238 



THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



ben Geber Albatani, the last appellation indicat- 

 ing that he was born at Batan, a city of Mesopo- 

 tamia 38 . He was a Syrian prince, whose residence 

 was at Aracte or Racha in Mesopotamia ; a part 

 of his observations were made at Antioch. His 

 work still remains to us in Latin. " After having 

 read," he says, "the Syntaxis of Ptolemy, and 

 learnt the methods of calculation employed by the 

 Greeks, his observations led him to conceive that 

 some improvements might be made in their re- 

 sults. He found it necessary to add to Ptolemy's 

 observations, as Ptolemy had added to those of 

 Abrachis" (Hipparchus). He then published Tables 

 of the motions of the sun, moon, and planets, 

 which long maintained a high reputation. 



These, however, did not prevent the publication 

 of others. Under the Caliph Hakem (about A.D. 

 1000,) Ebon lounis published Tables of the Sun, 

 Moon, and Planets, which were hence called the 

 Hakemite Tables. Not long after, Arzachel of 

 Toledo published the Toletan Tables. In the 13th 

 century, Nasir Eddin published Tables of the Stars, 

 dedicated to Ilchan, a Tartar prince, and hence 

 termed the Hchanic Tables. Two centuries later, 

 Ulugh Beigh, the grandson of Tamerlane, and prince 

 of the countries beyond the Oxus, was a zealous 

 practical astronomer; and his Tables, which were 

 published in Europe by Hyde in 1665, are referred 

 to as important authority by modern astronomers. 

 M Del., Astronomic du Moyen Age, 4. 



