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He was involved in the measurement of the diameter of the Earth together with a team of scientists under the patronage of Al-Ma'mūn in Baghdad . His textbook ''Elements of astronomy on the celestial motions'', written about 833 CE, was a competent descriptive summary of Ptolemy ’s Almagest . Its was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and remained very popular in Europe until the time of Regiomontanus . In the seventeenth century the Dutch orientalist Jacob Golius published the Arabic text on the basis of a manuscript he had acquired in the Near East, with a new Latin translation and extensive notes.

Later he moved to Cairo , where he composed a very important treatise on the Astrolabe around 856 CE. There he also supervised the construction of the large Nilometer on the island of al-Rawda (in Old Cairo) in the year 861.

The Alfraganus Crater on the Moon was named after him.


Bibliography


  • ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', s.v.

  • Jacobus Golius (ed.), ''كتاب محمد بن كثير الفرغاني في الحركات السماوية وجوامع علم النجوم، بتفسير الشيخ الفاضل يعقوب غوليوس / Muhammedis Fil. Ketiri Ferganensis, qui vulgo Alfraganus dicitur, Elementa astronomica, Arabicè & Latinè. Cum notis ad res exoticas sive Orientales, quae in iis occurrunt'', Amsterdam 1669; Reprint Frankfurt 1986 and 1997.

  • El-Fergânî, ''The Elements of Astronomy'', textual analysis, translation into Turkish, critical edition & facsimile by Yavuz Unat, edited by Şinasi Tekin & Gönül Alpay Tekin, Harvard University 1998.

  • Richard Lorch (ed.), ''Al-Farghānī on the Astrolabe. Arabic text edited with translation and commentary'', Stuttgart, 2005, ISBN 3-515-08713-3.



See also