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Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq (Arabic: يعقوب بن طارق; referred to by some sources as Yaʿqūb; died c. 796) was an 8th-century Persian astronomer and mathematician who lived in Baghdad.

Career

Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq was active in Baghdad as an astronomer during the rule of the second Abbasid caliph, al-Manṣūr (r. 754–775). He seems not to have been aware of Ptolemaic astronomy, and used a Zoroastrian calendar, which consisted of 12 months of 30 days each, with any remaining days being added after the eighth month, Ābān.

Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq's treatise Tarkīb al‐aflāk dealt with cosmography (the placement and sizes of the heavenly bodies). The estimations of their sizes and distances in Tarkīb al‐aflāk were tabulated in the 11th century by the polymath al-Bīrūnī, in his work on India. According to al-Bīrūnī, Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq gave the radius of the Earth as 1,050 farsakhs, the diameter of the Moon and Mercury as 5,000 farsakhs (4.8 Earth radii), and the diameter of the other heavenly bodies (Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) as 20,000 farsakhs (19.0 Earth radii). He wrote that each of the planets had six associated spheres, that the Sun possessed two spheres, and the Moon three. He also spoke of planetary epicycles and speeds. His values for the longitudes and apogees of celestial objects originated from a Persian set of astronomical tables, the Zīǧ aš-šāh written by Yazdegerd III, although he used methods originating from the work of Indian astronomers to calculate the lunar phases.

The Christian astrologer Ibn Hibintā mentioned Yaʿqūb, noting that he used the positions of the Sun and the stars to determine the latitude of places.

Works

Works ascribed to Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq include:

• Zīj maḥlūl fī al‐Sindhind li‐daraja daraja ("Astronomical Tables in the 'Sindhind' Resolved for each Degree");
• Tarkīb al‐aflāk ("Arrangement of the Orbs"). Part of this work, the earliest surviving description of the celestial sky by an Islamic astronomer, is preserved by Ibn Hibintā.
• Kitāb al‐ʿilal ("Rationales");
• Taqṭīʿ kardajāt al‐jayb ("Distribution of the Kardajas of the Sine");
• Mā irtafaʿa min qaws niṣf al‐nahār ("Elevation along the Arc of the Meridian").

An astrological work, Al‐maqālāt ("The Chapters"), is ascribed to Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq by an unreliable source.

Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq's zij, written in around 770, was based on a Sanskrit work, thought to be similar to the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta. It was brought to the court of al-Mansūr, the third caliph of the Fatimid Caliphate, from Sindh, reportedly by the Sindhi astronomer Kankah.

References

1. ^ Sezgin 2021, p. 125.
2. ^ Sezgin 2021, p. 124.
3. Hawting, G.R. "al-Manṣūr". Britannica Online. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
4. ^ Plofker 2007, pp. 1250–1251.
5. Pingree 1976, pp. 106–107.
6. Sezgin 2021, p. 126.
7. Sezgin 2021, p. 127.
8. Sezgin 2021, pp. 126–127.
9. Pingree 1976, p. 97.
10. Kennedy 1956, p. 12.

Sources

• Kennedy, Edward Stewart (1956). "A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 46 (2). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: American Philosophical Society: 123–177. doi:10.2307/1005726. hdl:2027/mdp.39076006359272. ISSN 0065-9746. JSTOR 1005726.
• Pingree, David (1976). "Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq". In Gillispie, Charles Coulston (ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 14. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-684-16962-0.
• Plofker, Kim (2007). "Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)
• Sezgin, Fuat (2021). "III. Arab Astronomers". Sezgin Online. doi:10.1163/2667-3975_SEZO_COM_603. Retrieved 8 May 2023.

