Al-Battani
c. 858 CE–c. 929 CE · Harran
Al-Battani (in full Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Jabir al-Battani; Latinized in medieval Europe as Albategnius) was one of the most accomplished astronomers of the medieval Islamic world. He was born around 858 CE in Harran, an ancient city in the Jazira region (in what is now southeastern Turkey), and died in 929 CE at Qasr al-Jiss, near Samarra in Iraq.
His family bore the epithet "al-Sabi," marking descent from the Sabians of Harran, a community known for star-lore and astral religion; his father, Jabir ibn Sinan, is reported to have been a maker of astronomical instruments. Al-Battani himself was a Muslim, as his given name Muhammad indicates, and there is no reliable evidence that he practiced the Sabian religion.
He carried out decades of careful observations, chiefly at Raqqa on the Euphrates, and is reported to have observed a solar and a lunar eclipse at Antioch in 901. His major work, the "Kitab al-Zij al-Sabi" (a zij is a handbook of astronomical tables), refined existing values for the length of the solar year and the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets, and advanced trigonometric methods.
Centuries later the Zij was translated into Latin and read across Europe; al-Battani is cited repeatedly by Copernicus. According to the bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim, financial and tax troubles late in life drew him from Raqqa toward Baghdad, and he died on the return journey.
Did you know?
An astronomer's numbers Copernicus was still using six centuries later
The astronomer al-Battani, observing from Raqqa around the year 900, measured the length of the solar year and the tilt of the ecliptic with striking precision. When Copernicus published De Revolutionibus in 1543, he cited al-Battani by name more than twenty times, still drawing on observations made over six centuries earlier.
How we know
al-Battani c. 858–929 CE (observations at Raqqa from 877); Copernicus's De Revolutionibus published 1543; al-Battani named ~23 times in it (Britannica; Wikipedia; De Revolutionibus text). 1543 − 929 = 614 years.
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Harran
What they did here
Al-Battani was born around 858 CE in Harran, in the Jazira. His family bore the epithet 'al-Sabi,' indicating descent from the Sabian community of Harran; his father Jabir ibn Sinan is reported to have made astronomical instruments. The exact birth year is a traditional estimate (sources give 'about 850,' 'before 858,' and 'c. 858').
About Harran
Harran (classical Carrhae), in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border, was famous in the early Islamic period as a centre of the Sabian community and of Greek-into-Arabic science. The mathematician-astronomers Thabit ibn Qurra (d. 901) and al-Battani (d. 929) came from Harran and its region; the Hanbali theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) was also born there before his family fled the Mongols to Damascus.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Al-Battani’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Islamic world
- Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili· 825 CE–919 CE
- al-Nasa'i· 830 CE–915 CE
- al-Junayd al-Baghdadi· 830 CE–910 CE
- Ibn Khuzayma· 838 CE–924 CE
- Al-Tabari· 839 CE–923 CE
- Abu Ali al-Jubba'i· 849 CE–915 CE
- Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi· 853 CE–933 CE
- al-Maturidi· 853 CE–944 CE
- al-Hallaj· 858 CE–922 CE
- Ibn Mujahid· 859 CE–936 CE
- al-Hadi ila'l-Haqq Yahya· 859 CE–911 CE
- al-Hadi ila al-Haqq Yahya· 859 CE–911 CE
- Abu Bakr al-Shibli· 861 CE–946 CE
- Abu Bakr al-Razi· 865 CE–925 CE
- al-Farabi· 870 CE–950 CE
- Abd Allah al-Mahdi Billah· 874 CE–934 CE
- Abu Hatim al-Razi· 874 CE–934 CE
- al-Ash'ari· 874 CE–936 CE
- Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i· 890 CE–933 CE
- Al-Hamdani· 893 CE–945 CE
- Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni· –941 CE
- Ibn Hawshab· –914 CE
- Al-Ya'qubi· –905 CE
- Abu Bakr al-Bazzar· –905 CE
Christian world
Scientists
Hindu world
Jewish world
Buddhist world
Rulers world
- Leo VI the Wise· 866 CE–912 CE
- Abdullah ibn Muhammad· 844 CE–912 CE
- al-Mu'tadid· 854 CE–902 CE
- Taejo of Goryeo (Wang Geon)· 877 CE–943 CE
- Oleg of Novgorod (Oleg the Prophet)· –912 CE
- Igor of Kiev· 877 CE–945 CE
- Alfred the Great· 849 CE–899 CE
- al-Muqtadir· 895 CE–932 CE
- al-Qa'im bi-Amr Allah· 893 CE–946 CE
- al-Mu'tamid· 842 CE–892 CE
- al-Mundhir· 842 CE–888 CE
- Olga of Kiev· 890 CE–969 CE
- Rurik· –879 CE
- Emperor Taizu of Song (Zhao Kuangyin)· 927 CE–976 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.