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Observatories in Malaysia: Descendants of Islamic Civilization Superiority

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Observatories in Malaysia: Descendants of Islamic Civilization Superiority International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET) Volume 8, Issue 12, December 2017, pp. 782-795, Article ID: IJCIET_08_12_085 Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJCIET?Volume=8&Issue=12 ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316 © IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed OBSERVATORIES IN MALAYSIA: DESCENDANTS OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION SUPERIORITY Ibnor Azli Ibrahim Department of Syariah, Faculty of Islamic Studies & Institute of Islam Hadhari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Mohd Hafiz Safiai Department of Syariah, Faculty of Islamic Studies & Institute of Islam Hadhari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Ezad Azraai Jamsari (Corresponding Author) Department of Arabic Studies and Islamic Civilization, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Md Yazid Ahmad Department of Syariah, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Amir Husin Mohd Nor Faculty of Syariah and Law, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, 71800 Bandar Baru Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Badlihisham Mohd Nasir Faculty of Islamic Civilization, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Aminudin Hehsan Faculty of Islamic Civilization, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia ABSTRACT This article covers official observatories in Malaysia on their historical aspects of establishment and development. The observatories were built for the advancement of the science of falak in Malaysia in the fields of research, education and tourism. However, studies on observatory are few in numbers in spite of it being an important Islamic institution apart from mosques and schools. Hence, this study was carried out to examine the development history of official observatories in Malaysia. This research http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJCIET 782 [email protected] Observatories In Malaysia: Descendants of Islamic Civilization Superiority employed a qualitative method via document analyses, interviews and observations. It was found that the history of the establishment of official observatory in Malaysia commenced in the 1980’s and the institution rapidly grew until 2014. Up to date, there are eight official observatories in Malaysia excluding hilal observation stations, mobile observatories and private observatories, be they mobile or stationary. Key words: Observatory; Islamic Astronomy; Al-Marsad Al-Falaki; Astrofiqh; Cosmofiqh; Islamic Civilization. Cite this Article: Ibnor Azli Ibrahim, Mohd Hafiz Safiai, Ezad Azraai Jamsari, Md Yazid Ahmad, Amir Husin Mohd Nor, Badlihisham Mohd Nasir and Aminudin Hehsan, Observatories In Malaysia: Descendants of Islamic Civilization Superiority, International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 8(12), 2017, pp. 782-795. http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJCIET?Volume=8&Issue=12 1. INTRODUCTION The rapid growth in the science of falak (astronomy) can be witnessed during the golden age of Islamic civilization, especially during early in the 9th century during the rule of Caliph al- Ma’mun (813-833) of the Abbasid Caliphate. As a result, numerous Muslim scientists from various fields of knowledge, in particular astronomy were born and became world-renowned (Hassan, Abiddin & Ahmad 2011: 37-38). In the rapid development of the knowledge, two observatories in the Islamic world became landmarks of its glory leaving great impact in the history of falak. They were the Maraghah Observatory in the south of Tabriz and the Ulugh Begh Observatory in Samarkand. Both observatories were built complete with facilities provided for astronomers to facilitate their work. In addition, the observatories also functioned as education centers of falak science which were well known at that time (Mujani, Ibrahim & Safiai 2012: 1370). This study commenced from reviews of previous works in Malaysia such as ‘The Importance of Observatory in Astronomy Research’ by Othman (1993), ‘The Al-Khawarizmi Falak Complex: Planning and Future Direction’ by Bahali (2006), ‘Astronomical Seeing Measurement of Two Observatory Sites in Malaysia: The DIMM Method’ by Zainuddin, Abd. Aziz, Arif, Ahmad and Haron (2006), ‘Observatory Technology: Then until Now’ by Aziz (2010) and ‘Human Resource Development Issues in the Field of Islamic Astronomy: Analysis of the Langkawi National Observatory, Malaysia’ by Ismail, Asillam and Zin (2014). In general, all the works only discussed the functions and roles of the observatories. A lack of research in the history of the observatories makes studies such as the one at hand important to be completed. Through reviews of previous