Abu Hamid Ahmed ibn Mohammed al-Saghani al-Asturlabi (meaning the astrolabe maker of Saghan, near Merv) was a Persian astronomer and historian of science. He flourished in Baghdad, where he died in 990 AD.

An inventor and maker of instruments, he worked in Sharaf al-dawla's observatory and, perhaps, constructed the instruments which were used there. Worked on the trisection of the angle.

History of science

Al-Asturlabi wrote some of the earliest comments on the history of science. These included the following comparison between the "ancients" (including the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks and Indians) and the "modern scholars" (the Muslim scientists of his time):

References

Sources

• Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber (p. 65, 1900).

See also

• List of Iranian scientists