Further reading

• Hogendijk, Jan P. (1988). "New Light on the Lunar Crescent Visibility Table of Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 47 (2): 95–104. doi:10.1086/373260. JSTOR 544381. S2CID 162371303.
• Kennedy, E. S. (1968). "The Lunar Visibility Theory of Yaʿqūb Ibn Ṭāriq". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 27 (2): 126–132. doi:10.1086/371945. JSTOR 543759. S2CID 162369374.
• Pingree, David (1968). "The Fragments of the Works of Yaʿqūb Ibn Ṭāriq". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 27 (2): 97–125. doi:10.1086/371944. JSTOR 543758. S2CID 68584137.
• Steinschneider, Moritz (1870). "Zur Geschichte der Uebersetzungen aus dem Indischen in's Arabische und ihres Einflusses aus die arabische Literatur". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 24: 332.
• Suter, Heinrich (1900). Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (in German). Leipzig: Teubner. p. 4. OCLC 230703086.

v t e Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world
Mathematicians	9th century 'Abd al-Hamīd ibn Turk Sanad ibn Ali al-Jawharī Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf Al-Kindi Qusta ibn Luqa Al-Mahani al-Dinawari Banū Mūsā brothers Hunayn ibn Ishaq Al-Khwarizmi Yusuf al-Khuri Ishaq ibn Hunayn Na'im ibn Musa Thābit ibn Qurra al-Marwazi Abu Said Gorgani 10th century Abu al-Wafa al-Khazin Al-Qabisi Abu Kamil Ahmad ibn Yusuf Aṣ-Ṣaidanānī Sinān ibn al-Fatḥ al-Khojandi Al-Nayrizi Al-Saghani Brethren of Purity Ibn Sahl Ibn Yunus al-Uqlidisi Al-Battani Sinan ibn Thabit Ibrahim ibn Sinan Al-Isfahani Nazif ibn Yumn al-Qūhī Abu al-Jud Al-Sijzi Al-Karaji al-Majriti al-Jabali 11th century Abu Nasr Mansur Alhazen Kushyar Gilani Al-Biruni Ibn al-Samh Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi Avicenna al-Jayyānī al-Nasawī al-Zarqālī ibn Hud Al-Isfizari Omar Khayyam Muhammad al-Baghdadi 12th century Jabir ibn Aflah Al-Kharaqī Al-Khazini Al-Samawal al-Maghribi al-Hassar Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi Ibn al-Yasamin 13th century Ibn al‐Ha'im al‐Ishbili Ahmad al-Buni Ibn Munim Alam al-Din al-Hanafi Ibn Adlan al-Urdi Nasir al-Din al-Tusi al-Abhari Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi al-Hasan al-Marrakushi Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi Ibn al-Banna' Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī 14th century Nizam al-Din al-Nisapuri Ibn al-Shatir Ibn al-Durayhim Al-Khalili al-Umawi 15th century Ibn al-Majdi al-Rūmī al-Kāshī Ulugh Beg Ali Qushji al-Wafa'i al-Qalaṣādī Sibt al-Maridini Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi 16th century Al-Birjandi Muhammad Baqir Yazdi Taqi ad-Din Ibn Hamza al-Maghribi
Mathematical works	The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing De Gradibus Principles of Hindu Reckoning Book of Optics The Book of Healing Book on the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity Toledan Tables Tabula Rogeriana Zij
Concepts	Alhazen's problem Islamic geometric patterns
Centers	Al-Azhar University Al-Mustansiriya University House of Knowledge House of Wisdom Constantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Din Madrasa Maragheh observatory University of al-Qarawiyyin
Influences	Babylonian mathematics Greek mathematics Indian mathematics
Influenced	Byzantine mathematics European mathematics Indian mathematics
Related	Hindu–Arabic numeral system Arabic numerals (Eastern Arabic numerals, Western Arabic numerals) Trigonometric functions History of trigonometry History of algebra

• 796 deaths
• 8th-century Iranian mathematicians
• Astronomers from the Abbasid Caliphate
• People from Baghdad
• Medieval Iranian astrologers
• 8th-century Iranian astronomers
• 8th-century Arabic-language writers
• 8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate