Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Nahawandi (Persian: احمد نهاوندى), also called al-Nahawandi, was an 8th/9th century Persian astronomer. His name indicates that he was from Nahavand, now in modern Iran.

Life[edit]

Al-Nahawandi lived and worked at the Academy of Gundishapur, in Khuzestan, Iran, at the time of Yahya ibn Khalid ibn Barmak, the provincial governor and all-powerful long-time vizier to Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Al-Nahawandi is reported to have been making astronomical observations at the academy in around 800.^[1] He and the astronomer and mathematician Mashallah ibn Athari were among the earliest Islamic era astronomers who flourished during the reign of al-Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph.^{[citation needed]}

Works[edit]

Al-Nahawandi compiled zijes (astronomical tables) under the title Mushtamil.^[2]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

• Frye, Richard Nelson (2000). The Golden Age of Persia. London: Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1-84212-011-8.
• Suter, Heinrich (1900). Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (in German). Leipzig: Teubner. p. 10. OCLC 230703086.

Further reading[edit]

• Johnson, M.C. (1936). "Manuscripts of the Bagdad Astronomers, 760-1000 AD". The Observatory. 59: 215–226. Bibcode:1936Obs....59..215J. (p.221)
• Rosenfeld, B. A.; Ekmeleddin, Ihsanoğlu (2003). Mathematicians, Astronomers, and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilization and Their Works (7th–19th c.). Series of Studies and Sources on (the) History of Science. Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA). ISBN 92-9063-127-9.