Ibn as-Saffar

Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn as-Saffar al‐Andalusi (born in Cordoba, died in the year 1035 at Denia), also known as Ibn as-Saffar (Arabic: ابن الصَّفَّار, literally: son of the brass worker), was a Spanish-Arab^[1] astronomer in Al-Andalus. He worked at the school founded by his colleague Al-Majriti in Córdoba. His best-known work was a treatise on the astrolabe, a text that was in active use until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler. He also wrote a commentary on the Zij as-Sindhind, and measured the coordinates of Mecca.^[2]

Ibn as-Saffar later influenced the works of Abu as-Salt.

Paul Kunitzsch argued that a Latin treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Mashallah, and used by Chaucer to write A Treatise on the Astrolabe, is in fact written by Ibn as-Saffar.^[3][4]

The exoplanet Saffar, also known as Upsilon Andromedae b, is named in his honor.

Saffar Island in Antarctica is named after Ibn as-Saffar.

Notes

1. North, John (2008). Cosmos: An Illustrated History of Astronomy and Cosmology. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226594415.
2. Rius 2007.
3. Kunitzsch, Paul (1981). "On the authenticity of the treatise on the composition and use of the astrolabe ascribed to Messahalla". Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences Oxford. 31 (106): 42–62.
4. Selin, Helaine (2008-03-12). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 1335. ISBN 978-1-4020-4559-2. Paul Kunitzsch has recently established that the Latin treatise on the astrolabe long ascribed to Ma'sh'allah and translated by John of Seville is in fact by Ibn al-Saffar, a disciple of Maslama al-Majriti.

References

• Rius, Mònica (2007). "Ibn al-Ṣaffār: Abū al-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-Ghāfiqī ibn al-Ṣaffār al-Andalusī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 566–7. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)