Science
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Mathematical astronomer
Also known as Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī · Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Tusi · نصير الدين محمد بن محمد الطوسي
Later depiction · Image credit
Who they are
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi authored a thirteenth-century treatise reworking Ptolemaic mathematical astronomy. A British Library manuscript preserves a later copy and a diagram identified by its catalogue as the Tusi couple. His work widens the timeline’s geography of astronomical model building while keeping manuscript survival and original composition as separate historical facts.
He appears through a traceable mathematical work rather than an assumed direct line of influence on Copernicus.
Selected contributions
Selected works
Primary text · after 1256–1274
Kitāb al-tadhkirah fī al-hay’ah (Memoir on Astronomy)
Al-Tusi’s treatise reworks Ptolemaic astronomy; the catalogued manuscript includes a diagram of the construction called the Tusi couple. Its colophon identifies Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ibn Mashraf as the copyist in Hama, distinguishing transmission of the text from authorship.
Composition after 1256 and before the author’s death in 1274; the catalogued Hama copy is dated October 28, 1289.
Reading scope & citation
Reused prior inspected evidence: Custodial description, transcribed colophon and folio 32v item metadata inspected. The image endpoint could not be independently downloaded; no claim of full manuscript-text or diagram-proof inspection. Reused custodial description, transcribed colophon and diagram metadata; full Arabic manuscript and diagram proof not inspected.
In the timeline
- After 1256, by 1274Al-Tusi reworks mathematical astronomy
Biography sources & portrait credit
- Kitāb al-tadhkirah fī al-hay’ah, British Library Or 11209 ↗British Library / Qatar Digital Library
Portrait credit
Artist uncredited; 1976 Iranian postage stamp. Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration). Via Wikimedia Commons.
Later depiction. Cropped to 4:5, resized to 320 × 400 and converted to WebP.
Image source & identification ↗ · Public domain (Commons file-specific copyright declaration) ↗
