ASTRONOMER

Abd al Rahman

Astronomy or the study of the universe is pretty amazing because it helps us learn more about the universe that welive in. There is so much to discover and we haven't figured out that much of the universe yet but our Muslim brother Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi helped discover a lot and changed how we look at the stars forever. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was born in903 AD in Iran and lived in the course of Emir Adud ad-Daula. Al Sufi was one of the nine famous Muslim astronomers of the past and is listed as one of the most influential astronomers of the Middle Ages Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi dedicated hislife studying the stars and the universe the ancient Greeks of the past made their predictions and discoveries but a lot of those discoveries and predictions were wrong.

Al Sufi corrected those wrong discoveries and predictions and wrote them in his great book called The Book of Fixed Stars that was published in964. In that book Al Sufi recorded more than a thousand stars and recorded their positions. He's put all of those stars into 48 constellations or groups. Al Sufialso listed the colors of those stars and estimated the brightness and the size of each star. He also identified the Large Magellanic Cloud which is a galaxy that can be seen from parts of Yemen, something the Europeans didn't figureout until the 16th century.  

Al Sufi also identified the Andromeda galaxy which is also known as the small cloud. these galaxies were actually the first galaxies to be observed from Earth besides the Milky Way galaxy which isthe galaxy that we live in. Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi discovered a lot more things like calculating the length of the tropical year and some other things that completely changed how we see our universe. A lot of the astronomicalworks that came after him was discovered all because of our great Muslim brotherAbd al-Rahman al-Sufi may Allah give him the highest place in Jannah, Ameen