The measurement of the positions of the stars was developed and refined by scientists of the Muslim world and many kinds of Models were developed. These are described within this article.
Uzbekistan has embarked on a journey to identify, catalogue and showcase all art objects reflecting the country's cultural heritage that are scattered around the world. Once at the centre of the Great Silk Road, Uzbekistan…
Imagine trying to make sense of the universe before telescopes were even invented. Jim al-Khalili reveals how scholars from the Islamic world played a crucial role in astronomy and navigation, influencing later astronomers in the…
A survey of the historical sources with an appendix on some recent fallacies about mosque orientations
Many of the prominent stars known today are of Arabic origin as they bear names given to them during the golden age of Islamic astronomy. A major contribution in this field is that of al-Sufi…
In Arabic culture, as in other civilisations, the cultural dimension of the history of astronomy appears in part in the meanings and origins of star and constellation names. This nomenclature was shaped by cultural symbols…
Starting on the 26th April 2025, the Royal Observatory Greenwich will host a programme of planetarium shows celebrating the Muslim world’s contributions to astronomy.
In his book The Brightest Stars for the Construction of Mechanical Clocks (Al-Kawakib al-durriyya fi wadh' al-bankamat al-dawriyya), Taqi al-Din Ibn Ma'ruf analyses the four main types of time keeping devices known in the 16th…
The Fast Facts Collection was originally produced for the edutainment reality TV program Stars of Science, a Qatar Foundation initiative. The program has successfully brought science and technology closer to millions of viewers across the…
Most eminent Muslim astronomers include Al-Battani, al-Sufi, al-Biruni, and Ibn Yunus. They recorded the position of the sun, moon and the stars.
This article relates the discovery by two American scholars, Paul J. Steinhardt and Peter J. Lu (respectively from the department of physics at Princeton and Harvard universities) that medieval Islamic artists produced intricate decorative patterns…
This article was originally published as: “Islamic Astronomy”, in Christopher Walker, ed., Astronomy before the Telescope, London: British Museum Press, 1996, pp. 143-174.
Observation wells received much historical interest relating to observatories. In this article Prof. Aydin Sayili describes the history of "observation wells" both in Islamic and European worlds.
Abu al-Hasan Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani al-Sabi (born in Harran, now in southern Turkey, in 836 and died in Baghdad on 18 February 901) was a prolific scientist of the ninth century.
Among the Ottomans there was constant controversy over whether astrology violated the principles of reason and religion. Although many Islamic scholars judged astrology to contravene religion, astronomers continued to interpret the heavens, and sultans to…
Browse through selected images taken from Muslim Heritage articles related to Astronomy...
Learning institutions in various forms have existed for centuries in the Muslim World, the earliest of which are, al-Qarawiyyin, al-Azhar and al-Qayrawan. This short article traces the emergence and spread of madrasas as a popular…
The film is part of a global educational campaign launched by 1001 Inventions in partnership with UNESCO in 2015 that has engaged more than 30 million people around the world.
[Proceedings of the conference 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World organised by FSTC, London, 25-26 May 2010]. The Islamic realms served as a crucible for scientific learning from the ancient Greek world in the…
The original English version of my paper “Faces of the Kaaba” presented below first saw the light some 40 years ago. It appeared in the popular magazine The Sciences, published by the New York Academy…
Discover the golden
age of Muslim civilisation.
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