Jumat, 13 Agustus 2010

Muhammad al-Idrisi




Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti or simply Al Idrisi (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي‎; Latin: Dreses) (1099–1165 or 1166) was an Moroccan geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in the Moroccan city of Ceuta (Sabtah) then belonging to the Almoravid Empire and died in Sicily. Al Idrisi was a descendent of the Idrisid rulers of Morocco, who in turn were descendants of Hasan bin Ali, the son of Ali and the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Al-Idrisi's education was probably acquired in Andalusia.

Early life

Al-Idrisi traced his descent through long line of Princes, Caliphs and Sufi leaders, to The Prophet Muhammad. His immediate forebears, the Hammudids (1016–1058), were an offshoot of the Idrisids (789-985) of Morocco. He was of both Berber and Arab descend.

Al-Idrisi's was born in Ceuta, where his great-grandfather had fled after the fall of Málaga in Al-Andalus (1057). He spent much of his early life travelling through North Africa, and Spain and seems to have acquired a detail information on both regions. He visited Anatolia when he was barely 16. He is known to have studied in Córdoba, and later taught in Constantine, Algeria.

Apparently his travels took him to many parts of Europe including Portugal, the Pyrenees, the French Atlantic coast and Jórvík also known as York, in England.

Tabula Rogeriana

Born and raised in Ceuta at an early age al-Idrisi travelled to Islamic Spain, Portugal, France and England, he visited Anatolia when he was barely 16, because of conflict and instability in Andalusia al-Idrisi joined his other contemporaries such as Abu al-Salt in Sicily, where the Normans had overthrown Arabs formerly loyal to the Fatimids, according to Ibn Jubayr: "the Normans tolerated and patronized a few Arab families in exchange for knowledge"

Al-Idrisi incorporated the knowledge of Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Far East gathered by Islamic merchants and explorers recorded on Islamic maps, and with the information brought by the Normans voyagers to create the most accurate map of the world in pre-modern times, which seved as a concrete illustration of his Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq, (Latin: Opus Geographicum), which may be translated A Diversion for the Man Longing to Travel to Far-Off Places.

The Tabula Rogeriana was drawn by Al-Idrisi in 1154 for the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, after a stay of eighteen years at his court, where he worked on the commentaries and illustrations of the map. The map, with legends written in Arabic, while showing the Eurasian continent in its entirety, only shows the northern part of the African continent and lacks details of the Horn of Africa and Southeast Asia.

For Roger it was inscribed on a massive disc of solid silver, two metres in diameter.

On the geographical work of al-Idrisi, S.P. Scott wrote in 1904:

The compilation of Edrisi marks an era in the history of science. Not only is its historical information most interesting and valuable, but its descriptions of many parts of the earth are still authoritative. For three centuries geographers copied his maps without alteration. The relative position of the lakes which form the Nile, as delineated in his work, does not differ greatly from that established by Baker and Stanley more than seven hundred years afterwards, and their number is the same. The mechanical genius of the author was not inferior to his erudition. The celestial and terrestrial planisphere of silver which he constructed for his royal patron was nearly six feet in diameter, and weighed four hundred and fifty pounds; upon the one side the zodiac and the constellations, upon the other-divided for convenience into segments-the bodies of land and water, with the respective situations of the various countries, were engraved.[2]

Al-Idrisi inspired Islamic geographers such as Ibn Battuta, Ibn Khaldun, Piri Reis and the Barbary Corsairs. His map also inspired Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama.

Nuzhatul Mushtaq

As well as the maps, al-Idrisi produced a compendium of geographical information with the title Kitab nuzhat al-mushtaq fi'khtiraq al-'afaq. The title has been translated as The book of pleasant journeys into faraway lands or The pleasure of him who longs to cross the horizons.

Publication and translation

An abridged version of the Arabic text was published in Rome in 1592 with title: De geographia universali or Kitāb Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī dhikr al-amṣār wa-al-aqṭār wa-al-buldān wa-al-juzur wa-al-madā’ in wa-al-āfāq which in English would be Recreation of the desirer in the account of cities, regions, countries, islands, towns, and distant lands.This was one of the first Arabic books ever printed.The first translation from the original Arabic was into Latin. The Maronites Gabriel Sionita and Joannes Hesronita translated an abridged version of the text which was published in Paris in 1619 with the rather misleading title of Geographia nubiensis. Not until the middle of the 19th century was a complete translation of the Arabic text published. This was a translation into French by Pierre Amédée Jaubert. More recently sections of the text have been translated for particular regions. In the 1970s a critical edition of the complete Arabic text was published.

