ISMI Islamic Scientific Manuscripts Initiative

PERSON

Malik al-Ashraf Mumahhid al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Rasūl

Name (arabic)

ملك الأشرف ممهّد الدين عمر بن يوسف بن عمر بن علي بن رسول
Name (translit)

Malik al-Ashraf Mumahhid al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAlī ibn Rasūl
Alias

Ashraf
al-Ashraf ʿUmar
ʿUmar ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar
Rasulid Sultan al-Ashraf
Flourished

Died

1296 CE/ 0696 AH
Lived in

Yemen
Student of

Ibrāhīm ibn Mamdūd
Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Fihrī
Role

Instrument Maker
Notes

al‐Ashraf ʿUmar, the third of the Rasulid sultans in Yemen. See https://tabsira.hypotheses.org/ for a website devoted to him and his work.
Number in MAMS

685
Biography URL

http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Ashraf_BEA.htm
ismi_id

42360

Authored Works

3 works:

Astronomical Instruments

Muʿīn al-ṭālib ʿalá ʿamal al-asṭurlāb (Ashraf) , معين الطالب على عمل الأسطرلاب

Astronomy: General

Kitāb al-tabṣirah fī ʿilm al-nujūm (Ashraf) , كتاب التبصرة في علم النجوم

TECHNOLOGY

[Treatise on Magnetic Compass]

References

Schmidl, Petra. 2007. “Ashraf: Al‐Malik al‐Ashraf (Mumahhid al‐Dīn) ʿUmar Ibn Yūsuf Ibn ʿUmar Ibn ʿAlī Ibn Rasūl”. In The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Thomas al., 1:66-7. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Rozenfeld, Boris, and Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu. 2003. Mathematicians, Astronomers and Other Scholars of Islamic Civilisation and Their Works (7th-19th c.). Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture.

P. 238 (no. 685).

Varisco, Daniel. 1994. Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science: The Almanac of a Yemeni Sultan. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

On Ashraf's almanac.

King, David. 1986. A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns; The American Research Center in Egypt.

P. 132 (E8).

King, David. 1985. “The Medieval Yemeni Astrolabe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City”. Zeitschrift für Geschichte Der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 2: 99-122.

On Ashraf's astrolabe and the treatise on its construction. Repr.: King, Islamic Astronomical Instruments, II. London: Variorum Reprints, 1987.
Supplement in King, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte der Arabisch–Islamischen Wissenschaften 4 (1987–1988): 268–269

King, David. 1983. Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen: A Bibliographical Survey. Malibu: Undena Publications.

On Ashraf in the context of Yemeni astronomy.

Schmidl, Petra. “Two Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass”. Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 1: 81-132.

On the magnetic compass.