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Taqi al-Din Biography: Taqī al-Dīn was born in Damascus and lived from 1526 - 1585. He got an education in theology and as he went on he would gain an interest in the rational sciences. Following his interest he would begin to study the rational sciences alongside Damascus and Cairo. Not only did he study with them, he also studied with his father Maʿruf Efendi. Taqī al-Dīn went on to work as a teacher. He taught at various madaris and served as a qadi, or judge, in Palestine, Damascus, and Cairo. Taqī al-dīn stayed in Egypt and Damascus for some time and while he was there he would created work in astronomy and mathematics. The work he created in these categories would eventually become important. He became chief astronomer in 1571 which was a year after he came to Istanbul in 1570. Taqī al-Dīn maintained a strong bond with the people from Ulama and the statesmen. Taqī al-Dīn would pass on information to Sultan Murad who also had an interest in astronomy but also had an interest for astrology. The information stated that Ulugh Bey Zij had particular observational errors. These errors came from calculations made on the basis of the tables created in the observations. Taqī al-Dīn made a suggestions that those errors could be fixed if there were new observations made. He also suggested that an observatory should be created in Istanbul to make that situation easier. Sultan Murad would become a patron of the first observatory in Istanbul. He preferred that construction for the new observatory begin immediately. Since Sultan Murad was a patron he would assist with finances for the project. Taqī al-Dīn would go on to continue his studies at the Galata Tower while this was going on. His studies would continue at the nearly complete observatory Dar al-Rasad al-Jadid until 1577 and it took place at the almost complete new observatory which was called Dar al-Rasad al-Jadid. This new observatory contained a library that held books which covered astronomy and mathematics. The observatory was made of two separate buildings. One building was big and the other one was small. It was built in the higher part of Tophane in Istanbul. Taqī al-Dīn possessed some of the instruments used in the old Islamic observatories. He would go to have those instruments reproduced. On top of this, Taqī al-Dīn would create new instruments which would be used observational purposes during that time. The staff at the new observatory consisted of sixteen people. Eight of them were observers or rasids, four of them were clerks, and the last four were assistants. Taqī al-Dīn had the ability to go at his observations in an creative way and create new answers to astronomical problems due to the new strategies he created along with the new equipment he created as well. He would go on to create trigonometric tables based on decimal fractions. These tables placed the ecliptic degree as 23° 28’ 40”. The current value was 23° 27’ so Taqī al-Dīn was fairly close. To calculate solar parameters and to determine the magnitude of the annual movement of the sun’s apogee as 63 seconds, Taqī al-Dīn used a new method. The known value today is 61 seconds. Copernicus came up with 24 seconds and Tycho Brahe had 45 seconds but Taqī al-Dīn was more accurate. The main purpose behind the observatory was to cater to the needs of the astronomers and provide a library and workshop so the could design and produce instruments. This observatory would become one of the biggest ones in the Islamic world. It was complete in 1579. It would go on to run until January 22, 1580 which is when it was destroyed. Some say rReligious arguments was the reason why is was destroyed but it really came down to political problems. A report by the grand vizier Sinan Pasha to Sultan Murad III goes into how the Sultan and the vizier attempted to keep Taqī al-Dīn away from the ʿulamaʾ because it seemed like they wanted to take Taqī al-Dīn to trial for heresy. The vizier informs the sultan that Taqī al-Dīn wanted to go to Syria regardless of the sultan ordered. The vizier also warned the sultan that if Taqī al-Dīn goes there, there is a possibility that he will be noticed by the ʿulamaʾ they’ll take him to trial. Despite Taqī al-Dīn’s originality, his influence seemed to be limited. There are only a small number of surviving copies of his works so it wasn't able to reach a wide variety of people. His commentaries that are known are very few. However, one of his works and a piece of a library that he owned reached western Europe pretty fast due. This was due to the manuscript collecting efforts of Jacob Golius, a Dutch professor of Arabic and mathematics of Leiden University. Golius traveled to Istanbul in the early seventeenth century. In 1629 he wrote a letter to Constantijn Huygens that talks about seeing Taqī al-Dīn’s work on optics in Istanbul. He argued that he was not able to get ahold of it from his friends even after all his efforts. He must have succeeded in acquiring it later, since Taqī al-Dīn’s work on optics would eventually make it to the Bodleian Library as Marsh 119 was originally in the Golius collection so it is clear that Golius eventually succeeded at acquiring it.