Mo'ayyeduddin Urdi

Mu’ayyad al-Din al-’Urdi (d. 1266) was an Arab Muslim astronomer, mathematician, architect and engineer working at the Maragheh observatory. He was born in Aleppo, Syria, and later moved to Maragheh, Azarbaijan, Persia, to work at the Maragha observatory under the guidance of Nasir al-Din Tusi. [Saliba (1979), p. 576.]

He is known for being the first of the Maragha astronomers to develop a non-Ptolemaic model of planetary motion. [Saliba (1979).] In particular, the "Urdi lemma" he developed was later used in the geocentric model of Ibn al-Shatir in the 14th century and in the heliocentric Copernican model of Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th century.

As an architect and engineer, he was responsible for constructing the water supply installations of Damascus, Syria, in his time. [ [http://www.muslimheritage.com/day_life/default.cfm?ArticleID=661&Oldpage=1 Al-Urdi's Article on 'The Quality of Observation'] , FSTC Limited]

ee also

*Zij-i Ilkhani

Notes

References

*George Saliba (1979). "The First Non-Ptolemaic Astronomy at the Maraghah School", "Isis" 70 (4), p. 571-576.
*George Saliba (1990). "The Astronomical Work of Mu'ayyad al-Din al-'Urdi (d. 1266): A Thirteenth Century Reform of Ptolemaic Astronomy", Markaz dirasat al-Wahda al-'Arabiya, Beirut.

External links

* [http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/phys/alshukri/PHYS215/Islamic_astronomy.htm Islamic astronomy]