Muḥyī al‐Milla wa al‐Dīn Yaḥyā Abū ʿAbdallāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī al‐Shukr al‐Maghribī al‐Andalusī (Arabic: محيي الدين المغربي; c. 1220 – June 1283), referred to in sources as Muhyi l'din, was an astronomer, astrologer and mathematician of the Islamic Golden Age. He belonged to the group of astronomers associated with the Maragheh observatory in the Ilkhanate, most notably Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. In astronomy, Muhyi l'din carried out a large‐scale project of systematic planetary observations, which led to the development of several new astronomical parameters.[1]
Muhyi l'din died in Maragheh in modern-day Iran in June 1283.[1]
At Maragheh, Muhyi l'din observed up to a total of eight of the brightest stars,[dubious – discuss] of which he used the latitudes collected to compare with the values within ancient computations.[5][page needed] He concluded that the difference between his latitudes and ancients were not substantial, and any inconsistences were in fact due to the observations and not the subject itself. In his Talkhīṣ al‐Majisṭī, he commentated on Ptolemy's Almagest, presenting his own observations and hypothesizes in addition with it. For instance, Muhyi l'din supposed that the precession would only occur in a motion that was uniform and continuous at a rate that was 1° for ever 66 years from his systematic stellar observations.[5][page needed]
An extant manuscript by Muhyi l'din details of observations made from 1262 to 1274.[2] He continued to work on his observations at Maragheh until his death in 1283.[3][page needed]
Muhyi l'din's known works on astronomy include:[1]
Tasṭīḥ al‐asṭurlāb, a description of the construction and use of the astrolabe;
Maqāla fī istikhrāj taʿdīl al‐nahār wa saʿat al‐mashriq wa‐ʾl‐dāʾir min al‐falak bi‐ṭarīq al‐handasa, a description of the geometrical methods used to determine the meridian line, the rising amplitude, and the revolution of the sphere;
Talkhīṣ al‐Majisṭī (Compendium of the Almagest), based on his observations carried out between 1264 and 1275;
Khulāṣat al‐Majisṭī (Summary of the Almagest);
Muqaddimāt tataʿallaq bi‐ḥarakāt al‐kawākib (Prolegomena on the Motion of the Stars), which contains five geometric premises on the planetary motions in the Almagest.
Muhyi l'din's notable works in trigonometry were The Book on the Theorem of Menelaus and Treatise on the Calculation of Sines.[2] He is known for his commentaries on ancient Greek mathematical works, in particular, his commentary on Book XV of Euclid's Elements, which discussed measurements of the regular polyhedra.[2][6] Muhyi l'din's writings on trigonometry contain some elements that are original.[1]
In his treatise on the calculation of sines, Muhyi l'din interpolated a value for the sine of one degree; a more accurate value was not obtained until the 15th century, when the mathematicians Qāḍī Zāda al-Rūmī and Jamshid al-Kashi tackled the problem. Whilst working on the sines, Muhyi l'din used the methods devised by Archimedes to find an approximate value for pi.[2]
Mozaffari, S. Mohammad (2014). "Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Maghribī's lunar measurements at the Maragha observatory". Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 68 (1): 67–120. doi:10.1007/s00407-013-0130-4. ISSN0003-9519. JSTOR24569613.
Roberts, Victor (1966). "The Planetary Theory of Ibn al-Shatir: Latitudes of the Planets". Isis. 50 (3). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press: 208–219. JSTOR227960.
Tekeli, Sevim (1981). "Muḥyi 'L-Dīn Al-Maghribī (Muḥyi 'I-Milla Wa 'L-Dīn Yaḥyā Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abi 'I-Shukr Al-Maghribī' Al-Andalusī)". In Gillispie, Charles Coulston; Holmes, Frederic Lawrence (eds.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 9. New York: Scribner. OCLC755137603.
