Talk:Ibn al-Shatir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. | ||
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article. [FAQ] | ||
- [Ibn Shater departed] from the Ptolemaic system in a way very similar to what Copernicus later also did. Ibn Shater hypothesized that the earth was not the center of the universe and proved it by trigonometric means. Later on, Copernicus restated this theory to the Europeans.
If this is not intended to give the impression that Ibn Shater deserves credit for heliocentrism in place of Copernicus, then it is very badly worded indeed. If it is, it is not supported by any of the works cited.
Ibn al-Shatir did important astronomical work, and his solution for removing equants was also used at one time by Copernicus, though not in his final formulation. There is no sort of evidence that Copernicus knew of the earlier work, and opinions are divided. Nor was al-Shatir's system heliocentric. (See the Gingerich citation.)
Why is it better to make misleading or false assertions than to give al-Shatir the credit he deserves? I'm undertaking to fix this, but we need (as I have said so many times before) someone who knows Islamic science to do it right. The lashings-out of partisans are not useful in Wikipedia, even when they are in behalf of historically neglected areas. --Dandrake 00:12, Jun 14, 2005 (UTC)
