Abu Raja Sindhi

Abu Raja Al-Sindi(Arabic)ابو راجه السندي (d. 321 AH/d. 10th century AD) was an Arabic scholar of Sindhi origin in the present day Pakistan. He specialised in the study of Quran, Hadith and Arab literature. He is ranked among the foremost poets of Arabic from Mansura, Sindh. He was also a teacher to many Arab scholars, administrators and travellers to Sindh.

Contribution and work

It is said that at the request of his clan leader Mabruk, Abu Raja Al-Sindi embraced Islam. And was among those who translated the Quran into Sindhi language during the reign of the Abbasid ruler Harun al-Rashid and the Abbasid Vizier of Sindh Abdullah Ibn Omar Hibari (d. 893) governed for about 30 years and made great contribution to the cultural and economic development of the Sindhi province. It was during the Hibari period that Sindh became closer in its ties and relations with the city of Baghdad (Abode of Peace) Due to the patronage extended by early Abbasid Caliphs and their Baramakid Grand Vizier's, Abu Raja Al-Sindi and a number of Sindhi's went to Baghdad and engaged themselves in scientific and literary pursuits they translated a large number of Sanskrit books on mathematics, astronomy, astrology, medicine, literature and ethics into Arabic.

Among those who traveled to Baghdad was the mathematician Sind ibn Ali, a colleague of Al-Khwarizmi, the two authors have also published texts under the name of Kitāb al-ğabr wa-l-muqābala, they improved the structure of basic mathematics and translated and worked on the famous astronomical chart the Zij al-Sindhind.

Zīj al-Sindhind (Arabic: زيج "astronomical tables of Sind and Hind") is a work consisting of approximately 37 chapters on calendar and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendar, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values. This is the first of many Arabic Zij's based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the Sindhind. The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. This work marked the turning point in Islamic astronomy. Hitherto, Muslim astronomers had adopted a primarily research approach to the field, translating works of others and learning already discovered knowledge. Al-Khwarizmi's work marked the beginning of non-traditional methods of study and calculation

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