Although Ibn al-Shatir's system was geographically solid he had removed the Ptolemaic eccentrics, the mathematical details of his system were similar to those in Copernicus' De revolutionibus.
Moreover, the actual change in value from the two epicycles used by Copernicus in Commentariolus corresponded to the work of Ibn al-Shatir a century earlier.
Ibn al-Shatir's versions of the moon and Mercury are also similar to those of Copernicus. Copernicus' Mercury model was flawed in the fact that he could not fully comprehend the model developed by Ibn al-Shatir.
Copernicus also translated Ptolemy's geometric models into longitudinal tables, as Ibn al Shatir did when designing his solar model.
This has led some scholars to argue that Copernicus may have been able to obtain a legitimate source of ibn al-Shatir's ideas. It is not known whether Copernicus read ibn al-Shatir and the argument is still debated.
The difference between the two is evident in their works. Copernicus followed the heliocentric model of the planets orbiting the sun while Ibn al-Shatir followed the geocentric model as mentioned earlier.
And Copernicus followed dynamic thinking, while Ibn al-Shatir pursued the Zij culture. The existence of this oriental manuscript containing the views of Islamic scholars in Italy provides strong evidence of the transmission of astronomical ideas from Eastern to Western Europe.
ToolsThe concept of spending the same length of time throughout the year was renamed by Ibn al-Shatir in 1371, based on the earlier development of al-Battānī's trigonometry.
Before an Islamicate scholar could create an improved sundial, he had to understand the sundial created by his predecessors.
The Greeks also had sundials, but they were based on nudes with straight hour lines which meant that the hours of the day were not equal temporary hours depending on the season.
Each day was divided into twelve equal parts, meaning that the hours would be shorter in winter and longer in summer because of the sun's activity.
Ibn al-Shatir knew that "using the gnomon associated with the Earth's axis would produce sundials whose clock lines would show the same hours on any day of the year."
His sundial is an old sundial of polar-axis that still exists. The concept later emerged in Western sundials from at least 1446.
Ibn al-Shatir also developed a time-keeping device called the "Sandūq al-Yawāqīt li maʿrifat al-Mawāqīt" a treasure chest, which includes both the universal sundial and the magnetic compass.
He set it up for prayer. "Sandūq al-Yawāqīt li maʿrifat al-Mawāqīt" had a moving hole that allowed the user to find the hourly angle of the sun.
If this angle were appropriate for the horizon, the user could use it as a polar sundial. The machine is housed in the Aleppo Museum the largest museum in the city of Aleppo, Syria.
He also built a sundial that was placed over the Madhanat al-Arus Bride's Minaret at the Umayyad Mosque. The sundial was created on a marble slab that was almost 2 feet by 1 meter. The sun-painted marble statue was for Ibn al-Shatir to read the time of day in the same hours times of prayer times.
This sundial was later removed in the eighteenth century and replaced with a statue. The original sundial was housed in the Damascus Archaeological Museum.
He also created another sundial but with smaller dimensions 12 cm x 12 cm × 3 cm for day and afternoon prayer times. This sundial has been able to tell the local meridian and direction of mecca found in Saudi Arabia.
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| sundial |
Other notable instruments invented by him include the retractable astrolabe and the astrolabic clock.
The astrolabe he created was called al-āla al-jāmiʿa the instrument of the universe. This astrolabe was created by Ibn al-Shatir when he wrote on a common planispheric astrolabe and when he wrote about two of the most common quadrants astrolabic and trigonometric forms.
An astrolabe
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