Birjandi: ^ҁAbd al- ^ҁAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn al-Birjandi

Died 1525/1526

Birjandī, a pupil of Manṣūr ibn Mu^ҁīn al-Dīn al-Kāshī (who was a staff member of the Samarqand Observatory) and of Sayf al-Dīn Taftāzānī, was known for his numerous astronomical commentaries and supercommentaries. He wrote several commentaries on the works of Naṣīr al-Dīn al- Ṭūsī , including Ṭūsī’s al-Tadhkira fī^ҁilm al-hay’a, his Taḥrīr al-Majisṭī (recension of Ptolemy ’s Almagest), and Ṭūsī’s book on astrolabes. In the preface to the last book Birjandī mentions some tables of the positions of stars that he calculated for the year 853 Yazdigird (1484). In addition, Birjandī wrote a commentary on Kāshī ’s Zīj-i Khāqānī, which was Kāshī’s attempt to correct Ṭūsī’s Īlkhānī Zīj. Birjandī was also known for his commentary on the Zīj of Ulugh Beg (the last date provided in it being 929 H = 1,523) as well as for his supercommentary (ḥāshiya) on Qāḍīzāde ’s commentary (sharḥ) to Maḥmūd al- Jaghmīnī’s al-Mulakhkhaṣ fī^ҁilm al-hay’a al-basīṭa.

In addition to these commentaries,...