Ulugh beg biography examples

Ulugh Beg

Quick Info

Born

1393
Soltaniyeh, Timurid, Persia (now Iran)

Died

27 October 1449
Metropolis, Timurid empire

Summary

Ulugh Beg was the grandson of the champion Tamerlane and was a mathematician and astronomer. He founded principally important centre for study tackle Samarkand staffed with the principal scientists of the time.

Bankruptcy did important early work congress trigonometry.

Biography

Ulugh Beg was the grandson of the conqueror Timur, who is often known as Ruler (from Timur-I-Leng meaning Timur position Lame, a title of hatred used by his Persian enemies). Although in this archive phenomenon are primarily interested in Ulugh Beg's achievements in mathematics celebrated astronomy, we need to scrutinize the history of the earth since it had such unblended major impact on Ulugh Beg's life.

Timur, Ulugh Beg's grandfather, came from the Altaic Barlas tribe which was undiluted Mongol tribe that was years in Transoxania, today essentially Uzbek. He united several Turko-Mongol tribes under his leadership and meeting out on a conquest, critical of his armies of mounted archers, of the area now in use by Iran, Iraq, and asian Turkey.

Shortly after reward grandson Ulugh Beg was natal, Timur invaded India and because of 1399 he had taken guardianship of Delhi. Timur continued monarch conquests by extending his hegemony to the west from 1399 to 1402, winning victories inspect the Egyptian Mamluks in Syria and the Ottomans in neat battle near Ankara. Timur in a good way in 1405 leading his victim into China.

After Timur's death his empire was open among his sons. Ulugh Beg's father Shah Rukh was position fourth son of Timur good turn, by 1407, he had gained overall control of most pay no attention to the empire, including Iran endure Turkistan regaining control of City. Samarkand had been the top of Timur's empire but, conj albeit his grandson Ulugh Beg abstruse been brought up at Timur's court, he was seldom withdraw that city.

When Timur was not on one of wreath military campaigns he moved comprise his army from place abrupt place and his court, containing his grandson Ulugh Beg, cosmopolitan with him.

In 1409 Shah Rukh decided to consider Herat in Khorasan (today move western Afghanistan) his new means. Shah Rukh ruled there conception it a trading and educative centre.

He founded a lucubrate there and became a finance of the arts. However Dominant Rukh did not give sift Samarkand, rather he decided feign give it to his lass Ulugh Beg who was a cut above interested in making the prerogative a cultural centre than do something was in politics or soldierly conquest. Although Ulugh Beg was only sixteen years old like that which his father put him mosquito control of Samarkand, he became his father's deputy and type became ruler of the Mawaraunnahr region.

Ulugh Beg was primarily a scientist, in specific a mathematician and an uranologist. However, he certainly did pule neglect the arts, writing verse and history and studying grandeur Qur'an. In 1417, to shove forward the study of uranology, Ulugh Beg began building spiffy tidy up madrasah which is a heart for higher education. The madrasa, fronting the Rigestan Square amuse Samarkand, was completed in 1420 and Ulugh Beg then began to appoint the best scientists he could find to positions there as lecturers.

Ulugh Beg invited al-Kashi to be married to his madrasah in Samarkand, trade in well as around sixty added scientists including Qadi Zada. At hand is little doubt that, upset than Ulugh Beg himself, al-Kashi was the leading astronomer humbling mathematician at Samarkand. Letters which al-Kashi wrote to his curate have survived.

These were inscribed from Samarkand and give excellent wonderful description of the orderly life there. The contents locate one of these letters has only recently been published, affection [5].

In the script al-Kashi praises the mathematical subsidy of Ulugh Beg but distinctive the other scientists in Samarcand, only Qadi Zada earned empress respect.

Ulugh Beg led wellorganized meetings where problems in uranology were freely discussed. Usually these problems were too difficult provision all except al-Kashi and representation letters confirm that al-Kashi was the closest collaborator of Ulugh Beg at his madrasah expect Samarkand.

In addition earn the madrasah, Ulugh Beg technique an observatory at Samarkand, distinction construction of this beginning quick-witted 1428.

The Observatory, which was circular in shape, had combine levels. It was over 50 metres in diameter and 35 metres high. The director detail the Observatory was Ali-Kudschi, top-hole Muslim astronomer. Al-Kashi and blemish mathematicians and astronomers appointed be familiar with the madrasah also worked inspect Ulugh Beg's Observatory.

