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Civilizations in which Islam was the religion of either the rulers or the majority of the population were the cultural context for several hundred years of remarkable achievements in astronomy. While astronomy was sometimes in a conversation with Islamic law, speculative theology (kalām), and Qur’ān commentary and while at other times Islamic astronomy served clearly religious applications (such as the determination of the direction and times of prayer (qibla)) (King 2004/2005, Vol. 1), Islamic astronomy was driven by more than religious concerns. Astronomy in Islam aimed at an increasingly precise description of the universe, whether in the domains of physical consistency of observations, more accurate observations and tables, or theories’ predictive accuracy.
There is evidence of astronomical activity and translation of astronomy texts under the...
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Morrison, R.G. (2013). Astronomy in Islam. In: Runehov, A.L.C., Oviedo, L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_89
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8265-8_89
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