Andalusian-American contact

Al-Idrisi's geographical text, Nuzhatul Mushtaq, is often cited by proponents of pre-Columbian Andalusian-Americas contact theories. In this text, al-Idrisi wrote the following on the Atlantic Ocean:

The Commander of the Muslims Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashfin sent his admiral Ahmad ibn Umar, better known under the name of Raqsh al-Auzz to attack a certain island in the Atlantic, but he died before doing that. [...] Beyond this ocean of fogs it is not known what exists there. Nobody has the sure knowledge of it, because it is very difficult to traverse it. Its atmosphere is foggy, its waves are very strong, its dangers are perilous, its beasts are terrible, and its winds are full of tempests. There are many islands, some of which are inhabited, others are submerged. No navigator traverses them but bypasses them remaining near their coast. [...] And it was from the town of Lisbon that the adventurers set out known under the name of Mugharrarin [seduced ones], penetrated the ocean of fogs and wanted to know what it contained and where it ended. [...] After sailing for twelve more days they perceived an island that seemed to be inhabited, and there were cultivated fields. They sailed that way to see what it contained. But soon barques encircled them and made them prisoners, and transported them to a miserable hamlet situated on the coast. There they landed. The navigators saw there people with red skin; there was not much hair on their body, the hair of their head was straight, and they were of high stature. Their women were of an extraordinary beauty.

This translation by Professor Muhammad Hamidullah is however questionable, since it reports, after having reached an area of "sticky and stinking waters", the Mugharrarin (also translated as "the adventurers") moved back and first reached an uninhabited island where they found "a huge quantity of sheep the meat of which was bitter and uneatable" and, then, "continued southward" and reached the above reported island where they were soon surrounded by barques and brought to "a village whose inhabitants were often fair-haired with long and flaxen hair and the women of a rare beauty". Among the villagers, one spoke Arabic and asked them where they came from. Then the king of the village ordered them to bring them back to the continent where they were surprised to be welcomed by Berbers.[12][verification needed]

Apart from the marvellous and fanciful reports of this history, the most probable interpretation[citation needed] is that the Mugharrarin reached the Sargasso Sea, a part of the ocean covered by seaweed) which is very close to Bermuda yet one thousand miles away from the American mainland. Then while coming back, they may have landed either on the Azores, or on Madeira or even on the westernmost Canary Island, Hiero (because of the sheep). Last, the story with the inhabited island might have occurred either on Tenerife or on Gran Canaria, where the Mugharrarin presumably met some Guanche tribe. This would explain why some of them could speak Arabic (some sporadic contacts had been maintained between the Canary Islands and Morocco) and why they were quickly deported to Morocco where they were welcomed by Berbers. Yet, the story reported by Idrisi is an undisputable account of a certain knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean by the Arabs and by their Andalusian and Moroccan vassals.

In popular culture

Abdus Salam

Mohammad Abdus Salam (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام) (January 29, 1926; Jhang, Punjab, British Raj (present-day Pakistan) – November 21, 1996; Oxford, England) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work in Electro-Weak Theory. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the prize for this discovery. Salam holds the distinction of being the first Pakistani and the first Muslim Nobel Laureate to receive the prize in the Sciences. Even today, Salam is considered one of the most influential scientists and physicists in his country.

Biography

Youth and education

Salam's father was an officer in the Department of Education in a poor farming district. His family has a long tradition of piety and learning.

At age fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the Punjab University. He won a scholarship to the Government College, Punjab University, in Lahore. As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan. He received his master's degree from the Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he completed a BA degree with Double First-Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he received the Smith's Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics.

He obtained a PhD degree in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis contained fundamental work in Quantum Electrodynamics. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation and the Adams Prize.

Later career

He returned to the Government College University, Lahore as a Professor of Mathematics from 1951 to 1954 and then went back to Cambridge as a lecturer in mathematics.

