Zij

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Zij

Zij (Persian

Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
: ???) is the generic name applied to Islamic astronomical books that tabulate parameters used for astronomical calculations of the positions of the Sun, Moon, stars, and planets. The name is derived from the Middle Persian

Middle Persian

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Zij (Persian

Persian language

Middle Persian

Middle Persian is the Iranian languages language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well....
term zih or zig, meaning cord. The term is believed to refer to the arrangement of threads in weaving, which was transferred to the arrangement of rows and columns in tabulated data. In addition to the term zij, some were called by the name qanun, derived from the equivalent Greek word, ?a???.

Some of the early zijes tabulated data from Indian planetary theory (known as the Sindhind) and from pre-Islamic Persian

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
models, but most zijes presented data based on the Ptolemaic model. A small number of the zijes adopted their computations reflecting original observations but most only adopted their tables to reflect the use of a different calendar or geographic longitude as the basis for computations. Since most zijes generally followed earlier theory, their principle contributions reflected improved trigonometrical, computational and observational techniques.

The content of zijes were initially based on that of the Handy Tables (known in Arabic as al-Qanun) by Egyptian

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
astronomer Ptolemy

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemaeus , known in English as Ptolemy , was a Roman Greek mathematics, Greek astronomy, geographer and astrologer. He lived in History of Roman Egypt, and was probably born there in a town in the Thebaid called Ptolemais Hermiou; he died in Alexandria around 168 AD....
, the Zij-i Shah compiled in Sassanid

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
Persia, and the Indian Siddhanta

Siddhanta

Siddhanta, a Sanskrit term, roughly translates as the Doctrine or the Tradition. It denotes the established and accepted view of a particular school within Indian philosophy....
s by Aryabhata

Aryabhata

Aryabhaa is the first in the line of great mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His most famous works are the Aryabhatiya and Arya-Siddhanta....
and Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta

Brahmagupta was an Indian Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy....
. Arabic zijes, however, were more extensive, and typically included materials on chronology

Chronology

Chronology is a chronicle or arrangement of events in their occurrence order. General chronology is the science of locating and resolution of temporal sequence of past events in time...
, geographical latitude

Latitude

Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps ....
s and longitude

Longitude

Longitude , symbolized by the Greek character lambda , is the geographic coordinate most commonly used in cartography and global navigation for east-west measurement....
s, star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous ball of Plasma that is held together by its own gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth....
tables, trigonometrical functions

Trigonometry

Trigonometry is a branch of mathematics that deals with triangle s, particularly those plane triangles in which one angle has 90 degrees . Trigonometry deals with relationships between the sides and the angles of triangles and with the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships....
, functions in spherical astronomy

Spherical astronomy

Spherical astronomy or positional astronomy is the branch of astronomy that is used to determine the location of objects on the celestial sphere, as seen at a particular date, time, and location on the Earth....
, the equation of time

Equation of time

The equation of time is the difference over the course of a year between time as read from a sundial and time as read from a clock, measured in an ideal situation ....
, planetary motions, computation of eclipses, tables for first visibility of the lunar crescent

New moon

In astronomical terminology, the new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in Conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth....
, astronomical and/or astrological

Islamic astrology

Islamic astrology, in Arabic ilm al-nujum or ilm al-falak, is the study of the heavens by early Muslims. In early Arabic sources, ilm al-nujum was used to refer to both Astrology and astronomy....
computations, and instructions for astronomical calculations using epicyclic geocentric models. Some zijes go beyond this traditional content to explain or prove the theory or report the observations from which the tables were computed.

Over 200 different zijes have been identified that were produced by Islamic astronomers

Islamic astronomy

In the history of astronomy, Islamic astronomy or Arabic astronomy refers to the astronomical developments made in the Islamic world, particularly during the Islamic Golden Age , and mostly written in the Arabic language....
during the period from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries. The greatest centers of production of zijes were Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the Capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is also coterminous. With a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq, and the second largest city in the Arab World....
under the Abassid caliph

Caliph

The Caliph is the head of state in a Caliphate, and the title for the leader of the Islamic Ummah, an Islamic community ruled by the Shari'ah....
s in the 9th century, the Maragheh observatory

Maragheh observatory

Maragheh observatory is an ancient observatory, which was established in 1259 by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, an Iranian peoples Islamic science and Islamic astronomy....
in the 13th century, the Samarkand

Samarkand

Samarkand , is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study....
observatory in the 15th century, and the Istanbul observatory of al-Din

Istanbul observatory of al-Din

The Istanbul observatory of al-Din was one of the largest Islamic astronomy#Observatories. However, it only existed for several years before it was destroyed....
in the 16th century. Nearly 100 more zijes were also produced in India between the 16th and 18th centuries.

