon crosses the ecliptic).

Begh’s name lives on

This scholarly ruler’s name has largely been forgotten by modern astronomy, but it does live on in two places in the Universe: 2439 Ulugbek, a minor planet discovered in 1977, and Ulug Beigh crater near the Oceanus Procellarum in the northwest of the moon.

Uzbekistan’s only contribution to science? Not quite. Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a 9th-century Muslim mathematician and astronomer, invented algebra. Go figure.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2018/11/27/the-tragic-story-of-the-man-who-unlocked-the-universe/#b09310f4b0bd

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Ulugh Beg‘s observatory, Uzbekistan 

The site comprises the remains of a meridian arc that originally formed part of the 15th-century observatory of Ulugh Beg. This colossal quadrant, its white marble slabs containing incised Arabic symbols and numerals, was constructing by cutting its lower part out of living rock while its upper part was supported by a brick structure 40m high.

Ulugh Beg, the ruler of Transoxiana from 1409 to 1449, had been interested in astronomy from childhood and had visited the remains of Maragha Observatory in his younger years. In 1420 he established a school in his capital city Samarqand, where mathematical sciences were taught, and after four years he established his own observatory, one of the largest in the pre-modern era.

The observatory was a large round building with three stories, decorated with glazed tiles, majolica and mosaic. Its main instrument was a huge sextant with a radius of 40m, embedded in a trench about two metres wide, dug into a hill in the plane of the meridian. This method of construction made the instrument completely stable and reduced the errors arising from the minor displacements common in movable observational tools. At the same time, the enormous size of the sextant made its graduation very accurate. On the arc of the sextant, divisions of 70.2 cm represented one degree, while marks separated by 11.7 mm corresponded to one minute and marks only 1mm apart represented five seconds.

Following the demise of Ulugh Beg the observatory was reduced to ruins. Its remains, primarily the sextant, were discovered in 1908.

The main purpose of the observatory was to produce a zīj, and the Sultānī Zīj or the Zīj-i Ulugh Beg was duly compiled in 1438-39. This became one of the most widespread zījs: it was copied more than a hundred times, translated into Arabic and Turkish, and parts of it were translated into Latin and published in Oxford and London in the mid 17th century.

An important aspect of the Sultānī Zīj is its updated values for astronomical parameters and new computational procedures. Samarqand astronomers attempted to calculate the trigonometric tables from scratch and derived new values for essential parameters. The basis of the trigonometric tables of the Sultānī Zīj is the very accurate calculation of the sine of 1°, which Ulugh Beg Ghiyāth al-Dīn Jamshid al-Kāshī, the senior astronomer of the observatory, calculated using new procedures to sixteen decimal places. His work the Key to Arithmetic is one of the best treatises written about arithmetic in the Middle Ages.

Under the patronage of Ulugh Beg, Samarqand became an ideal place to study science at an advanced level, and attracted many students from all over the Islamic territories, even including the farthest western regions. As a result of these scholarly exchanges, the influence of Samarqand Observatory, which was itself a continuation of the Maragha School tradition, spread through a vast area from Tranoxiana to the Ottoman Empire. The social and political turbulence that followed the fall of Ulugh Beg and continued until the establishment of the Safavid dynasty in Persia in the early 1500s triggered a massive emigration of scholars from the eastern parts of the Islamic territories into the Ottoman Empire. Among them were several astronomers and mathematicians who were either working at the Samarqand Observatory or else trained by Samarqand scholars; and their influence upon the development of science in the Ottoman Empire was considerable.

Ulugh Beg’s observatory forms part of the World Heritage Site Samarkand—Crossroads of Cultures, inscribed in 2001 under criteria (i), (ii) and (iv). As one of the major monuments of the property, it is afforded Uzbekistan’s highest level of cultural protection and conservation.

https://www3.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/show-entity?idunescowhc=603

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The Samarkand Observatory

A comment from Clive J. Grant reads:

The Samarkand observatory, for the construction of which Ulugh Beg was primarily responsible, was left untouched when Samarkand was conquered by Uzbeks in 1500. Samarkans was incorporated into the Bukhara Khanate. This is very important, because the city of Bukhara, even then, was becoming a major repository of Islamic written (and, later, printed) works. It grew into a major trading center and thousands of precious scrolls and books traveled the Silk Road to western centers of Islamic learning. In large measure, that is why we have available to us the works of so many 11th- to 15th-century Islamic scholars. Samarkand declined in importance until, for about 50 years (172[?] to 177[?]) it had no inhabitants. Long before then, virtually every scrap of paper, silk scroll, papyrus, vellum, &c. had been removed to the covered souks in Bukhara. Imperial Russia partially resurrected Samarkand as a rail center during the 19th-Century Great Game.

Over the centuries, the Bukhara souks had developed into the single largest documentary resource in all of Islam. In some respects, it was a marketing center; in some it was a giant library. Sadly, that first-place distinction was annihilated early in the 20th-Century.

In their first attempt to force Bukhara into the new Red USSR empire, the Bolsheviks were repelled by a small patriotic force. As punishment, Moscow named Samarkand the capital of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic and, simultaneously, sent a modern army against the ancient city. The overwhelming force included heavy artillery, tanks and heavy bombing raids by airplanes. Nothing of the Bukhara archives survived. The canvas covered souks were as ineffective as air against explosives and incendiary devices.

Of course, history tends to be written by the conquerors and the USSR, with a penchant for revising history at the drop of a hat, tried to write the barbaric destruction of Bukhara out of history. Western left wing authors occasionally make reference to the ruins of ancient covered bazaars, unwilling as they are to lay the blame where it belongs.

Here are quotations from some paragraphs in David Fromkin’s book, A Peace to End All Peace , chapter 56, A Death in Bukhara [of 1918] p. 485

… In the city’s seven-mile honeycomb of covered bazaars, … [t]here was a lively traffic … A center of the commerce in rare manuscripts and libraries in many oriental languages, Bukhara continued to be the principal book market in Central Asia.

[of 1920] p. 486

In the summer of 1920 the Red Army attacked again, and Russian troops under the command of Mikhail Frunze bombarded Bukhara. . . . the Red Army, with its airplanes and armored vehicles, moved forward on 2 September, bringing Bukhara’s medieval rule to an end: the library, containing possibly the greatest collections of Moslem manuscripts in the world, went up in flames.

One can only speculate what untold treasures went up in smoke.

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Extras/Samarkand.html