In 1956 he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College, London, where he and Paul Matthews created a lively theoretical physics group. He remained a professor at Imperial until his retirement.

During the early 1960s Salam played a very significant role in establishing the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) – the atomic research agency of Pakistan – and Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) – the space research agency of Pakistan, of which he was the founding director. Due to Prof. Salam's influence President Ayub Khan had the Nuclear Power Plant near Karachi (KANUPP) personally approved, against the wishes of his own Government. Salam was also instrumental in setting up five Superior Science colleges throughout Pakistan to further the progress in science in the country. Salam was a firm believer that "scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind," and that developing nations needed to help themselves and invest into their own scientists to boost development and reduce the gap between the Global South and the Global North, thus contributing to a more peaceful world. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and was a leading figure in the creation of a number of international centres dedicated to the advancement of science and technology.

In 1964, Salam founded International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in the North-East of Italy. He was the Director of ICTP from 1964 to December 1993. The Centre has since been renamed to (The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics). In 1959, he became one of the youngest to be named Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33.

In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a stamp carrying his portrait as part of a series entitled "Scientists of Pakistan.". He was a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences

Religion

Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, who saw his religion as integral to his scientific work. He once wrote: "The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah's created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart."

During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran:

Thou seest not, in the creation of the All-merciful any imperfection, Return thy gaze, seest thou any fissure. Then Return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze, Comes back to thee dazzled, aweary.

He then said:

This, in effect, is the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze.

In 1974, when the Parliament of Pakistan declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, he left Pakistan for London in protest.

Death

The defaced grave of Abdus Salam in Rabwah

Salam died on 21st November 1996 at the age of 70 in Oxford, England after a long illness. His body was brought to Pakistan and kept in Darul Ziafat, where some 13,000 men and women visited to pay their last respects. Some 30,000 people attended his funeral prayers.

Salam was buried in the graveyard Bahishti Maqbara in Rabwah next to his parents' graves. The epitaph on his tomb initially read "First Muslim Nobel Laureate" but, because of Salam's adherence to the Ahmadiyya Muslim sect, the word "Muslim" was later erased on the orders of a local magistrate, leaving the non-sensical "First Nobel Laureate".

Salam was responsible for laying the groundwork for the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, initiating research on problems of waterlogging and salinity, and agricultural research. He played a crucial role in PAEC and SUPARCO, the National Space Agency of Pakistan. He helped Pakistan's scientists and engineers to be trained in nuclear applications and nuclear science.

Legacy

Abdus Salam's work in Pakistan has been far reaching and influential. He has made extraordinary contributions to Pakistan's nuclear, space and missile programs. Therefore, in 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp to honour the services of Abdus Salam as part of its "Scientists of Pakistan" series.

Abdus Salam has been commemorated by Pakistan's noted and prominent scientists, who were also his students. Many scientists have recalled their college experiences. Ghulam Murtaza, a professor of plasma physics at the Government College University, Lahore has said:

" When Dr. Salam was to deliver a lecture, the hall would be packed and although the subject was Particle Physics, his manner and eloquence was such as if he was talking about literature. When he finished his lectures, listeners would often burst into spontaneous applause and give him a standing ovation. People from all parts of the world would come to Imperial College and seeks Dr. Salam's help. He would give a patient hearing to everyone including those who were talking nonsense. He treated everyone with respect and compassion and never belittled or offended anyone. Dr. Salam's strength was that he could "sift jewels from the sand" .

In August 1996, former chairman of PAEC and lifelong friend, Munir Ahmad Khan met with Salam in Oxford, United Kingdom along with dr. Ishfaq Ahmad. Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad, who is a former professor of nuclear physics at the Quaid-i-Azam University, recalls:

"Dr. Abdus Salam was responsible for sending about 500 physicists, mathematicians and scientists from Pakistan, for PhD’s to the best institutions in UK and USA" .

