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Ulugh Bēg, Mīrzā Muḥammad ibn Shārhrukh ibn Tīmūr Ulugh Bēg Guragān, 1394–1449, was the ruler of Samarqand (now in Uzbekistan) and an astronomer, mathematician, and poet. His nickname, Ulugh Bēg, means “great prince”. He was the grandson of the great conqueror Tīmūr. In 1417, as a pupil of Qāḍī Zādeh al‐Rūmī of Bursa (Turkey), he opened in Samarqand the madrasa (school) where al‐Rūmī was the teacher. In 1425 he founded an astronomical observatory and invited Jamshīd al‐Kāshī to be its director. After al‐Kāshī's death, the head of the observatory became ˓Alī al‐Qūshjī. Ulugh Bēg was killed by enemies of enlightenment. After his death his observatory was destroyed, and al‐Qūshjī fled to Turkey.

The main work of Ulugh Bēg was a book of astronomical tables known as the Zīj‐i Ulugh Bēg or Zīj‐i jadīd‐i Guragānī( New Zīj of Guragan) written together with al‐Kāshī, al‐Rūmī, and al‐Qūshjī. The tables are written in Persian and are extant in many manuscripts in Persian and Arabic...

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References

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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York

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Rosenfeld, B. (2008). Ulugh Bēg. 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_9300

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9300

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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