ʿABD-AL-ʿALĪ B. MOḤAMMAD B. ḤOSAYN BĪRJANDĪ (or BARJANDĪ), NEẒĀM-AL-DĪN, productive Islamic astronomer, said to have died in 934/1527-28 (although the authority for this date is unclear). His surviving works are as follows: 1. Abʿad o aǰrām (“Distances and sizes of celestial bodies”); Persian, completed 930/1523-24. The title is not original. 2. Bīstbāb dar taqvīm (“Twenty chapters on the calendar”); Persian, completed 883/1478. There is a commentary by Moẓaffar b. Moḥammad Qāsem Jonābadī, which is dedicated to Shah ʿAbbās I (1588-1629) and was perhaps completed in 1005/1596-97. Published in Tehran, 1854-55. 3. Šarḥ taḥrīr al-maǰesṭī (“Commentary on the Taḥrīr al-Maǰesṭī” [of Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī]; Arabic, completed in 921/1515-16. 4. Šarḥ taḏkera (“Commentary on the Taḏkera” [of Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī]; Arabic. This work was translated into Sanskrit by Nayanasukhopādhyāya in 1729; see D. Pingree, Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit, Series A, IV (in press). 5. Šarḥ-e bīst bāb dar asṭorlāb (“Commentary on the Twenty chapters on the astrolabe” [of Naṣīr-al-dīn Ṭūsī]; Persian, completed in 899/1493-94. 6. Šarḥ-e zīǰ-e solṭānī (“Commentary on the Zīǰ-e solṭānī” [of Oloḡ Beg]; Persian. 7. Ḥāšīa ʿalā šarḥ al-molaḵḵaṣ (“Marginal notes to the Commentary [of Qāżīzāda] on the Compendium” [of Jaḡmīnī]; Arabic. 8. Šarḥ al-resālat al-šamsīya fi’l-ḥesāb (“Commentary on the Epistle to Šams concerning computation” [of Nīsābūrī]; Arabic. 9. Resāla-ye hayʾa (“Epistle on astronomy”); Persian. The attribution of this to Bīrǰandī is uncertain; see Storey, II/1, p. 82. Brockelmann (GAL S. I, p. 931) associates it with the commentary on the Taḏkera. 10. Moḵtaṣar fī bayān al-raṣād (“Summary on reports of observations”); Arabic. 11. Resāla fī ālāt al-raṣād (“Epistle on observational instruments”); Arabic. 12. Mašāreq al-ażwāʾ fī maʿrefat kammīyat mā bayna ṭolūʿ al-faǰr wa ṭolūʿ al-šams (“Rising-points of lights: concerning the knowledge of the difference between the rising of dawn and the rising of the sun”); Arabic. 13. Taḏkerat al-aḥbāb fī bayān al-taḥābb (“Memoir of friends: concerning the explanation of friendship [of numbers]”); Arabic.
Bīrǰandī also wrote some treatises on theology.
Bibliography:
Brockelmann, GAL S. I, pp. 865, 930-31; S. II, pp. 273, 591.
Storey, II/1, p. 54, 70-71, 80-81. Suter, Mathematiker, pp. 187-88 (no. 456).
(D. Pingree)
Originally Published: December 15, 1982
Last Updated: December 15, 1982
