Muhammad al-Fazari

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Abu abdallah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari (d. 796 or 806) was a Persian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. He is not to be confused with his father Ibrahim al-Fazari, also an astronomer and mathematician.

He is credited to have built the first astrolabe in the Islamic world. (Richard Nelson Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, p. 163).

Along with Yaqub ibn Tariq and his father he helped translate the great Indian astronomical text by Brahmagupta (fl. seventh century AD), the Brahmasphutasiddhanta, into Arabic as the Sindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the Hindu numerals were transmitted from India to Islam.

[edit] References

Richard N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, p. 163.
H. Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber (p. 4, 1900).
Cantor: Geschichte der Mathematik (I, 3rd ed., 698, 1907).
D. E. Smith and L. C. Karpinski: The Hindu-Arabic Numerals (Boston, 1911), p.92.