Ulugh Beg built three madrasas in Uzbekistan. I visited two of them and his observatory and found a new hero.
Ulugh Beg was an astronomer, scientest and mathematician.
His position as ruler of Samarqand, I suspect, was second in his mind to being a teacher and astronomer.

when he opened the Samarqand Madrasa built between 1417 and 1421 , Ulugh Beg invited al-Kashi (1380-1429) to join it along with around sixty other scientists including Qadi Zada (1364 – 1436)
Al-Kashi was born in Kashan and was a mathematician who published some important teaching works and anticipated Stevin’s work on decimals.
Qadi Zada was a mathematician who wrote a number of commentaries of works on mathematics and astronomy.

al-Kashi along with Ulugh Beg were the leading astronomers and mathematicians at Samarqand.
Letters which al-Kashi wrote to his father have survived. These were written from Samarqand and give a wonderful description of the scientific life there.

al-Kashi’s letter describe that Ulugh Beg led scientific meetings where problems in astronomy were freely discussed.
Usually these problems were too difficult for all except al-Kashi and the letters confirm that al-Kashi was the closest collaborator of Ulugh Beg at his madrasa in Samarqand.

Image 1,2
ulugh beg bukhara[/capti- Ulugh Beg’s madrasa in Bukhara

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book recommendation: Lost Enlightenment by Frederick Starr

#samarqand #samarkand #bukhara #ulughbeg #madrasas #uzbekistan #astronomy #mathematics #mathematician #astronomer #science #educationalinstitutions #education #silkroute #centralasia

The painting is modelled on the European depiction of the birth of the Virgin btw. An example of European influence on Mughal painting. The colours may not be original in the picture.

This one is from Ashok Das’ volume, basically B/W pic of the painting and coloured over #RamNavami