Al Achsasi al Mouakket

Muḥammad al-Akhṣāṣī al-Muwaqqit (Arabic: محمد الاخصاصي الموقت) was an Egyptian astronomer whose calendarium and catalogue of stars, al-Durrah al-muḍīyah fī al-ʻamāl al-shamsīyah ("Pearls of brilliance upon the solar operations"), was written at Cairo about 1650.[1] Al Achsasi was sheikh of the Grand Mosque of the university of Cairo, where his name al-Mouakket reflected his position regulating the times and hours at the mosque. His name Achsasi connects him in origin to a village in the Faiyum.[2]

No copies of his book were known to Western astronomers or historians of science until 1895;[3] thus he did not appear in the standard French and English bibliographies and library catalogues of the 19th century.

Notes

  1. Transcription and translation from E.B. Knobel, "On a catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 55 (1895:429f).
  2. Knobel 1895:429.
  3. Knobel 1895.
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