The late Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan, a famous Pakistani nuclear engineer and former PAEC chairman said:

"My last meeting with Abdus Salam was only three months ago. His disease had taken its toll and he was unable to talk. Yet he understood what was said. I told him about the celebration held in Pakistan on his seventieth birthday. He kept staring at me. He had risen above praise. As I rose to leave he pressed my hand to express his feelings as if he wanted to thank everyone who had said kind words about him. Dr. Abdus Salam had deep love for Pakistan in spite of the fact that he was treated unfairly and indifferently by his own country. It became more and more difficult for him to come to Pakistan and this hurt him deeply. Now he has returned home finally, to rest in peace for ever in the soil that he loved so much. May be in the years to come we will rise above our prejudice and own him and give him, after his death, what we could not when he was alive. We Pakistanis may choose to ignore Dr. Salam, but the world at large will always remember him."

Documentary film (Docufilm)

A documentary film on the life and science of Abdus Salam is in the works and will be directed by Sabiha Sumar subject to collection of donations valued to $500,000.

Career in science

The road named after Abdus Salam in CERN, Geneva

Salam returned to Pakistan in 1951 to teach Mathematics at the Government College, Lahore. In 1952, he became the Head of the Mathematics Department of the Punjab University. In 1954, Salam went for a lectureship at Cambridge, although he visited Pakistan from time to time as an adviser on science policy to the Government of Pakistan. His work for Pakistan was far-reaching and influential. He was a member of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and work their as a chief scientist with his students, a member of the Scientific Commission of Pakistan, Founder Chairman of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission and Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of Pakistan from 1961 to 1974.

From 1957 onwards, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London. From 1964 onwards, has combined this position with that of Director of the International Centre For Theoretical Physics, a research institution in Trieste, Italy.

Salam had a prolific research career in theoretical elementary particle physics. He either pioneered or was associated with all the important developments in this field. He also served on a number of United Nations committees concerning science and technology in developing countries.[5]. Many prominent scientists, which includes, Ghulam Murtaza, Riazuddin, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Faheem Hussain, Raziuddin Siddiqui, Munir Ahmad Khan, Ishfaq Ahmad, and I. H. Usmani, considered him as their chief mentor and a teacher. Abdus salam played a important and a crucial role in preparing and teaching of future Pakistani engineers and scientists in the field of mathematics and physics.

Pakistan's Space Program

It was Salam's advice to the President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, that led to the establishment of the national space agency of Pakistan. In 16 September 1961, Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission was established by an executive order. Salam was appointed its first chairman. Salam also appointed Air Comm. Wladyslaw Turowicz, a noted Pakistani-Polish military scientist and an engineer, as Pakistan's rocket firing head.

Involvement in Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Programme

Abdus Salam knew the importance of nuclear technology in Pakistan. Salam was a central figure in Pakistan's nuclear program. Abdus Salam was responsible for establishing the nuclear research institutes in Pakistan. In 1972, Government of Pakistan learned about the India's nuclear weapon program. The then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, formed a group of nuclear scientists and engineers, initially headed by Salam. He closely collaborated with his noted colleague and long-associated friend, Mr. Munir Ahmad Khan, in the field of nuclear technology in Pakistan.

In December 1972, two theoretical physicists working at the ICTP were asked by Salam to report to noted Pakistani nuclear scientist, Munir Ahmad Khan (late), then-PAEC chairman. This marked the beginning of the “Theoretical Physics Group" or TPG. The TPG, in PAEC, was assigned to develop the theoretical designs Pakistan's nuclear weapon devices. The TPG team under the leadership of Riazuddin, who is also Salam's distinguished student, completed the work on the theoretical design of the Nuclear weapon device by 1977.

Contributions

Salam's primary focus was research on the physics of elementary particles. His particular contributions included:

Awards

  • Hopkins Prize (Cambridge University) for "the most outstanding contribution to Physics during 1957-1958"
  • Adams Prize (Cambridge University) (1958)
  • Sitara-e-Pakistan for contribution to science in Pakistan (1959).
  • First recipient of Maxwell Medal and Award (Physical Society, London) (1961)
  • Hughes Medal (Royal Society, London) (1964)
  • Atoms for Peace Award (Atoms for Peace Foundation) (1968)
  • J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Medal and Prize (University of Miami) (1971)
  • Guthrie Medal and Prize (1976)
  • Matteuci Medal (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome) (1978)
  • John Torrence Tate Medal (American Institute of Physics) (1978)
  • Royal Medal (Royal Society, London) (1978)
  • Nishan-e-Imtiaz for outstanding performance in Scientific projects in Pakistan (1979)
  • Einstein Medal (UNESCO, Paris) (1979)
  • Nobel Prize in Physics (Stockholm, Sweden)(1979)
  • Shri R.D. Birla Award (India Physics Association) (1979)
  • Josef Stefan Medal (Josef Stefan Institute, Ljublijana) (1980)
  • Gold Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Physics (Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague) (1981)
  • Lomonosov Gold Medal (USSR Academy of Sciences) (1983)
  • Copley Medal (Royal Society, London) (1990)

