Bīrūnī's Treatises on the Astrolabe published by Pouyan Rezvani
Pouyan Rezvani's new book just appeared:
Two Treatises on the Astrolabe by Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī (d. ca. 1050). Editions, Translations and Commentary, Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 2020, 496 pp. (Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy 115).
Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (973 ‒ ca. 1050 A.D.) was one of the leading mathematicians and astronomers in the 10th and 11th centuries Islamic tradition. Of the some 120 works he penned, 26 are still extant today, and 24 of these have been published previously. This book concerns the two as-yet-unpublished Arabic texts entitled the Treatise on Opening the Way towards Using the Different Kinds of Astrolabes (Arabic: Maqāla fī al-Taṭrīq ilā Istiʿmāl Funūn al-Usṭurlābāt), and the Book on Bringing what is in the Potentiality of the Astrolabe into Actuality (Arabic: Kitāb Ikhrāj mā fī Quwwat al-Usṭurlāb ilā al-Fiʿl). The first treatise is an advanced user manual, containing background information, and including standard as well as non-standard astrolabes. The second one is an elementary user manual for the standard astrolabe of a type which other medieval Islamic astronomers have also written. This book contains a critical edition and complete English translation of the Arabic texts of both treatises, introductions, and commentaries.