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Nāṣīr Ad-Dīn on Determination of the Declination Function

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Javad Hamadani-Zadeh*
Affiliation:
Sharif University of Technology, P.O.B. 3406, Tehran, Iran

Extract

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A commentary, on the spherical astronomy in the Zīj-i Īlkhanī[1], written by the famous Naṣīr ad-Dīn aṭ-Ṭusī (c. 1270) would be an important contribution to the history of medieval astronomy. But we postpone this and attempt here to describe the contents of the third and fourth sections of Treatise III of this zīj. We hope that it will serve to elucidate a small part of this work, which has remained unexploited. I have made a preliminary English translation of the entire Zīj-i Īlkhanī, which awaits final revision and preparation for publication.

The rules explained verbally and without proof by Naṣīr ad-Dīn in the sections under consideration are similar to the ones described by Kāshi in his Zīj-i khāqānī and analysed by E. S. Kennedy in [2]. Therefore, we do not present our proofs of the rules, but refer the reader to [2].

Type
Mediaeval Astronomy
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

References

Naṣīr ad-Dīn aṭ-Ṭūsī Zīj-i Īlkhānī. Microfilm 1418/2, Tehran University Central Library. (Other copies consulted are: MS684, Mutahari Library, Tehran, and MSS 5331 and 5332 of the Shrine Library, Mashhad.)Google Scholar
Kennedy, E.S. (1985) Spherical Astronomy in Kāshis Khāqānī Zīj. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2, 146.Google Scholar