Talk:Al-Battani/Archive 1

Arabic title removed
I recently corrected the title of al-Battani's zij following Kennedy's authoritative study. In doing so I removed the Arabic version of the title formerly given. It would help if anyone knowing Arabic could provide proper Arabic text for the title given. --SteveMcCluskey 19:39, 8 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think the title in Arabic is necesary, as long as a strict transliteration is used. Those are usualy given in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography of Sezgin's Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums. I can look it up this week. —Ruud 10:38, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Something is wrong
Hello I think, this formula
 * $$\sin a = \frac{a}{\sqrt{1 + a^2}}$$

is wrong.

The good version is this one (4 September 2005)

or this one :
 * He also solved the equation sin x = a cos x discovering the formula:


 * $$\sin x =a \cos x \Leftrightarrow \sin x = \frac{a}{\sqrt{1 + a^2}}$$

HB


 * of course, I correct the article Drirpeter (talk) 20:26, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Death place
Did he die in Damascus, or near Samarra? AnonMoos (talk) 07:55, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Near Samarra according to Hartner. Removed the Damascus claim for now. Alwiqi (talk) 20:25, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Observations?
This is dubious:


 * Some of his measurements were even much more accurate than ones taken by Copernicus many centuries later.

C wasn't a great observer. That was Tycho Brahe. "used by C" might make more sense William M. Connolley (talk) 22:08, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 August 2020 and 20 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Roro1022.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 13:43, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

He was a Muslim
Apart from his name, which contains ALLAH and MUHAMMAD, the text of his book "Azzij" is available in Arabic at www.alwaraq.com. The book contains multiple quotes from the Quran and Hadith in addition to the usual Shahadah at the start of chapter 1. These distinctive writing features unequivocally affirm that he was Muslim. --Alwiqi (talk) 03:26, 8 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Nonsense He was a sabian.--Astriolok 01:49, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Al-Battani's epithet aṣ-Ṣābiʾ denotes he was, at the very least, of Sabian or likely Sabian-Mandaean ancestry. Mcvti (talk) 18:35, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Pushing the Syrian agenda
Recent edits, clearly by non-native speakers, have been pushing something of a Syrian agenda, but they are not supported by reliable sources. There is no such thing as "natural Syria" -- Syria is a cultural construct, and the territory involved is now part of a different country. Al-Battani's native language might well have been Syriac, but he wrote in Arabic, and those works are why he is notable. Syriac is therefore irrelevant, and again, unsupported. -- Elphion (talk) 21:38, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Al-Battani's epithet aṣ-Ṣābiʾ shows he was of Sabian or Sabian-Mandaean ancestry. Sabian's are considered a Mesopotamian rather than a Syrian religion. Mcvti (talk) 18:38, 13 May 2022 (UTC)

Annular eclipses
... when the Sun is farthest from the Earth, an annular solar eclipse occurs. (in the section Astronomy). This is incorrect. Annular eclipses occur when the Moon is farthest from the Earth (therefore smaller in apparent diameter), or (less often) when the Sun is closest to the Earth (therefore larger in apparent diameter). I haven't corrected the article, as I don't know which conclusion al-Battani reached, but it surely is not the one currently in the article. -- Elphion (talk) 02:38, 2 August 2022 (UTC)