Zij al-Sindhind

Zīj al-Sindhind (Arabic: Zīj al‐Sindhind al‐kabīr, lit. "Great astronomical tables of the Sindhind"; from Sanskrit siddhānta, "system" or "treatise") is an Indian work of zij (astronomical handbook with tables used to calculate celestial positions) brought in the early 770s AD to the court of Caliph al-Mansur in Baghdad. Al-Mansur requested an Arabic translation of this work from the Sanskrit. The 8th-century astronomer and translator Muhammad al-Fazari is known to have contributed to this translation.

Content

This is the first of many Arabic Zij's based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the Sindhind. The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. It consists of approximately 37 chapters on calendar and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendar, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values.

References

• (PDF version)