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Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī

1320 – 1380

Medieval Arab astronomer

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About Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī

Lived 1320 – 1380 (aged 59–60). Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī was an astronomer, astrologer and muwaqqit.

Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Khalīlī (; 1320–1380) was a Mamluk-era Syrian astronomer who compiled astronomical tables. He worked for most of his life as a (a religious timekeeper) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

Little is known about his life.

Work Al-Khalili is known for two sets of mathematical tables he constructed, both totalling roughly 30,000 entries. He tabulated all the entries made by the celebrated Egyptian Muslim astronomer Ibn Yunus, except for the entries that al-Khalili made himself for the city of Damascus. He computed 13,000 entries into his 'Universal Tables' of different auxiliary functions which allowed him to generate the solutions of standard problems of spherical astronomy for any given latitude. In addition to this, he created a 3,000 entry table that gave the (the direction of the city of Mecca) for all latitudes and longitudes for all the Muslim countries of the 14th century. The values present in al-Khalili’s tables have been determined to be accurate up to three or four significant figures. It is not known how exactly al-Khalili went about calculating each of his entries.

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Important facts

Born
1320, Damascus
Birth century
Died
1380, Damascus
Employers
Umayyad Mosque
Also known as
Al-Khalili

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī?

Medieval Arab astronomer

When was Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī born?

Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī was born in 1320 in Damascus.

When did Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī die?

Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī died in 1380 in Damascus.

What was Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī's occupation?

Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī was an astronomer, astrologer and muwaqqit.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī

· Wikidata: Q7487698

· DBpedia: Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah al-Khalili

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī. https://biography.guide/shams-al-din-abu-abd-allah-al-khalili/

MLA: "Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/shams-al-din-abu-abd-allah-al-khalili/.

Chicago: "Shams al-Dīn Abū Abd Allāh al-Khalīlī." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/shams-al-din-abu-abd-allah-al-khalili/.

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