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Ahmad Al- Ferghani .
Abul Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Kazir al- Ferghani , the great astronomer, mathematician and geographer, is known in Europe under the name Alfraganus , and in the East - as Khasib , which means "mathematical". There is very little biographical information about him, and at present, his only " nisba " Fergani , indicates the fact that he was a native of the Ferghana Valley. But the scientific work of Al- Ferghani forever immortalized his name and brought him world fame.
Ahmad al- Ferghaniy was one of a constellation of scholars of the so-called "House of Wisdom" , an institution founded in the ninth century by Caliph Al- Ma'mun . This great center of science had another name - Al- Mamun Academy . First, in Mevre , after that in Baghdad, scientists from Khorezm, Fergana, Sogdiana, Shash , Farab, Khorasan, invited by him , continued scientific research. Two observatories were opened there, equipped with the best astronomical instruments for that era. Astronomers of the Al- Mamun Academy measured the circumference of the Earth, the length of the earth's meridian in degrees, observed the starry sky, compiled Zijras (tables), and wrote scientific papers. During his work in Egypt, he created his famous "Cairo measuring instrument of the Nile, the Nilometer " , which was a measuring instrument of the Nile waters, which has not lost its scientific value to this day. The nilometer began to be used during the construction of the Aswan Dam .
However , Ahmad al- Ferghani 's main work has been reduced to us in three titles: "The Book of Astronomical Movements, and a Summary of the Science of the Stars" , "Thirty Elements" , "Theoretical Calculations on the Sphere" ; these treatises are among the first works in Arabic on astronomy. The scientist gave in it a brief description of astronomy, mainly based on the work of the Alexandrian scholar Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) "The Great Mathematical System of Astronomy".
What is especially important is that at the end of the book, Al- Ferghani placed a table of known geographical points, placing them in accordance with seven climates from East to West, indicating coordinates. Thus, thanks to Ferghani , Westerners had an idea about the nature of astronomical research at the Mamun Academy . The great scientist of the East, Al- Fargani , not only "rechecked" the accuracy of Ptolemaeus 's data , determined more accurately and corrected many other astronomical data that had appeared before, but also, based on observations of celestial bodies, scientifically proved the sphericity of the Earth , predicted a solar eclipse of 812 year .
In the twelfth century the "Book of Astronomical Movements, and a summary of the science of the stars" was translated twice into Latin, in the 8th century into Castilian and old French. In 1669 Dutch Arab scholar and mathematician Jacob Golius introduced a new Latin translation. "The book of astronomical movements, and a brief summary of the science of the stars" was offered in the East and, especially in Europe, as an encyclopedia of astronomical knowledge.
great Italian poet Dante (1264-1321) was well acquainted with the book of Alfraganas. His greatest work, The Divine Comedy, owes much to Oriental sciences. The purgatory described in the comedy is placed by the author on a mountain in the western part of the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth. And Al- Fergani , while studying the arrangement of the stars, came to the conclusion that there was an unknown continent in the West, and he gave a description of the sky of that continent. Purgatory in The Divine Comedy is under identical stars.
Italian cartographer Amerigo Vispucci , who arrived at the end of the 15th century to "India", discovered by Columbus, said that in the south of the continent, he saw stars in the sky - those described by Dante. "We've arrived at Dante's Purgatory!" he exclaimed. The continent, unknown until this time, was called by its name. So our compatriot, the great scientist of the East Al- Ferghani prophesied the discovery of America.