Muslim Scientist- Names -- History

Ali Bin Rabban's surname was Abu al-Hasan, the full name being Abu al-Hasan Ali Bin Sahl Rabban al-Tabari. Born in 838 C.E. his father Sahl hailed from a respectable Jew family. The nobility and sympathy inherent in his very nature soon endeared him to his countrymen so much so that they used to call him Rabban which implies "my leader".

1. Part one : Kulliyat-e-Tibb . This part throws light on contempo- rary ideology of medical science. In that era these principles formed the basis of medical science.
2. Part two : Elucidation of the organs of the human body, rules for keeping good health and comprehensive account of certain muscular diseases.
3. Part three : Description of diet to be taken in conditions of health and disease.
4. Part four : All diseases right from head to toe. This part is of profound significance in the whole book and comprises twelve papers:

* General causes relating to eruption of diseases.
* Diseases of the head and the brain.
* Diseases relating to the eye,nose,ear,mouth and teeth.
* Muscular diseases (paralysis and spasm).
* Diseases of the regions of the chest, throat and lungs.
* Diseases of the abdomen.
* Diseases of the liver.
* Diseases of gallbladder and spleen.
* Intestinal diseases.
* Different kinds of fever.
* Miscellaneous diseases- explanation of body organs
* Examination of pulse and urine. This part is the detailed in the book and is almost half the size of the whole book.

5. Part five : Description of flavour, taste and colour.
6. Part six : Drugs and poison.
7. Part seven : Deals with diverse topics. Discusses climate and astronomy. Also contains a brief mention of Indian medicine.

ABU ABDULLAH AL-BATTANI

Abu Abdallah Muhammad Ibn Jabir Ibn Sinan al-Battani al-Harrani was born around 858 C.E. in Harran, and according to one account, in Battan, a State of Harran. Battani was first educated by his father Jabir Ibn San'an al-Battani, who was also a well-known scientist. Battani was a famous astronomer, mathematician and astrologer. He has been held as one of the greatest astronomists of Islam. He is responsible for a number of important discoveries in astronomy, which was the result of a long career of 42 years of research beginning at Raqqa when he was young. His well-known discovery is the remarkably accurate determination of the solar year as being 365 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes and 24 seconds, which is very close to the latest estimates. He found that the longitude of the sun's apogee had increased by 16° , 47' since Ptolemy. This implied the important discovery of the motion of the solar apsides and of a slow variation in the equation of time. He did not believe in the trapidation of the equinoxes, although Copernicus held it.

In mathematics, he was the first to replace the use of Greek chords by sines, with a clear understanding of their superiority.He also developed the concept of cotangent and furnished their table in degrees. He wrote a number of books on astronomy and trigonometry.

His most famous book was his astronomical treatise with tables, which was translated into Latin in the 12th century and flourished as De scienta stellerum - De numeris stellerum et motibus . An old translation of this is available of the Vatican. His Zij was, in fact, more accurate than all others written by that time. His treatise on astronomy was extremely influential in Europe till the Renaissance, with translations available in several languages. His original discoveries both in astronomy and trigonometry were of great consequence in the development of these sciences.