Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn al-Saffar al‐Andalusi (born in Cordoba, died in the year 1035 at Denia), also known as Ibn al-Saffar (Arabic: ابن الصَّفَّار, literally: son of the brass worker), was a Spanish-Arab[1] astronomer in Al-Andalus. He worked at the school founded by his colleague Al-Majriti in Córdoba. His best-known work was a treatise on the astrolabe, a text that was in active use until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler. He also wrote a commentary on the Zij al-Sindhind, and measured the coordinates of Mecca.[2]

Ibn al-Saffar later influenced the works of Abu al-Salt.

Paul Kunitzsch argued that a Latin treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Mashallah, and used by Chaucer to write A Treatise on the Astrolabe, is in fact written by Ibn al-Saffar.[3][4]

The exoplanet Saffar, also known as Upsilon Andromedae b, is named in his honor.

Saffar Island in Antarctica is named after Ibn al-Saffar.

Notes

References

• Rius, Mònica (2007). "Ibn al‐Ṣaffār: Abū al‐Qāsim Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al‐Ghāfiqī ibn al‐Ṣaffār al‐Andalusī". In Thomas Hockey; et al. (eds.). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 566–7. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. (PDF version)