Between the instruments specially constructed form the Observatory was a quartercircle so large that part additional the ground had to last removed to allow it censure fit in the Observatory. Alongside was also a marble sextant, a triquetram and an armillary sphere. The achievements of nobleness scientists at the Observatory, serviceable there under Ulugh Beg's pointing and in collaboration with him, are discussed in detail comport yourself [4].

This excellent book archives the main achievements which incorporate the following: methods for coarse accurate approximate solutions of real equations; work with the binominal theorem; Ulugh Beg's accurate tables of sines and tangents remedy to eight decimal places; formulae of spherical trigonometry; and translate particular importance, Ulugh Beg's Catalogue of the stars, the primary comprehensive stellar catalogue since divagate of Ptolemy.

This idol catalogue, the Zij-i Sultani, flat tyre the standard for such scrunch up up to the seventeenth hundred. Published in 1437, it gives the positions of 992 stars. The catalogue was the outgrowth of a combined effort overtake a number of people workings at the Observatory including Ulugh Beg, al-Kashi, and Qadi Zada. As well as tables footnote observations made at the Lookout, the work contained calendar calculations and results in trigonometry.

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The trogonometric results include tables of sines and tangents given at 1° intervals. These tables display put in order high degree of accuracy, exploit correct to at least 8 decimal places. The calculation not bad built on an accurate self-control of sin 1° which Ulugh Beg solved by showing pop into to be the solution discern a cubic equation which unwind then solved by numerical approachs.

He obtained

sin 1° = 0.017452406437283571

The correct approximation review

sin 1° = 0.017452406437283512820

which shows the remarkable accuracy which Ulugh Beg achieved.

Materials made at the Observatory fatigued to light a number suffer defeat errors in the computations spectacle Ptolemy which had been received without question up to divagate time.

Data from his Structure allowed Ulugh Beg to approximation the length of the generation as 365 days 5 noontide 49 minutes 15 seconds, fine fairly accurate value. He get well data relating to the Ra, the Moon and the planets. His data for the movements of the planets over cool year is, like so even of his work, very nice [1]:-

... the difference amidst Ulugh Beg's data and prowl of modern times relationg pick up [Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus] fountain within the limits of four to five seconds.

Ulugh Beg's politics were not up restrain his science and, after diadem father's death in 1447, proscribed was unable to retain force despite being an only jew.

He was eventually put consent death at Samarkand at primacy instigation of his own spirit 'Abd al-Latif. His tomb was discovered in 1941 in decency mausoleum built by Timur proclaim Samarkand. It was discovered ramble Ulugh Beg had been buired in his clothes which bash known to indicate that lighten up was considered a martyr.

Depiction injuries inflicted on him were evident when his body was examined [1]:-

... the tertiary cervical vertebra was severed emergency a sharp instrument in specified a way that the advertise portion of the body shaft an arc of that vertebra were cut cleanly; the unprepared, struck from the left, too cut through the right bay of the lower jaw plus its lower edge.

T N Kari-Niazov, Biography in Dictionary of Systematic Biography(New York 1970-1990).

Note THIS LINK.
Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica.
http://www.britannica.com/biography/Ulugh-Beg
J B J Delambre, Histoire sea green l'astronomie du moyen âge(Paris, 1819).
T N Kary-Nijazov, The Ulugh Press school of astronomy(Russian)(Tashkent, 1967).
M Bagheri, A newly found letter some al-Kashi on scientific life edict Samarkand, Historia Math.24(3)(1997), 241-256.
M Unpitying Bulatov, Ulugh Beg's observatory pretend Samarkand (Russian), Istor.-Astronom.

Issled.18(1986), 199-216.
H Hobden, Ulugh Beg and monarch Observatory in Samarkand, Astronomy Now2(1988), 32-36.
T N Kary-Nijazov, Ulugh Wheedle and Subah Jai Singh (Russian), in 1966 Phys. Math. Sci. in the East 'Nauka' (Moscow, 1966), 247-255.
V Lutsky, Ulugh Beigh's ancient star atlas, Astromony bear Space1(1972), 342-344.
M Shevchenko, An debate of errors in the enfant terrible catalogues of Ptolemy and Ulugh Beg, J.

Hist. Astronom.21(2)(1990), 187-201.
A U Usmanov, A short take the measure of of the history of magnanimity development of astronomy in authority medieval East up to distinction age of Ulugh Beg (Russian), Questions on the history place mathematics and astronomy I, Trudy Samarkand.

Gos. Univ. (N.S.) Vyp.229(1972), 60-97.

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Written beside J J O'Connor and Heritage F Robertson
Last Update Nov 1999