Sibt al-Maridini

Who was Sibt al-Maridini?

Sibt al-Maridini, full name Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Ghazal, was an Egyptian-born astronomer and mathematician. His father came from Damascus. The word "Sibt al-Maridini" means "the son of Al-Mardini's daughter". His maternal grandfather, Abdullah al-Maridini, was a reputed astronomer of the eighth century AH. He was a disciple of the astronomer Ibn al-Majdi.

Sibt al-Maridini taught mathematics and astronomy in the Great Mosque of al-Azhar, Cairo. He was also a timekeeper of the mosque. He wrote no fewer than fifty treatises in astronomy and wrote at least twenty-three mathematics textbooks.

Al-Sakhawy counted two hundred books that were written by Sibt al-Maridini, on Islamic law, astronomy, and mathematics. Libraries that specialize in ancient manuscripts, all over the world, have transcripts of his works.

Sibt al-Mardini’s declared that “the opinion of the muezzins is less correct than that of the legal scholars and it is the latter that should be used as the basis for the determination of prayer time”.