Born probably al‐Mizza near Damascus, (Syria), 1291
Died Damascus, (Syria), 1349
Mizzī was a muwaqqit (i. e., an astronomer appointed to a mosque who is responsible for regulating the times of prayer), an instrument maker, and the author of numerous treatises on astronomical instruments. He studied in Cairo under the well known physician and encyclopedist Ibn al‐Akfānī. He was first appointed as a muwaqqit in al‐Rabwa, a quiet locality near Damascus, and then at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, a position he held until his death. Mizzī authored treatises on the use of the astrolabe, the astrolabic quadrant, and the sine quadrant. In particular his treatises al‐Rawḍāt al‐muzhirāt fī al‐ ҁ amal bi‐rub ҁ al‐muqanṭarāt (On the astrolabic quadrant) and Kashf al‐rayb fī al‐ ҁ amal bi‐'l‐jayb (On the sine quadrant) were popular. He also wrote on the use of less common instruments, such as the musattar (concealed) and the mujannaḥ (winged) quadrants.
Although he made few original...
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Selected References
Al‐Safadī. (1911). Nakt al‐himyān fī nukat al‐ ҁ umyān. Cairo, p. 244.
Brockelmann, Carl (1938). Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur. 2nd ed. Vol. 2 (1949): 155–156; Suppl. 2: 156, 1018. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Charette, François (2003). Mathematical Instrumentation in Fourteenth‐Century Egypt and Syria: The Illustrated Treatise of Najm Al‐Dīn Al‐Misrī. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Combe, étienne (1930). “Cinq cuivres musulmans datés des XIIIe, XIVe, et XVe siècles, de la Collection Benaki.” Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale 30: 49–58, esp. p. 56.
Dorn, B. (1865). “Drei in der Kaiserlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu St. Petersburg befindliche astronomische Instrumente mit arabischen Inschriften.” Mémoires de l'Académie impériale des sciences de St. Pétersbourg, 7th ser., 9: 1–150, esp. pp. 16–26 and plates.
Féhérvari, Géza (1973). “An Eighth/Fourteenth‐Century Quadrant of the Astrolabist al‐Mizzī.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 36: 115–117 and two plates.
Ibn Hajar (1966–67). Durar al‐kāmina fī a ҁ yān al‐mi'a al‐thāmina. 5 Vols. Vol. 3, p. 410, no. 3392. Cairo: Dār al‐Kutub al‐Hadītha.
King, David A. (1986). A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, no. C34.
——— (1993). “L'astronomie en Syrie à l'époque islamique.” In Syrie, mémoire et civilization (exhibition catalogue), edited by Sophie Cluzan, Eric Delpont, and Jeanne Mouliérac, pp. 386–395, with descriptions of related objects on pp. 432–443. Paris: Institut du monde arabe and Flammarion. (On Mizzī see esp. pp. 391, 438.)
Suter, Heinrich (1990). “Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke.” Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften 10: 165.
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Charette, F. (2007). Mizzī: Zayn al‐Dīn [Shams al‐Din] Abū ҁAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ҁAbd al‐Raḥīm al‐Mizzī al‐Ḥanafī. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_964
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