| Revision as of 22:09, 5 June 2006 editJohnstevens5 (talk | contribs)458 editsNo edit summary← Previous edit | Revision as of 22:19, 5 June 2006 edit undoHajji Piruz (talk | contribs)7,045 edits Reverting to Tajik, read the Britannica links he provided: Ulugh Beg's mother was PERSIAN and his father was TURKIC, neither of them were TURKISH. Turkish means citizen of Turkey!Next edit → | ||
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| :''This is a sub-article to ], ] and ]. | :''This is a sub-article to ], ] and ]. | ||
| '''Ulugh ]''' (] or ] in ] (]) – ], ]) was a |
'''Ulugh ]''' (] or ] in ] (]) – ], ]) was a ] ruler (] - 1449) and also ], ] and ]. His name also appears as ''Uluğ ]'', ''Ulugh Bek'' and ''Ulug Bek''. The name is not truly a personal name, but rather a moniker, which can be loosely translated as ''Great Ruler'' or ''Patriach Ruler''. His real name was ''Mīrzā Mohammad Taragai bin Shāhrukh''. | ||
| He was the grandson of the conqueror ] the Lame (]-]) and oldest son of ], both of whom came from the ] Barlas tribe of ] (then ], now ]). His mother was the ] noble ]. Ulugh Beg was born in ] in ]. As a child he wandered through a substantial chunk of the ] and ] as his grandfather expanded his conquests in those areas. With Timur's death, however, and the accession of Ulugh's father to much of the ], he settled in ] which had been Timur's capital. After Shah Rukh moved the capital to ] (in modern ]), sixteen year-old Ulugh Beg became the shah's governor in ] in ]. In ] he became a sovereign of the whole ] ]. | He was the grandson of the conqueror ] the Lame (]-]) and oldest son of ], both of whom came from the ] Barlas tribe of ] (then ], now ]). His mother was the ] noble ]. Ulugh Beg was born in ] in ]. As a child he wandered through a substantial chunk of the ] and ] as his grandfather expanded his conquests in those areas. With Timur's death, however, and the accession of Ulugh's father to much of the ], he settled in ] which had been Timur's capital. After Shah Rukh moved the capital to ] (in modern ]), sixteen year-old Ulugh Beg became the shah's governor in ] in ]. In ] he became a sovereign of the whole ] ]. | ||
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| ==References== | ==References== | ||
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| '''Muhammad Taraghay ibn Sharuh''' simply known as '''Ulughbek''' (]–]) was a well-known ] ] sovereign and astronomist, who lived and reigned in what now is the territory of ], ] and ]. | |||
| Ulughbek was born in ] to the Prince Shahrukh, one of the four sons of the great warlord Amir ] nicknamed the Lame. | |||
| During his childhood, enjoying guardianship of most famous scholars of the Orient of his time, he showed great interest and abilities in natural sciences, especially in astrology. | |||
| After his grandfather Temur's death, the famous warlord's offspring began the battle for his empire. Shahrukh emerged victorious of the battle most of other pretenders having been killed. Shahrukh appointed his son amir (governor) of Mawara-un-nahr (] in European terminology) with the capital in ]. | |||
| Unlike most Temurid princes, Ulughbek did not see further conquests of the neighboring territories as a priority, emphasizing establishment and maintenance of internal peace and stability. | |||
| Regardless of his efforts in preserving his country's unity, Ulughbek could not prevent plots arranged by his sons ] and Abd-al-Aziz and other closest relatives and clergymen. These plots would ultimately prove to be lethal for both the remains of once powerful Timurid empire and Ulughbek himself. | |||
| The situation in the empire even aggravated after the Emir Shahrukh's death in 1447. | |||
| The islamic clergy and Ulughbek's closest surrounding was resentful of the relatively liberal religious and social policy rendered by their sovereign. They began instigating riots to overthrown Ulughbek in Abd-al-Latif's favor with Ulughbek in his turn severely suppressing them thus causing much controversy in the Muslim world. | |||
| According to a famous version, being tired of all these politics and understanding that he was a man of science rather than throne Ulughbek decided to abdicate in his son Abd-al-Latif's favour. But his abdication was not sufficient for his enemies and they decided to kill him. Ulughbek was assassinated and beheaded by a group of religious fanatics led by Abbas, a son of one of clergymen executed by Ulughbek's order. | |||
| Ulughbek's contribution to the science of astronomy cannot be overestimated. In 1428 he guided and sponsored construction of an observatory, one of the most precise and technologically advanced of the world at that time. This observatory however was destroyed shortly after Ulughbek's ]. | |||
| Ulughbek also contributed a lot to the general religious and secular education by constructing medressehs in both Samarqand and ]. | |||
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Revision as of 22:19, 5 June 2006
- This is a sub-article to Muslim astronomers, Muslim mathematicians and Muslim leaders.
