MUHAMMAD BIN AHMAD AL-BIRUNI (D. AH 430/1048 AD): ISTI'TAB AL-WUJUH AL-MUMKINA FI SINA'AT AL-ASTURLAB

SIGNED HASSAN BIN AL-HAFIZ MUSLIH AL-DIN AL-LARANDAWI, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED DHU AL-QA'DA AH 1013

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MUHAMMAD BIN AHMAD AL-BIRUNI (D. AH 430/1048 AD): ISTI'TAB AL-WUJUH AL-MUMKINA FI SINA'AT AL-ASTURLAB
SIGNED HASSAN BIN AL-HAFIZ MUSLIH AL-DIN AL-LARANDAWI, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED DHU AL-QA'DA AH 1013
Exhaustion of the ways of constructing (an) astrolabe, an important work by this renowned author, Arabic manuscript on paper, 78ff. (as numbered) plus 3 fly-leaves, each with 25ll. of black naskh script, titles in red, catchwords, with 110 fine diagrams and tables in red and black ink, with later owners' stamp impressions and notes in Arabic and Turkish, some folios misbound, loose in binding, in marbled paper covered binding
Folio 8¼ x 5½in. (20.8 x 14cm.)

Lot Essay

In this work, Al-Biruni discusses the uses of the astrolabe in measuring the earth's circumference which he calculates as being 39,964.9 km, the most acurate calculation of the Middle Ages and 322 km off the current mark. This treatise appears to be the ultimate source of two treatises commissioned by Alfonso X, King of Castille (r. 1252-84 AD0, the Libro de la Armellas and the Libro del Ataçyr (Bill Scheppler, Al-Biruni, New York, 2006, p.89 and Thomas Glick et.al., ed. Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: an Encyclopedia, New York, 2005, p.90).
Two other copies of this work are in the Library of the University of Leiden, UB Or 123B and Or. 591.

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