Muslim scholars of the past have recorded in detail several eclipses of the Moon and the Sun, in different parts of the Muslim world. These observations are among the most accurate and reliable data from the pre-telescopic period.<\/p>\n

Abu al-Rayhan al-Biruni (d. 1048), the famous scientist who excelled in mathematical and applied astronomy, made various observations of eclipses. In his book Kitab Tahdid nihayat al-amakin li-tashih masafat al-masakin (The Determination of the Coordinates of Positions for the Correction of Distances between Cities) he notes:<\/p>\n

“The faculty of sight cannot resist it [the Sun’s rays], which can inflict a painful injury. If one continues to look at it, one’s sight becomes dazzled and dimmed, so it is preferable to look at its image in water and avoid a direct look at it, because the intensity of its rays is thereby reduced\u2026 Indeed such observations of solar eclipses in my youth have weakened my eyesight.”<\/p>\n

In Afghanistan, he observed and described the solar eclipse on April 8, 1019, and the lunar eclipse on September 17, 1019, in detail, and gave the exact latitudes of the stars during the lunar eclipse.<\/p>\n

On the solar eclipse which he observed at Lamghan, a valley surrounded by mountains between the towns of Qandahar and Kabul, he wrote:<\/p>\n

“At sunrise, we saw that approximately one-third of the sun was eclipsed and that the eclipse was waning.”<\/p>\n

He observed the lunar eclipse at Ghazna and gave precise details of the exact altitude of various well-known stars at the moment of the first contact.<\/p>\n

Another account of the total solar eclipse of 20 June 1061 CE was recorded by the Baghdad historian Abu-al-Faraj Ibn Al-Jawzi (508-597 H), who wrote approximately a century after the event, in his Al-Muntadham fi tarikh al-muluk wa-‘l-umam (in 10 volumes):<\/p>\n

“(453 H.) On Wednesday, when two nights remained to the completion of (the month of) Jumada al-Ula, two hours after daybreak, the Sun was eclipsed totally. There was darkness and the birds fell whilst flying. The astrologers claimed that one-sixth of the Sun should have remained [uneclipsed] but nothing of it did so. The Sun reappeared after four hours and a fraction. The eclipse was not in the whole of the Sun in places other than Baghdad and its provinces.”<\/p>\n

In Western astronomy, most of the accepted star names are Arabic and can be traced back to the star catalog of the astronomer al-Sufi, known in medieval Europe as Azophi. His full name was Abu ‘l-Hussain ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Omar al-Sufi, and he is recognized today as one of the most important scientists of his age.<\/p>\n

Studying the cosmos is ingrained in the Qur\u2019an which propelled the early Muslim scientists to chart the horizons and lay the foundations of modern astronomy.<\/p>\n

The study of astronomy in Islamic countries is by no means over. In 2016 scientists in Qatar at the Qatar Exoplanet Survey announced their discovery of three new exoplanets orbiting around other stars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\n
• Precious Records of Eclipses in Muslim Astronomy and History<\/li>\n
• How Islamic scholarship birthed modern astronomy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  ———–<\/p>\n

  Taken with slight editorial modifications from islamicity.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Studying the cosmos is ingrained in the Qur\u2019an which propelled the early Muslim scientists to chart the horizons and lay the foundations of modern astronomy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[7208,19559,497,7,341,364,602,335,938],"class_list":["post-31688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-truth-seeker","tag-astronomy","tag-eclipses-and-astronomy-in-islam","tag-faith","tag-featured","tag-islam","tag-islamic-history","tag-prophet-muhammad","tag-quran","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\n