Ibn al-Saffar

Who is Ibn al-Saffar?

Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn al-Saffar al‐Andalusi, Ibn al-Saffar. He was a close colleague and astronomer at the school founded by Al-Majriti in Cordoba. His most well known work was a treatise on the Astrolabe, the work was still published until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler, he also writes a commentary on the Zij al-Sindhind, and measured the coordinates to Mecca.

David A. King, historian of Islamic instrumentation, describes the universal astrolobe designed by Ibn al-Sarraj in the early 14th-century as "the most sophisticated astronomical instrument from the entire medieval and Renaissance periods".

He later influenced the works of Abu al-Salt.