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Scholarly Legacy of the Samarkand Observatory

Type Event Region Central Asia Time 1440–1449

In the 1440s, the observatory in Samarkand under Ulugh Beg and its star catalog from the Sulṭani Zij continued to spread across Central Asia and the …

Timeline

  1. 1440–1445Samarkand Observatory · UzbekistanIn the early 1440s, Ulugh Beg still presided over the Samarkand Observatory, continuing to revise the star catalog and train scholars; manuscripts of the Sulṭani Zij circulated widely in the Islamic world, becoming among the most precise astronomical data of the time.
  2. 1447–1449Samarkand · UzbekistanAfter Shah Rukh's death in 1447, the Timurid Empire fell into succession struggles; Ulugh Beg was drawn into civil war, and the observatory's observational activities gradually ceased due to political turmoil and funding cuts, weakening its function as a scholarly center.
  3. 1440–1449Islamic World · Central AsiaAlthough the observatory itself declined, the scholarly legacy of Ulugh Beg's star catalog continued to be studied and cited through manuscripts in Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and elsewhere, becoming an important bridge connecting Islamic astronomy with early modern European astronomy.

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