Institutes named after Abdus Salam

Abdul Al-Rahman Ibn Muhammad Ibn Khaldun

Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) was an Arab historian, philosopher, and statesman whose treatise, the "Muqaddima", in which he pioneered a general sociological theory of history, shows him as one of the most original thinkers of the Middle Ages.

Ibn Khaldun was born on May 27, 1332, in Tunis. His family, of southern Arabian origin, settled in Seville after the Moslem conquest of Spain and distinguished themselves in the political and intellectual life of the city. Shortly before the Christian reconquest they left and eventually settled in Tunis. Ibn Khaldun always felt attached to the cultural tradition of Moslem Spain.

Growing up in Tunis, Ibn Khaldun studied the traditional religious sciences including law according to the Maliki school as well as the rational sciences. He also was trained in the arts necessary for a career in government. Among his teachers, he was most impressed by al-Abili, who came to Tunis in 1347 and introduced him to philosophy.

Early Wanderings

In 1352 the Hafsid ruler of Tunis gave Ibn Khaldun a minor position in the chancery, but he left soon to join al-Abili, who had returned to Fez. During his stay in Fez (1354-1362) Ibn Khaldun pursued his scholarly interests and was actively involved in the political life at the Merinid court. Suspected of plotting against the ruler, he was imprisoned in 1357 for 22 months. Under a later ruler he again held high positions but became discouraged by court intrigues.

Prevented by the Merinid court from joining the rival court at Tlemcen, Ibn Khaldun turned to Granada, where he was accorded a royal welcome by the young ruler, Muhammad V, and his vizier, Ibn al-Khatib, an outstanding man of letters, whose friendship he had gained during Ibn al-Khatib's exile in Fez. In 1364 Muhammad V sent Ibn Khaldun to Seville on a mission to Pedro I, King of Castile. Ibn Khaldun declined an offer of Pedro to have his ancestors' possessions reinstated if he would enter royal service. Ibn Khaldun's intimacy with Muhammad V, whom he tried to direct toward his ideal of philosopher king, aroused the suspicion of Ibn al-Khatib, and Ibn Khaldun was forced to leave Granada, though with official honors, in 1365.

Ibn Khaldun accepted an invitation from the Hafsid ruler of Bougie and became his minister. When the ruler was defeated and killed by his cousin a year later, Ibn Khaldun entered the service of the cousin but soon left as a result of court intrigue. The next 9 years were the most turbulent of his life. Thoroughly disappointed with his court experiences, he tried to keep away from politics and spent most of the time in research and teaching in Biskra, at the sanctuary of the saint Abu Madyan near Tlemcen, and in Fez. He felt, however, repeatedly obliged to assume political missions for various rulers among the Arab tribes in the area. In 1375 he briefly returned to Granada but was expelled.

Writing the Muqaddima

Soon afterward Ibn Khaldun retreated to the castle of Ibn Salama in central Algeria, where he spent over 3 years in complete seclusion under tribal protection. He intended writing a history of the contemporary Maghreb and began the introduction (muqaddima) setting forth his ideas about critical historiography. The Muqaddima rapidly grew into a general theory of history, or science of civilization, as he termed it. He now widened his plans to include a universal history based on his new science. In 1379 he returned to Tunis with the permission of the new Hafsid ruler to avail himself of books and archives for his work. Under the ruler's patronage he wrote the history of the Maghreb and sections of the history of the East. His influence with the ruler and popularity among students again provoked court intrigues, and he left in 1382 for Egypt under pretext of a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The last 2 decades of his life Ibn Khaldun lived in Cairo, the splendid capital of the Mamluk empire, enjoying the patronage of the sultans Barquq and Faraj. He was granted professorships in several colleges. Six times he was appointed Maliki chief judge, though only for brief terms. Most of his time was devoted to teaching and research. He completed his history and continued improving it. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca and two trips to Damascus, the second one occasioned by the campaign of Faraj against Tamerlane in 1400. Tamerlane invited Ibn Khaldun to visit his camp; his conversations with the world conqueror, reported in his autobiography, turned mostly around the political conditions in Egypt and the Maghreb. Ibn Khaldun died on March 17, 1406.

