On the facade of the Bukhara Madrasa is quoted the Prophet’s famous hadith:
It is the duty of every true Muslim, man and woman, to strive after knowledge.
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
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