The Observational Instruments at the Maragha Observatory After AD 1300*
The Observational Instruments at the Maragha Observatory after AD 1300* S. Mohammad Mozaffari, Georg Zotti Keywords: Medieval Islamic astronomy, Maragha Observatory, Observational Instruments, Almagest, Ghāzān Khān, Īlkhānīd Period, Ghāzān’s or Ghāzānīd treatise, al-Risāla al-Ghāzāniyya, Shams al-Dīn Mu¬ammad al-Wābkanawī, Mu¬yī al-Dīn al-Maghribī, Na½īr al-Dīn al-Æūsī, QuÐb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Rukn al-Dīn al-Āmulī, Classic Astronomical Instruments, Parallactic Instrument, Armillary Sphere, Equinoctial Rule, Square Instrument, Triangle Instrument, Pinhole Image Device, Dioptra Abstract The present paper introduces, investigates, analyses, and comments on an anonymous treatise in Persian named al-Risāla al-Ghāzāniyya fi ’l-ālāt al- ra½×diyya, “Ghāzān’s (or Ghāzānid) treatise on the observational instruments”, which describes the structure, construction, and functions of twelve “new” observational instruments in the medieval period that appear to have been proposed and invented during the reign of Ghāzān Khān, the seventh Ilkhan of the Ilkhanid dynasty of Iran (21 October 1295–17 May 1304). In the sections below we consider the treatise in the light of two issues: (1) the assumption that the primary historical sources may contain interesting notes and claims concerning Ghāzān Khān’s astronomical * This is an enlarged version of the paper already published in Journal of American Oriental Society: Mozaffari, S. M. and Zotti, G., “Ghāzān Khān’s Astronomical Innovations at Marāgha Observatory”, JAOS, 132 (2012), pp. 395–425. Suhayl 12 (2013) pp. 45-179 46 S. Mohammad Mozaffari, Georg Zotti activities and especially the new observatory that he founded in Tabriz, and (2) the fact that at present there are hardly any sound and historically reliable accounts of the activities of the Maragha Observatory from around 1280 onwards.
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