Abu Nasr Farobiy

Abu Nasr Farobiy

Abu Nasr Farobiy was a famous philosopher who had largely contributed to the world’s culture. He was born in 873 in Syrdarya, in Farab village.

He went to study to Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand to get education. He learned the Greek language and philosophy, medicine and logic there. Farobiy knew about seven languages.

Farobiy wrote more than 160 works. For instance “Substance”, “Sky Movements”, “Book about Law”, “Syllogism”, “Logic”, “Philosophy”, “Astrology”, “Music”, “Rhetoric”, “Poem and Rhyme” and “Parts of Human Body” are among them. These works were dedicated to philosophy, astronomy, logic, arithmetic, geometry, physics, chemis-try, biology, medicine, poetry, linguistics, ethics and even to subjects as music.

Farobiy worked out his own doctrine on the existence of universe. Farobiy logical thinking had helped to develop logical thoughts. Yet he founded the doctrine about ruling the country. It tells us that he was a leading politician of his time.

Farobiy was also known as a great musician by his work “The book of music”. Many scholars of Europe have learnt his heritage with diligence. Today there are streets, schools and libraries named after him in Uzbekistan.

Abu Raykhon Beruniy

He was born in the city of Kot (the medieval city located 2,5 km north of present city of Beruniy), the ancient capital of present Khorezm province.

From the childhood he was strongly interested in science. In Urgench he received education from his master Abu Nasr Mansur ibn Irok, He had deep knowledge almost in all science pieces of his time like astronomy, physics, mathematics, geodesy, geology, mineralogy, history and so on. For many years he lived in the city Juijon (the medieval city located in the north of Iran) as an emigrant.

There he met with his second teacher Abu Sakhl Iso al-Masihiy and took lessons from him. The book that made Beruniy well-known all over the world “Relics from ancestors” was written in this period.

Later Abu Raykhon Beruniy was asked to come to Urgench by its new governor Abu Abbos Mamun ibn Mamun. There he took an activity in “Mamun academy” which was established at those times under Mamun’s own control.

In 1017 the governor of Gazna was able to conquer Khorezm and all members of Mamun academy were taken to Gazna city. His life there was very hard though his scientific activity at this period was very productive. His works “India”, “Famous people of Khorezm”, and “Initial concepts of soothsaying art” were written in this place.

Abu Raykhon Beruniy left us great scientific heritage. About 154 scientific works on astronomy, geography, mathematics and history were created under his pen. For example in “India”, the author gave information about the geography and mythological imagination of the population of India. And in “Relics from ancestors” he wrote about the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Khorezmids, the Christians and the Jews. Traditions and beliefs of the Arabs before their converting to Islam are described in it as well.

Beruniy died in 1048 in Gazna. Beruniy had made a great contribution by his scientific and philosophic legacy to the world’s science and culture.

Mirzo Ulugbek

Mirzo Ulugbek, the grandson of Amir Temur was bom in March 1394 in Sultany, Iran.

From his childhood he was interested in science, though he was mainly given military political training. But he was grown up under the influence of astronomers and mathematicians. And at the age of 17 he was appointed the governor of Movarounnahr by his father Shakhrukh Mirzo.

Later he deeply acquired such subjects as Arabic, logic, mathematics, astronomy and built his own school of astronomy between 1417-1420 in Samarkand. By 1429 he had finished building his observatory. These efforts enabled the sciences as astronomy and mathematics to develop in the region.

Mirzo Ulugbek wrote 4 works which were of great importance from scientific point of view. They are “Zij” (the astronomic work in Islamic world and consisted of timetables), “Bir daraja sinusini aniqlash” (to define the first power of sinus), “Risolai Ulug‘bek” (the scientific work of Ulugbek) and “To‘rt ulusi tarixi” (the history of four appanages). “Zij” is the most important and famous of them. It’s devoted to problems of chronology, epochs, mathematics, time and mainly to astronomy. It was the perfect scientific work of the medieval time and was used by many European scientists. The “Zij” of Ulugbek is widely spread in Turkey, India and some other European countries.

In 1994, by the decree of the president of Uzbekistan, the 600th anniversary of Mirzo Ulugbek was broadly celebrated.