Theory of Civilization

Ibn Khaldun's fame rests on his Muqaddima, in which he set forth the earliest general theory of the nature of civilization and the conditions for its development, intending it as a tool for understanding and writing history. He considered the permanent conflict between primitive Bedouin and highly developed urban society as a crucial factor in history. Civilization is for him an urban phenomenon to be realized only by local concentration and cooperation of men united under a strong dynastic rule. He saw group solidarity (as abiyya) as the driving force for this cooperation and the establishment of dynastic rule. The group with the strongest feeling of solidarity establishes its predominance and the rule of its leading family. The division of labor resulting from cooperation makes possible the production of conveniences and luxuries beyond the elementary necessities of life and the development of sciences. Indulgence in luxuries, however, causes degeneration and loss of group solidarity and thus results in the disintegration of the state and the group supporting the civilization. Another, less civilized group with an unspoiled sense of solidarity takes over and becomes heir to the earlier civilization.

Ibn Khaldun's history of the Maghreb, written with the insight of an active participant, presents a penetrating description of the rise and fall of dynasties and the role of Berber and Arab tribes. It is an invaluable source for the medieval history of North Africa. The other parts of his universal history generally lack such insight and source value. His autobiography, the most detailed one in medieval Moslem literature, offers a perspicacious description of his life until 1405. Of his early works, which were scholastic exercises in various fields of learning, only two are known to be extant.

Further Reading

Ibn Khaldun's The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History, edited and translated by Franz Rosenthal (3 vols., 1958; 2d ed. 1967), contains a complete translation of the Muqaddima with a detailed introduction to Ibn Khaldun's life and work. Muhsin Mahdi, Ibn Khaldun's Philosophy of History (1957), is a penetrating study. The reports concerning Ibn Khaldun's meeting with Tamerlane were translated and edited by Walter J. Fischel in Ibn Khaldun and Tamerlane (1952). Other useful sources are Nathaniel Schmidt, Ibn Khaldun: Historian, Sociologist and Philosopher (1930), and Muhammad Abdullah Enan, Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work (trans. 1941).

Additional Sources

Ali, Shaukat, Dr., Intellectual foundations of Muslim civilization, Lahore: Publishers United, 1977.

Schmidt, Nathaniel, Ibn Khaldun, historian, sociologist, and philosopher, Lahore: Universal Books, 1978.

http://www.answers.com/topic/abd-al-rahman-ibn-muhammad-ibn-khaldun

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi

'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Persian: عبدالرحمن صوفی; December 7, 903 – May 25, 986) was a Persian astronomer also known as 'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi, or 'Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Husayn, 'Abdul Rahman Sufi, 'Abdurrahman Sufi and known in the west as Azophi; the lunar crater Azophi and the minor planet 12621 Alsufi are named after him. Al-Sufi published his famous Book of Fixed Stars in 964, describing much of his work, both in textual descriptions and pictures.

Biography

His name implies that he was a Sufi Muslim. He lived at the court of Emir Adud ad-Daula in Isfahan, Persia, and worked on translating and expanding Greek astronomical works, especially the Almagest of Ptolemy. He contributed several corrections to Ptolemy's star list and did his own brightness and magnitude estimates which frequently deviated from those in Ptolemy's work.

He was a major translator into Arabic of the Hellenistic astronomy that had been centred in Alexandria, the first to attempt to relate the Greek with the traditional Arabic star names and constellations, which were completely unrelated and overlapped in complicated ways.

Astronomy

The constellation SagittariusThe Depiction of Celestial Constellations. from

He identified the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible from Yemen, though not from Isfahan; it was not seen by Europeans until Magellan's voyage in the 16th century. He also made the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda Galaxy in 964 AD; describing it as a "small cloud". These were the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth.