literatures on international observatories, this study has referred to several works such as ‘The Royal Astrophysical Observatory of Potsdam’ by Leuschner (1892), ‘The Yerkes Observatory of The University of Chicago’ by Hale (1892), ‘The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, Scotland’ by Aitken (1898), ‘The U.S. Naval Observatory’ by Hall (1899) and ‘The Tananarive Observatory’ by Hunt (1901). Analysis of the works reveals that foreign nations have long been working on and documenting the history of observatories for future works. Hence, the objective of the current study is to examine the history of official observatory development in Malaysia. In Malaysia, official observatories are categorized into three types: astrofiqh observatory, federal observatory and high education institution observatory. An astrofiqh observatory is an observatory which is operated by the State Mufti Department (Safiai, Jamsari & Ibrahim 2014). Federal observatory is one that is under the custody of the National Space Agency or Agensi Angkasa Negara Malaysia (ANGKASA). ANGKASA is a Malaysian government agency http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJCIET 783 [email protected] Ibnor Azli Ibrahim, Mohd Hafiz Safiai, Ezad Azraai Jamsari, Md Yazid Ahmad, Amir Husin Mohd Nor, Badlihisham Mohd Nasir and Aminudin Hehsan which was established for the purpose of developing the education and research in space science, as well as helping the government in implementing the National Space Policy or Dasar Angkasa Negara (Amri 2009: 23). Meanwhile, high education institution observatory is the observatory run by Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Terengganu. Studies relating to the greatness and excellence of Islamic and Arabic studies generally and Islamic history and civilization particularly are also assayed by local scholars, covering various issues such as discussion of the role of the al-Azhar University in the dissemination of Islamic religious knowledge (Mujani, Abdullah & Bakar 2012), the historical development of public institutions of Malaysian higher learning (Mujani, Muttaqin & Khalid 2014), the takharuj principle flexibility in solving the inheritance issues (Ahmad et al. 2017), heir pre-investigation mechanism according to shari’ah perspective (Ahmad, Isa & Omar 2014), the management of zakat distribution in the practice of fatwa in Terengganu (Hassan et al. 2017), the approach of knowledge transfer in deriving Shafi‘ite hukum (Hassan et al. 2015), the economic effects of the Julban riots during the Mamluk period (Mujani 2013), Ibn al-Athir’s records on Islamic history in India (Ashari, Nor & Jamsari 2013), al-Salawi’s records of the Marinid military from the point of war (Jamsari et al. 2012a), the Marinid kingdom from different perspectives; i.e. naval force (Jamsari & Ashari 2014), administrative system (Jamsari et al. 2012b), Ibn Kathir’s records on chain of wars in al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (Jamsari, Yaacob & Ashari 2013), al- Ghazali’s views on family development (Sulaiman, Jamsari & Noh 2014), the basis and meaning of leadership in Islam (Jamsari et al. 2012c; Mujani et al. 2012), Ibn Firnas’s contribution to aviation technology (Jamsari et al. 2013), Reinhart Dozy’s bio-bibliographical aspect (Jamsari & Talib 2014; Jamsari et al. 2014), strategic leadership of Sultan Muhammad al-Fatih (Jamsari, Isa & Ashari 2014), concept of knowledge according to Syed Sheikh Ahmad al-Hadi (Sulaiman, Jamsari & Talib 2016), the scholarship of Sheikh Muhammad Rif‘at in the science of tarannum (Abdullah et al. 2014), astrolabe as portal to the universe, inventions across civilizations, multipurpose astrofiqh instrument, functions in solving astrofiqh issues, general similarities of Malaysian observatories, observatories in Islamic history (Safiai et al. 2017; Safiai et al. 2016; Ibrahim, Safiai & Jamsari 2015; Safiai, Jamsari & Ibrahim 2014; Mujani, Ibrahim & Safiai 2012), as well as the purification of historical facts in selected Malay novels (Kamaruzaman et al. 2017). 2. OBSERVATORY DEFINITION Observatory is closely linked with observation studies and theories on celestial objects, the space between them and the universe on the whole. Observed objects include the sun, moon, planets and stars (Vasiliev & Tataridou 2013: 36-38). The technology of observatory construction existed since the 8th century and it was considered as one of the important Islamic institutions alongside schools and mosques (Farahati 2011: 146-147). The Islamic civilization era was the beginning era of observatory constructions and since then an evolution occurs from time to time to the rest of the world (Arny & Schneider 2010: 143-144). The word ‘observatory’ in Malay is ‘balai cerap’. According to Kamus Dewan (2005: 114, 270), the word ‘balai’ means a hall, house (for public) or building specially built for a certain purpose while ‘cerap’ means to observe,
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