Imam Ahmed Raza Khan and the Revival of the Islamic Astronomy in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31436/ijrcs.v6i1.293Keywords:
Ahmed Raza, Copernican astronomy, Maragha movement, Islamic astronomy, Geocentric model, heliocentric modelAbstract
Revisionist historians of medieval Islamic astronomy acknowledge the impact of the Maragha astronomical movement led by Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī. The advanced work conducted at the Maragha observatory, which benefited from earlier Muslim astronomersʼ critique of Greek astronomy, became a direct source for the 13th to 16th -century astronomers working in different parts of the Islamic world. However, after the Copernican revolution and its reception in the West, this ‘new heliocentric astronomyʼ initiated debates in the Muslim lands due to the motion ascribed to the Earth. By the end of the 19th century, Muslims in Syria and Egypt started to accept heliocentric astronomy as a fact without proper investigation. Similarly, Muslim travelers from British India learned this new astronomy and propagated it without critical analysis. As a result, the Muslim community faced criticism for not upholding the legacy of their ancestors in the field of astronomy, as they did not contribute a critical analysis of Copernican astronomy. This article introduces Ahmed Raza Khan, as a mathematician, and astronomer from India, who played a pivotal role in revitalizing the Islamic astronomy of the past. Engaging in the discourse of new astronomy, he meticulously examined the works of renowned figures such as Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Kepler, as well as the established principles of modern physics and astronomy. It is worth noting that Ahmed Raza Khanʼs perspectives differed in various aspects from those of his Islamic predecessors. This introduction of Ahmed Raza Khan and his contributions to astronomy aims to inspire critical research and shed light on the overstated assertions made by historians regarding the transfer of knowledge from the West to the East. Additionally, it sheds light on why Indian Muslims paid limited attention to colonial astronomy.
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