He observed that the ecliptic plane is inclined with respect to the celestial equator and more accurately calculated the length of the tropical year. He observed and described the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their colour, setting out his results constellation by constellation. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside (as seen from the earth).

Al-Sufi also wrote about the astrolabe, finding numerous additional uses for it : he described over 1000 different uses, in areas as diverse as astronomy, astrology, horoscopes, navigation, surveying, timekeeping, Qibla, Salah prayer, etc.

Sufi Observing Competition

Since 2006, Astronomy Society of Iran – Amateur Committee (ASIAC) hold an international Sufi Observing Competition in the memory of Sufi. The first competition was held in 2006 in the north of Semnan Province and the 2nd moe observing competition was held in summer of 2008 in Ladiz near the Zahedan. More than 100 observers from Iran and Iraq participated in this event.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Rahman_al-Sufi

Abbas Ibn Firnas

Abbas Ibn Firnas (810 – 887 A.D.), also known as Abbas Qasim Ibn Firnas and العباس بن فرناس (Arabic language), was a Muslim Berber polymath: an inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician. He was born in Izn-Rand Onda, Al-Andalus (today's Ronda, Spain), and lived in the Emirate of Córdoba. He is known for an early attempt at aviation.

Work

Ibn Firnas designed a water clock called Al-Maqata, devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, he invented various glass planispheres, made corrective lenses ("reading stones"), developed a chain of rings that could be used to simulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Spain to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut.

In his house he built a room in which spectators witnessed stars, clouds, thunder, and lightning, which were produced by mechanisms located in his basement laboratory. He also devised "some sort of metronome."

Aviation

He is also said to have made an attempt at flight using a set of wings. In the words of the Moroccan historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari (d. 1632):

Among other very curious experiments which he made, one is his trying to fly. He covered himself with feathers for the purpose, attached a couple of wings to his body, and, getting on an eminence, flung himself down into the air, when according to the testimony of several trustworthy writers who witnessed the performance, he flew a considerable distance, as if he had been a bird, but, in alighting again on the place whence he had started, his back was very much hurt, for not knowing that birds when they alight come down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one.

This account is described seven centuries later by al-Maqqari, who used in his history works "many early sources no longer extant." In case of Firnas, the only one cited by him was a 9th century poem written by Mu'min ibn Said, a court poet of Córdoba under Muhammad I (d. 886), who was acquainted with and usually critical of Ibn Firnas. The pertinent verse runs: "He flew faster than the phoenix in his flight when he dressed his body in the feathers of a vulture." No other surviving sources refer to the event.

Ibn Firnas' glider flight is considered by John Harding to be the first attempt at heavier-than-air flight in aviation history. It may have inspired another attempt by Eilmer of Malmesbury between 1000 and 1010 in England, although there is no evidence and the later event in Anglo-Saxon England took place without foreign stimulus. He has been commemorated on stamps from Libya, by a statue near the Baghdad International Airport, and by a namesake airport north of Baghdad. The crater Ibn Firnas on the Moon is named in his honor.

Armen Firman

For the Australian rock-group by the same name, see: Armen Firman (band)

Armen Firman may be the Latinized name of Abbas Ibn Firnas, or, alternatively, he may have been the man who inspired Ibn Firnas.

There is some contradiction in the modern record: According to some secondary sources, about 20 years before Ibn Firnas attempted to fly he may have witnessed Firman as he wrapped himself in a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts and jumped from a tower in Córdoba, Spain, intending to use the garment as wings on which he could glide. The alleged attempt at flight was unsuccessful, but the garment slowed his fall enough that he only sustained minor injuries.

However, there is no reference to Armen Firman in other secondary sources, all of which deal exhaustively with Ibn Firnas' flight attempt. Since this story was recorded only in a single primary source, al-Maqqari, and since Firman's jump is said to have been Ibn Firnas' source of inspiration, the lack of any mention of Firman in al-Maqqari's account may point to the conclusion that he never existed and that his tower jump was later confused with Ibn Firnas' gliding attempt in secondary writings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Ibn_Firnas