Ibn al-Shater, a Damascene astronomer, preceded the Europeans by centuries in the celebration of the Syrian Cultural Days

Damascus-Sana

The Syrian Astronomical Society, in cooperation with the Al-Assad National Library, today held a symposium on the Damascene astronomer Ibn Al-Shater, which dealt with his most important manuscripts and scientific contributions within the activities of the celebration of the Syrian Cultural Days.

The symposium in which Dr. Muhammad Al-Asiri, Dr. Mukhtar Tantawi and Engineer Khaled Al-Ani participated, dealt with the achievements of Ibn Al-Shater and his astronomical instruments such as the sundial and the sundial found in the National Museum, which has a resemblance to the bride's minaret in the Umayyad Mosque, as well as what he left from manuscripts and scientific research that is still being studied today. In the world's major universities.

Regarding the symposium, Dr. Al-Asiri, President of the Syrian Astronomical Society, said in a statement to SANA, “Ibn al-Shater was chosen to be the focus of this symposium because he is a scientist whose counterpart appeared in the fourteenth century AD but did not take his right until in the twentieth century when manuscripts of this world were discovered in the house of the Polish astronomer Copernicus. Al-Arabi proved that he has a great reputation in space and astronomy.

As for Dr. Tantawi, he explained that Ibn Al-Shater, who lived, worked and died in Damascus, was called another astronomer by the West between Arabs and Muslims in the Arab civilization, stressing that there are many astronomers who came after him, including Muhammad al-Tantawi in the last century who restored the sundial of the bride's minaret in the mosque Umayyad, indicating that the Syrian Astronomical Society is striving to have its place locally and abroad to prove the status of Arab scientists in astronomy.

For his part, Eng. Al-Ani, a member of the Society’s Board of Directors, talked about the life of Ibn al-Shater, his writings and his scientific method, and his advance in astronomy. He was one of the astronomers of the Maragha School, which was founded by Nasr al-Din al-Tusi in western Iran in the 12th century, although he did not go to it and from him Copernicus took many theories He attributed it to himself, pointing out that the Vatican Library today contains several books by Ibn Al-Shater that have not been published.

It is noteworthy that Ibn al-Shater is Abu al-Hasan Alaa al-Din bin Ali al-Ansari, born in 1304 and died in 1375, and he is an astronomer and mathematician who spent most of his life in the timing function and presiding over the muezzins in the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and made a sundial to control the time of prayer. Ptolemy's theory that the Earth is the center of the solar system and published this in his book The End of the Question in Correcting Origins.

Mohammed Samir Tahan