Mu˒ayyad al‐Dīn ibn Barmak al‐˓Urḍī al‐Dimashqī (thirteenth century) was an astronomer, architect, and engineer. He as born in Damascus and first worked in Syria. He did some hydraulic engineering in Damascus and constructed an astronomical instrument for the ruler of Hims (Emessa), al‐Manṣūr Ibrāhīm (1239–1245). He also taught handasa (architecture or geometry).
In or soon after 1259 he was in Maragha, the capital of the Mongol conqueror Hulagu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. He was one of four astronomers who worked with Naṣīr al‐Dīn al‐ṭūsi, the founder of the Maragha observatory. He participated in the organization, building, and construction of the instruments of this observatory, and in the building of a mosque and a palace in Maragha.
The best known al‐˓Urdī's works is Risāla fī kayfiyya al‐arṣād wa mā yukhtāj ilā ˓ilmihi wa ˓amalihi min al‐ṭuruq al‐muwaddiya ilā ma˓rifa ˓awdāt al‐kawākib(Modes of Astronomical Observations and the Theoretical and Practical Knowledge Needed...
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Dallal, Ahmad S. Travaux récents en histoire de l'astronomie. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy: A Historical Journal 7 (1997): 283–97.
Jourdain, Amable. Mémoire sur l'Observatoire de Méragha et les Instruments Employées pour y Observer. Paris: Joubert, 1810.
Matvievskaya, Galina P. and B. A. Rosenfeld. Mathematicians and Astronomers of Medieval Islam and Their Works (8th–17th c.). Vol. 2. Moscow: Nauka, 1983. 414–5 (in Russian).
Sarton, George. Introduction to the History of Science. Vol. 2. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1931. 1013–4.
Sayılı, Aydın. The Observatory in Islam. Istanbul: Turk Tarih Kurumu, 1960.
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Rosenfeld, B.A. (2008). Al‐˓Urḍī. 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_9304
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