Ibn Yunus
Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Sadafi al-Misri (Arabic: ابن يونس) (c. 950-1009) was an important Egyptian Muslim astronomer and mathematician, whose works are noted for being ahead of their time, having been based on meticulous calculations and attention to detail.
The crater Ibn Yunus on the Moon is named after him.
Life
Information regarding his early life and education is uncertain. He was born in Egypt between 950 and 952 and came from a respected family in Fustat. His father was a historian, biographer and scholar of hadith, who wrote two volumes about the history of Egypt—one about the Egyptians and one based on traveler commentary on Egypt. A prolific writer, Ibn Yunus' father has been described as "Egypt's most celebrated early historian and first known compiler of a biographical dictionary devoted exclusively to Egyptians". His great grandfather had been an associate of the noted legal scholar Imam Shafi.
Early in the life of Ibn Yunus, the Fatimid dynasty came to power and the new city of Cairo was founded. In Cairo, he worked as an astronomer for the Fatimid dynasty for twenty-six years, first for the Caliph al-Aziz and then for al-Hakim. Ibn Yunus dedicated his most famous astronomical work, al-Zij al-Kabir al-Hakimi, to the latter.
Ibn Yunus (crater)
Ibn Yunus is the remains of a flooded lunar crater. It lies on the far side of the Moon, just past the eastern limb. It can only be viewed from Earth under conditions of favorable libration and lighting, and even then it is seen from the edge. This feature is attached to the east-southeastern outer rim of the flooded crater Goddard. It lies within the Mare Marginis, a lunar mare along the eastern limb.
What survives of this crater is a low, roughly circular ridge projecting up through the mare. This ring is broken along the western and southern edges, and the interior floor is covered by a nearly level surface with a relatively low albedo.
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