Al-Adami

Not to be confused with Ibn al-Adami, who is presumed to be al-Adami's son.

Al-Adami
أبو علي الحسين بن محمد الآدمي
A page from Techniques, Walls, and the Making of Sundials
Bornfl. c. 925
Academic work
EraIslamic Golden Age
Main interestsMaker of scientific instruments
Notable worksKitab takhlTt al-sa v at wa inhiraf al-hTtan wa’l-zilalat wa alTad al-sumut

ʿAbū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Ādamī (Arabic: أبو علي الحسين بن محمد الآدمي; flourished in Baghdad c. 925) was a maker of scientific instruments who wrote an extant work on vertical sundials, Techniques, Walls, and the Making of Sundials[1][2] (Kitab takhlTt al-sa v at wa inhiraf al-hTtan wa’l-zilalat wa alTad al-sumut).[3] The manuscript, which is held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, contains tables that enabled the drawing of lines to show any desired angle of latitude.[1] The surviving copy of al-Adami's 10th century manuscript (Arabe 2506,1 (fols. 1r-62r) dates from the 15th century, which King has suggested was written either by al-Adami or by a contemporary, Sa'id ibn Khafif al-Samarqandi. The tables on folios. 31v–33v were intended to be used in the construction of a vertical sundial.[4]

According to the Iranian polymath al-Biruni, al-Adami was the first to demonstrate solar and lunar eclipses using a "disc of eclipses". Al-Adami was named in the Fihrist, written by the 10th century scholar Ibn al-Nadīm.[1]

The astronomer Ibn al-Adami, who is thought by scholars to have been al-Adami's son, wrote Naẓm al-ʿiqd (now lost), a zīj that used information obtained from the Sindhind, an Indian source translated into Arabic by the 8th century mathematician and astronomer Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī. The Naẓm al-ʿiqd was first published in 949/950.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Jamil Ragep & Bolt 2007, p. 12.
  2. ^ Dodge 1970, p. 663.
  3. ^ Rosenfeld & Ekmeleddin 2003, p. 43.
  4. ^ King 2004, pp. 89–90.

Sources

  • Dodge, Baynard, ed. (1970). The Fihrist of al-Nadim: a Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. Translated by Dodge, Baynard. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-02310-2-925-4.
  • Jamil Ragep, F.; Bolt, Marvin (2007). "Ādamī: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Ādamī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. ISBN 9780387310220. (PDF version)
  • King, David A. (2004). Daiber, H.; Pingree, D. (eds.). In Synchrony With The Heavens: Studies In Astronomical Timekeeping And Instrumentation In Medieval Islamic Civilization. Islamic Philosophy, Theology, And Science. Vol. 1: The Call of the Muezzin. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 90-04-12233-8.
  • Rosenfeld, B. A.; Ekmeleddin, Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th c.). Series of Studies and Sources on (the) History of Science. Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA). ISBN 92-9063-127-9.

Further reading