Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī

Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Habib ibn Sulayman ibn Samra ibn Jundab^[1] al-Fazari (Arabic: محمد بن إبراهيم بن حبيب بن سليمان بن سمرة بن جندب الفزاري) (died 796 or 806) was an Arab philosopher, mathematician and astronomer.^[2][3][4]

Al-Fazārī translated many scientific books into Arabic and Persian. He is credited to have built the first astrolabe in the Islamic world.^[5] He died in 796 or 806, possibly in Baghdad.^[6]

At the end of the 8th century, whilst at the court of the Abbasid Caliphate, al-Fazārī mentioned Ghana, "the land of gold."^[7]

Along with Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq, al-Fazārī helped translate the 7th century Indian astronomical text by Brahmagupta, the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta, into Arabic as 'Zij as-SindhindAz-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab,^[8] or the Sindhind. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the mathematical methods of Indian astronomers were transmitted to Islam.^[9]

The caliph^[which?] ordered al-Fazārī to translate the Indian astronomical text, The Sindhind, along with Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq, which was completed in Baghdad about 750, and entitled Az-Zīj ‛alā Sinī al-‛Arab. This translation was possibly the vehicle by means of which the Hindu numeral system (the modern number notation) was transmitted from India to Iran.

Al-Fazari composed various astronomical writings ("On the astrolabe", "On the armillary spheres", "on the calendar").

• Hindu and Buddhist contribution to science in medieval Islam

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• Plofker, Kim (2007). "Fazārī: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 362–3. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Pingree, David (1970). "The Fragments of the Works of Al-Fazari". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 29 (2). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press: 103–123. doi:10.1086/372055. JSTOR 543820. S2CID 68991124 – via JSTOR.
• Pingree, David; Gillispie, Charles Coulston (1981). "Al-Fazārī, Muḥammad Ibn Ibrāhīm". In Holmes, Frederick Lawrence (ed.). Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 4. New York: Scribner's. OCLC 755137603.