User:Jigen III
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About me
[edit]Editing since 13 October 2004!
References for my convenience
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Current interests
[edit]Past interests
[edit]Architecture and its styles, Atlas of world history and other neat maps, Certainty, the European Union and the Eurozone (and other attempts at economic integration), Existentialism, Megaregions of the United States, Metrication in the United States, Military-related articles (e.g. Badges of the United States Navy, List of United States Army careers, Uniforms of the United States Military, United States Army branch insignia), Penny debate in the United States, Philosophy (aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, metaphysics), Psychology, Sociology, and Unit Load Device
The Book of Fixed Stars (Arabic: كتاب صور الكواكب kitāb suwar al-kawākib, literally The Book of the Shapes of Stars) is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964. Following the Graeco-Arabic translation movement in the 9th century AD, the book was written in Arabic, the common language for scholars across the vast Islamic territories, although the author himself was Persian. It was an attempt to create a synthesis of the comprehensive star catalogue in Ptolemy's Almagest (books VII and VIII) with the indigenous Arabic astronomical traditions on the constellations (notably the Arabic constellation system of the Anwā'). The original manuscript no longer survives as an autograph, however, the Book of Stars has survived in later-made copies. This image from the book shows the constellation of Orion, in mirror image as if on a celestial globe, and is from a copy in the Bodleian Library dated to the 12th century AD.Ilustration credit: Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi