Al Achsasi al Mouakket

Mohammad Al Achsasi Al Mouakket (Arabic: محمد الاخصاصي الموقت‎ / ALA-LC: Muḥammad al-Akhṣāṣī al-Muwaqqit) was an Egyptian astronomer whose calendarium and catalogue of stars, entitled Durret al Muddiah Fih al Aamal al Shamsiah (Al-Durrah al-muḍīyah fī al-ʻamāl al-shamsīyah, "Pearls of brilliance upon the solar operations"), was written at Cairo about 1650.^[1] Al Achsasi was sheikh of the Grand Mosque of the University of Cairo, where his name al Mouakket reflected his position regulating the times and hours at the mosque. His name Achsasi connects him in origin to a village in the Faiyum.^[2]

No copies of his book were known to Western astronomers or historians of science until 1895;^[3] thus he did not appear in the standard French and English bibliographies and library catalogues of the 19th century.

Notes

1. ^ Transcription and translation from E.B. Knobel, "On a catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 55 (1895:429f).
2. ^ Knobel 1895:429.
3. ^ Knobel 1895.