List of zijes

Az-Zij ?ala Sini al-?Arab — by Ibrahim al-Fazari
Ibrahim al-Fazari

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulaiman ibn Samura ibn Jundab al-Fazari was an 8th century Muslim mathematician and astronomer of either Arab or Persian people background....
(d. 777) and Muhammad al-Fazari
Muhammad al-Fazari

Abu abdallah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari was a Muslim philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He is not to be confused with his father Ibrahim al-Fazari, also an astronomer and mathematician....
(d. 796/806)
Az-Zij al-Mahlul min as-Sindhind li-Darajat Daraja — by Yaqub ibn Tariq
Yaqub ibn Tariq

was an 8th century Persian Empire astronomer and mathematician. lived in Baghdad, and is considered to be one of the greatest astronomers of his time....
(d. 796)
Zij al-Sindhind — by al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-850)
Az-Zij as-Sabi — by Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Harrani al-Battani (Albatenius) (853-929)
Zij al-Safa'ih (Tables of the disks of the astrolabe) — by Abu Ja'far al-Khazin (900-971)
Book of Fixed Stars
Book of Fixed Stars

The Book of Fixed Stars is an astronomy text composed by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi around 964. The book was written in Arabic language, although the author himself was probably Persian people....
(964) — by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) (903-986)
Zij al-Kabir al-Hakimi — by Ibn Yunus
Ibn Yunus

Ibn Yunus was an important Egyptians Islamic astronomy and Islamic mathematics, whose works are noted for being ahead of their time, having been based on almost modern-like meticulous calculations and attention to detail....
(c. 950-1009)
Az-Zij al-Jami wal-Baligh (The comprehensive and mature tables) — by Kushyar ibn Labban
Kushyar ibn Labban

Abul-Hasan Kushyar ibn Labban ibn Bashahri Gilani , also known as Kushyar Gilani , was a Persian mathematician, geographer, and astronomer from Jilan, a.k.a....
(971-1029)
Tables of Toledo
Tables of Toledo

Gerard of Cremona edited for Latin readers the Tables of Toledo , the most accurate compilation of Astronomy/astrological data ever seen in Europe at the time....
— based on Abu Ishaq Ibrahim al-Zarqali (Arzachel) (1028-1087)
Az-Zij As-Sanjari (Sinjaric Tables) — by al-Khazini
Al-Khazini

Abd al-Rahman al-Khazini was a Greek Muslims Science in medieval Islam, Astronomy in medieval Islam, Physics in medieval Islam, Medicine in medieval Islam, Alchemy and chemistry in medieval Islam, Mathematics in medieval Islam and Early Islamic philosophy from Merv, then in the Greater Khorasan province of Persian Empire but now in Turkmeni...
(fl. 1115-1130)
Zij-i Ilkhani
Zij-i Ilkhani

Zij-i Ilkhani or Ilkhanic Tables is a book with Ephemeris of planetary movements by a Persian Empire astronomy Nasir al-Din al-Tusi in collaboration with other astronomers at the Maragha observatory....
— by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274)
Khaqani Zij — by Jamshid al-Kashi
Jamshid al-Kashi

was a Persian people Islamic astronomy and Islamic mathematics....
(1380-1429)
Zij-i-Sultani
Zij-i-Sultani

Zij-i-Sultani is a Zij astronomical table and star catalogue that was published by Ulugh Beg in 1437. It was the joint product of the work of a group of astronomers working under the patronage of Ulugh Beg....
(1437) — by Ulugh Beg
Ulugh Beg

Ulugh Beg...
Unbored Pearl (1579-1580) — by Taqi al-Din
Taqi al-Din

Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf al-Shami al-Asadi was a major Ottoman Turks or Arab Muslim polymath: a Islamic science, Islamic astronomy and Islamic astrology, Timeline of Muslim scientists and engineers and Inventions in the Muslim world, clockmaker and watchmaker, Islamic physics and Islamic mathematics, Muslim Agricultural Revolution, I...