Ulugh Beg (1393 or 1394 in Sultaniyeh (Persia) – October 27, 1449) was a Timurid ruler (1447 - 1449) and also astronomer, mathematician and sultan. His name also appears as Uluğ Bey, Ulugh Bek and Ulug Bek. The name is not truly a personal name, but rather a moniker, which can be loosely translated as Great Ruler or Patriach Ruler. His real name was Mīrzā Mohammad Taragai bin Shāhrukh.
He was the grandson of the conqueror Timur the Lame (1336-1405) and oldest son of Shah Rukh, both of whom came from the Mongol Barlas tribe of Transoxiana (then Persia, now Uzbekistan). His mother was the Persian noble Goharshad. Ulugh Beg was born in Sultaniyeh in Iran. As a child he wandered through a substantial chunk of the Middle East and India as his grandfather expanded his conquests in those areas. With Timur's death, however, and the accession of Ulugh's father to much of the Timurid Empire, he settled in Samarkand which had been Timur's capital. After Shah Rukh moved the capital to Herat (in modern Afghanistan), sixteen year-old Ulugh Beg became the shah's governor in Samarkand in 1409. In 1411 he became a sovereign of the whole Mavarannahr khanate.
The teenaged ruler set out to turn the city into an intellectual center for the empire. In 1417 - 1420 he built a madrasa ("university" or "institute") on Registan Square in Samarkand, and invited numerous Islamic astronomers and mathematicians to study there. Ulugh Beg's most famous pupil in mathematics was Ghiyath al-Kashi (circa 1370 - 1429).
His own particular interests concentrated on astronomy, and in 1428 he built an enormous observatory, called the Gurkhani Zij, similar to Tycho Brahe's later Uraniborg. Lacking telescopes to work with, he increased his accuracy by increasing the length of his sextant; the so-called Fakhri Sextant had a radius of circa 36 meters and the optical separability of 180" (seconds of arc). Using it he compiled the 1437 Zij-i Sultani of 994 stars, generally considered the greatest of star catalogues between those of Ptolemy and Brahe. The serious errors which he found in the Arabian star catalogues (the authors had simply copied from Ptolemy, adding the effect of precession to the longitudes) induced him to redetermine the positions of 992 fixed stars, to which he added 27 stars from Al Sufi's catalogue from 964, which were too far south for observation from Samarkand. This catalogue, the first original one since Ptolemy, was edited by Thomas Hyde at Oxford in 1665 (Tabulae longitudinis et latitudinis stellarum fixarum ex observatione Ulugbeighi), by G. Sharpe in 1767, and in 1843 by Francis Baily in vol. xiii. of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In 1437 Ulugh Beg determined the length of the sidereal year as 365.2570370... = 365 6 10 8 (an error +58). In his measurements within many years he used a 50 m high gnomon. This value was improved by 28 88 years later in 1525 by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), who appealed to the estimation of Thabit ibn Qurra (826-901), which was accurate to +2.
Ulugh Beg was also notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics, such as trigonometry and spherical geometry.
Unfortunately Ulugh was not much of a great administrator as he was a great scientist. He lost some battles to rival kingdoms, and in 1448 massacred the people of Herat after defeating Mirza Ala-u-dowleh son of Bai sunqur. Within two years he was beheaded by his own eldest son, 'Abd al-Latif, while on his way to Mecca. Eventually, however, he was rehabilitated by his relative Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire, who placed Ulugh Beg's remains in the tomb of Timur in Samarkand, found by archeologists in 1941.
In honour of his achievements, Ulugh Beigh crater on the Moon has been named for him, the spelling used by the German astronomer Johann Heinrich von Mädler (1794-1874) who proposed the name in his 1830 map of the Moon.
See also
External links
- The observatory and memorial museum of Ulugbek
- Bukhara Ulugbek Madrasah
- Registan the heart of ancient Samarkand.
- Biography by School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
| Preceded by: Shah Rukh |
Timurid Dynasty | Succeeded by: 'Abd al-Latif |
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
