Al-Khujandi
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Abu Mahmud Hamid ibn al-Khidr Al-Khujandi was a Persian (Tajik) astronomer who lived in the late 10th century and helped build an observatory near in what is now Ray, Iran near Tehran. He was born in Khudzhand ( now Tajikistan ) about 940 and died in 1000.
The few facts about al-Khujandi's life that are known come from both his surviving writings and comments made by Nasir al-din al-Tusi. From al-Tusi's comments it is fairly certain that al-Khujandi was one of the rulers of the Mongol tribe in the Khudzhand region, and thus must have come from the nobility.
Khujandi worked under the patronage of the Buwayhid Amirs of Ray, where he is known to have constructed a huge sextant in 994 AD.
