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Ulugbek Muhammad Taragay, a great astronomer and mathematician, an outstanding scholar of his time, a statesman and a grandson of the great ruler Аmir Timur, was born on March 22, 1394 in Sultania, in the territory of present Azerbaijan. The young scholar was brought up by his grandmother, elder wife of Timur, Saray Mulkkhanim. From his youth up Ulugbek displayed an interest for knowledge. He knew the theory of music and poetry and had an exceptional memory.
After Amir Timur’s death in February 1405, struggle for the power started among his descendants that lasted almost for 5 years and Timur’s son, Shahrukh gained a victory in this struggle. Shahrukh made Herat his residence and gave his eldest son Ulugbek Samarkand and Maveraunnakhr to govern. Thus in 1409 Ulugbek became the ruler of Samarkand first and in two years time in 1411 he ruled all Maveraunnakhr.
With an advent of a clever and educated ruler to power, Samarkand becomes the center of intellectuality. In 1417-1420 he erected the first building of the madrassah in Registan square where the great scholars of the East lectured. The other two madrassah of Ulugbek were built in Gijduvan and Bukhara. There is an inscription on the entrance portal of Ulugbek’s madrassah in Bukhara which proclaims: “It is the sacred duty of every Muslim man and woman to seek after knowledge”
His big love was for the astronomy. The observatory became the main work in the life of Ulubek and his fellow scientist-astronomers as Qazi Zadeh Rumi, Giyasaddin Jamshid, Ali Kushji and others.
Construction of the observatory, as researchers say, was completed in 1428-1429 and it was a unique building of its time. It was built in the stony foothills of the Kuhak hills as this place was earthquake resistant. The observatory was a round three-storey building with a height of 30,4 m. The base of the observatory was a big azimuth quadrant with a radius of 40,212 meters and the length of the arc itself was 63 meters. The main instrument – sextant – was orientated to the meridian line from the south to the north. There were other astronomical instruments besides the main one in the observatory.
Size of the sextant, its correct construction and scientific knowledge of Ulugbek made the exact astronomical observations. Under the leadership of a great astronomer Ulugbek, the main achievement of the observatory, “Ulugbek’s catalog of stars” was made. The coordinates of 1,018 stars plotted by Ulugbek, (the first such undertaking since Gipparkh) are in this catalogue. The formation of this astronomical catalogue is considered as a great contribution to world astronomy science.
Besides, the works on definition of ecliptic movement to equator and measurement of the stellar year were also carried out in the observatory.
Being an outstanding scientist, Ulugbek wasn’t a good military leader. He used to spend much of his time in the observatory and paid less attention to the government affairs. His eldest son, Abd al-Latif, who was under the influence of a radical religious group ordered to kill his father.
A secret court of religious people sent him on a redeeming pilgrimage to Mecca. On the way to Mecca Ulugbek was deceitfully beheaded with Abd-al-Latif’s connivance.
After the tragic death of Ulugbek, radical part of the religious community provoked destruction of the observatory. The scholars, who worked in this famous scientific center, were disbanded and the most valuable library was plundered. The building of the observatory was destroyed and in the end of the XVII century nothing was left from the observatory.
Though Ulugbek died, his bright star didn’t die out. Ali Kushji, a true follower of Ulugbek, had to escape from Samarkand to Europe with the catalogue of stars. Later, Ulugbek’s name and his scientific achievement became famous among the European and Asian scientists. “The Catalogue of stellar sky”, published in the XVII century in Europe by Jan Geveliy has an engraving on which a symbolic meeting of the greatest astronomers lived in different countries at different times is depicted. Ulugbek is also represented among them. Author of this engraving imaged Ulugbek without having his picture.
The location of Ulugbek’s observatory was unknown to historians for a long time and only in 1908, Samarkand archaeologist V.L. Vyatkin could find the ruins of the observatory in the result of his thorough studies of the old documents. This was the scientific deed of Vyatkin who contributed a lot to study the rich history of Samarkand.
Ulugbek’s catalogue of stars became the final word and high stage of medieval astronomical science till the invention of telescope.
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