Born circa 1242
Died (Yemen), 22 November 1296
al‐Ashraf ҁUmar, the third of the Rasulid sultans in Yemen, was a prolific scholar who wrote a number of works with astronomical content. The date of Ashraf's birth is uncertain, and only a few details of his life are recorded. In 1266/1267, Ashraf commanded a military mission for his father to the northern town of Ḥajja and later became governor of al‐Mahjam along Wādī Surdud in the coastal region of Yemen. His father, al‐Muẓaffar Yūsuf, appointed him coregent in 1295. Four months later Ashraf ҁUmar succeeded him on the throne. In the same year Malik al‐Ashraf visited al‐Dumluwa and later the coastal town of Zabīd. He reigned in Yemen for about 2 years until his death in 1296. He was buried in the Ashrafiyya school he had founded in Taҁizz. Ashraf left behind six sons and two daughters, both married to sons of Ashraf's brother, Mu'ayyad Dāwūd, who succeeded him on the throne.
In contrast to his father's reign, which was long and...
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Selected References
King, David A. (1983). Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen: A Biobibliographical Survey. Malibu: Undena Publications. (On Ashraf in the context of Yemeni astronomy.)
——— (1985). “The Medieval Yemeni Astrolabe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.” Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Arabisch‐Islamischen Wissenschaften 2: 99–122. (Reprinted in King, Islamic Astronomical Instruments, II. London: Variorum Reprints, 1987. Supplement in King, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Arabisch–Islamischen Wissenschaften 4 (1987–88): 268–269. (On Ashraf's actual astrolabe and the treatise on its construction.)
Schmidl, Petra G. (1996–97). “Two Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 1: 81–132. (On the magnetic compass.)
Varisco, Daniel Martin (1994). Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science: The Almanac of a Yemeni Sultan. Seattle: University of Washington Press. (On Ashraf's almanac.)
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Schmidl, P.G. (2007). Ashraf: al‐Malik al‐Ashraf (Mumahhid al‐Dīn) ҁUmar ibn Yūsuf ibn ҁUmar ibn ҁAlī ibn Rasūl. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_80
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