The Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Beg

The Zīj-i-Ṣultānī, also known as the Zīj-i-Gurgānī, is one of the last great Islamic collections of astronomical tables. More than 200 copies, in Persian, Arabic and Turkish, are known to exist and the work was of great influence on late-Islamic astronomy.

According to the foreword the tables were compiled by Ulugh Beg himself with the help of Ghiyāth al-Dīn Jamshīd ibn Masʿūd al-Kāshī (d. 1429?) and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Qāḍī-zāda al-Rūmī (c. 1359-after 1440) and after their death by ʿAlā al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Qūshjī (c. 1402-1474/75).

The Zīj-i-Ṣultānī contains the following:

• Introduction:
1. Calendars
2. Spherical astronomy
3. The Sun, the Moon and the planets
4. The fixed stars
• Tables:
1. Chronological tables
2. Trigonometrical tables
3. Tables relating to spherical astronomy
4. Movements of the Sun, the Moon and the planets (from 1 AH to 1200 AH)
5. Lunar parallax and eclipses
6. First visibility of the lunar crescent
7. Geographical positions for 240 locations
8. Star catalogue (ecliptical coordinates and magnitudes for 1018 stars for the epoch 1 Muḥarram 841 AH [= 4 July 1437])
9. Astrological tables

Editions and Studies of the Zīj-i-Ṣultānī

• Greaves, John, Epochæ Celebriores, Astronomis, Historicis, Chronologis, Chataiorum, Syro-Græcorum, Arabum, Persarum, Chorasmiorum usitatæ ex traditione Ulug Beigi, Indie circa extráque Gangem Principis. Eas primus publicavit, recensuit, et commentariis illustravit (London: James Flesher(?), 1650) [??? link].
• Greaves, John, Binæ Tabulæ Geographicæ, una Nassir Eddini Persæ, altera Ulug Beigi Tartar (London: James Flesher(?), 1652) [??? link].
• Burckhardt, Johann Karl, “Aus mehreren Briefen ...”, Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden, 3 (1799), 179-183 [Internet Archive link].
• Burckhardt, Johann Karl, “Aus zwey Schreiben ...”, Allgemeine Geographische Ephemeriden, 4 (1799), 168-170 [Google Books link].
• Gauss, C.F., “Mittelpunktsgleichung nach Ulughbe in Zeittertien”, in: Carl Friedrich Gauss Werke: Zwölfter Band (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1929), pp. 64-68 [GDZ link].
• Gauss, C.F., “[Über die Konvergenz der Entwicklung der Mittelpunktsgleichung]”, Carl Friedrich Gauss Werke: ??? Band (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1917) [GDZ link].
• Ideler, Ludwig, “Über die Zeitrechnung von Chatâ und Igûr”, Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1832), Historisch-philologische Klasse, 271-299 [Google Books link] – on the Qitai and Uyghur calendars.
• Sédillot, Louis-Pierre-Eugène-Amélie, Tables astronomiques d’Oloug Beg, commentées et publiées avec le texte en regard: Tome I, 1 fascicule (Paris: ???, 1839).
• Sédillot, Louis-Pierre-Eugène-Amélie, Prolégomènes des tables astronomiques d’Oloug-Beg: Publiés avec notes et variantes, et précédés d’une introduction (Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot Frères, 1847) [??? link].
• Sédillot, Louis-Pierre-Eugène-Amélie, Prolégomènes des tables astronomiques d’Oloug-Beg: Traduction et commentaire (Paris: Typographie de Firmin Didot Frères, 1853) [Internet Archive link].
• Woepke, Franz, “Discussion de deux méthodes arabes pour détermines une valeur approchée de sin 1°”, Journal de mathématiques pures et appliquées, 19 (1854), 153-176 & 301-303 [??? link].
• Wright, Ramsay R., “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften: LXXVII. Über die Schrift “Astronomica quaedam” von Greaves. Mit einem Zusatz von Eilhard Wiedemann”, Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-medizinischen Sozietät zu Erlangen, 58/59 (1926/1927), 381-386 [check].
• Kennedy, Edward Stewart, “A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, 46 (1956), 123-177 [JSTOR link] – cf. 125-126 [nr. 12] & 166-167.
• Orbeli, R.R., “[Georgian Translation of Ulugh Begh’s “Zidzh”]”, Doklady Akademiia Nauk UzSSR, nr. 12 (1972), 3-4 [check] [ADS link].
• Khatipov, A.E.-A., “[On a Comment of al-Birdgandi to the Astronomical Tables of Ulugh Begh (Preliminary Communication)]”, Trudy Samarkandskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta imeni Ališera Navoi, Nov. Serija, nr. 229 (1972), 119 [check] [ADS link].
• Akhmedov, Ashraf Akhmedovič, Ulugbek Mukhammad Taragaĭ (1394-1449): “Zidzh”, Novye Guraganovy astronomicheskie tablitsy (Tashkent: “FAN”, 1994).
• Ahmad, Ashraf, Ilmi nujum: Ziji jadidi Kuragoniy tȯrtinchi kitobi (Tashkent: Abdulla Qodiriy Nomidagi Xalq Merosi Nashriyoti, 1994).
• Akhmedov, Ashraf Akhmedovič & Rosenfel’d, Boris A., “The Mathematical Treatise of Ulugh Beg”, in: E. İhsanoğlu & F. Günergun (eds.), Science in Islamic Civilisation. Proceedings of the International Symposia “Science Institutions in Islamic Civilisation” & “Science and Technology in the Turkish and Islamic World” (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art & Culture IRCICA, 2000 [= Studies and Sources on the History of Science Series, nr. 9]), pp. 143-150.
• Gautier, Antoine, “Le recueil de calendriers du prince timouride Ulug Beg (1394–1449)”, in: Le Bulletin, n° spécial Les calendriers, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, juin 2007, pp. 117-123 [check].
• Kaçar, Mustafa & Bir, Atilla, Uluğ Bey’in Astronomi Cetvelleri: Zic-i Uluğ Bey (Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2012), 2 vols.