A Brief History of Observatories in the Islamic World (800-1600)

Penulis

  • Zakaria Virk Canadian Historian of the History of Science

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21111/injas.v3i1.13839

Kata Kunci:

Islamic observatories, ʿilm, al-Ma’mun, astronomy, cosmology, āyāt, Islamic civilisation, metaphysics, science and spirituality, historical philosophy

Abstrak

This paper examines the historical and philosophical role of observatories in the Islamic world (800–1600 CE). More than scientific centres, these institutions embodied Islam’s metaphysical commitment to knowledge (ʿilm) and cosmic order. Under leaders like Caliph al-Ma’mun, observatories became state-sponsored platforms for studying celestial bodies not only as physical objects but as divine signs (āyāt). Using classical sources and modern scholarship, the study situates these observatories within Islam’s unified worldview, where science and spirituality were intertwined. It argues that Islamic scientific progress must be understood within its civilisational and theological framework.

Referensi

Sky and Telescope USA , page 38, February 2000

Seyyed Hossein Nasr, The Need for a Sacred Science (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 14–18.

Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas, Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1995), 147.

George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), 34–38; Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam (Harvard University Press, 1992), 98

A. I. Sabra, “Science and Philosophy in Medieval Islamic Civilization,” in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period, ed. M. J. L. Young (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 274–290.

Al-Attas, The Concept of Education in Islam: A Framework for an Islamic Philosophy of Education (Kuala Lumpur: ISTAC, 1991), 12–14.

Ibrahim Kalin, “Islam and Science: Theological Perspectives,” Islamic Studies 43, no. 1 (2004): 15–23.

Ibn Khaldun, Muqaddimah, trans. Franz Rosenthal (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 330–335; Nasr, Science and Civilization in Islam, 122

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Telah diserahkan

2025-01-31

Diterima

2025-07-29

Diterbitkan

2025-08-06

Cara Mengutip

Virk, Z. (2025). A Brief History of Observatories in the Islamic World (800-1600) . Indonesian Journal of Islamization Studies, 3(1), 14–52. https://doi.org/10.21111/injas.v3i1.13839