Al-Khwārizmī and annular solar eclipse (Q642094)
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English | Al-Khwārizmī and annular solar eclipse |
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Al-Khwārizmī and annular solar eclipse (English)
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25 October 2011
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The only known observations of annular solar eclipses by Muslim astronomers are by Abu'l-`Abbās al-Irānshahrī (AD 873 in Nishapur, mentioned by al-Bīrūnī), and by Shams al-munajjim al-Wābkanawī (AD 1283 in the plain of Mughān). This article mathematically investigates the possibility of annular eclipses in the astronomical handbook of al-Khwārizmī (ca.\ 830), which only survives in a 12th-century Latin translation by Adelard of Bath of a recension for Cordoba prepared by Maslama al-Majrīṭī (ca.\ 1000). Giahi Yazdi analyses al-Khwārizmī's eclipse tables, comparing the results with the published commentary by Ibn al-Muthannā and the unpublished one by Ibn Masrūr, and finds that al-Khwārizmī's parameters already allowed annular eclipses. His table displaying the true solar and lunar motion per hour and their apparent diameters is based on an Indian algorithm and hence most probably stems from al-Khwārizmī himself. The author also explains the ``solar eclipse table'' and postulates that al-Majrīṭī took it from al-Battānī (ca.\ 900). It is regretful that no copy editor appears to have looked at this article before it was published, resulting in numerous typos, various unintelligible sentences, and a nonsensical reference to Millás Vallicrosa's publication of Ibn Ezra's \textit{El Libro de los Fundamentos}.
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al-Khwarizmi
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astronomy
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eclipses
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solar eclipses
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annular eclipses
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al-Battani
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al-Majriti
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