Abū'l‐Wafā˒ al‐Būzjānī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ismā˓īl ibn al‐'Abbās, was born in Būzjān (now in Iran) on 10 June 940. After he moved to Baghdad in 959, he wrote important works on arithmetic, trigonometry, and astronomy.
Abū'l‐Wafā˒ provided new solutions to many problems in spherical trigonometry and computed trigonometric tables with an accuracy that had not been achieved until his time. He made astronomical observations and assisted at observations in the garden of the palace of Sharaf al‐Dawla. Finally, he wrote two astronomical handbooks, the Wāḍiḥ Zīj and al‐Majisṭī (Almagest). More information about Abū'l‐Wafā˒'s tables must be obtained from zījes that have incorporated material from his works, such as the Baghdādī Zīj, compiled shortly before the year 1285 by Jamāl al‐Dīn al‐Baghdādī. A solar equation table attributed to Abū'l‐Wafā˒ occurs in it.
Several later zījesincorporate Abū'l‐Wafā˒'s mean motion parameters. Various sine and cotangent values which he gave...
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References
Abū'l‐Wafā˒ al‐Būzjānī. Knowledge of Geometry Necessary for the Craftsman. Ed. S. A. al‐˓Ālī. Baghdad: University of Baghdad Centre for the Revival of the Arabic Scientific Heritage, 1979 (in Arabic).
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Kennedy, Edward S. Applied Mathematics in the Tenth Century: Abū'l‐Wafā˒ Calculates the Distance Baghdad‐Mecca. Historia Mathematica 11 (1984): 192–206.
Kennedy, Edward S. and Mustafa Mawaldi. Abū'l‐Wafā˒ and the Heron Theorems. Journal of the History of Arabic Science 3 (1979): 19–30.
Nadir, Nadir. Abū'l‐Wafā˒ on the Solar Altitude. The Mathematics Teacher 53 (1960): 460–3.
Saidan, Ahmad S. The Arithmetic of Abū al‐Wafā˒ al‐Būzajānī. Amman: al‐Lajnah al‐Urdunnīyah lil‐Ta˓rīb wa‐al‐Nasr wa‐al‐Tarjamah, 1973.
‐‐‐. The Arithmetic of Abū'l‐Wafā˒. Isis 65 (1974): 367–75.
Youschkcvitch, A. P. Abū'l Wafā˒. Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Ed. Charles C. Gillispie. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975. 39–43.
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Dold‐Samplonius, Y. (2008). Abū'l‐Wafā˒. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9203
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