Respected astronomy scholar of Islamic geography: Who is Ali Qushji (Ali Kuşçu)?

Ali Qushji's (Ali Kushgii) books on mathematics and especially astronomy have been used as textbooks in Turkey for many years.

( ?-1474) Turkish astronomy and mathematics scholar. He contributed greatly to the completion of the star catalog prepared by Uluğ Bey. He was born in Samarkand, the capital of the Timurid Empire and a great science center of that era, and died in Istanbul. Alâeddin Ali, known as "Kuşçu" because his father Mehmed Bey was the falconer of Uluğ Bey from Timuroğulları, went to Kirman secretly after receiving his first mathematics and astronomy knowledge from Uluğ Bey and Kadızade Rumi, and completed his education there. Upon his return, he presented his study of the phases of the Moon, titled Risale-i Hallü'l-Eşkâlü'l Kamer, which he wrote at that time, to Uluğ Bey to make amends for his escape. Uluğ Bey appointed Ali Kuşçu as the head of the observatory in Samarkand upon the death of Kadızade. The great star catalog, known as Zic-i Uluğ Bey, is actually a product of the joint work of these two scholars at that time.

Ala al-Dīn Ali ibn Muhammed (1403 – 16 December 1474), known as Ali Qushji (Ali Kushgii) was a Timurid theologian, jurist, astronomer, mathematician and physicist, who settled in the Ottoman Empire some time before 1472.

When Uluğ Bey was killed in an uprising initiated by his son in 1449, Ali Kuşçu went to Tabriz and took refuge in Uzun Hasan. Ali Kuşçu, who was sent by Uzun Hasan as an ambassador to Istanbul for the peace negotiations between the Akkoyunlu and the Ottomans, was sent to II. Mehmed greeted respectfully; He even offered to teach at the Hagia Sophia Madrasah with two hundred akçe diary. Ali Kuşçu, who moved to Istanbul after going to Tabriz to complete his embassy duty, trained valuable students such as Molla Sarı Lütfü, Kıyameddin Kasım, and Sinaneddin Yusuf with the lessons he gave at the Hagia Sophia Madrasah; Together with Molla Hüsrev, he prepared the new curricula of the madrasahs. With his arrival, the teaching of astronomy in Istanbul madrasas gained a new breakthrough.

Ali Kuşçu's books on mathematics and especially astronomy were taught in old madrasas for a long time after the Western understanding of science settled in Turkey. Zic-i Uluğ Bey's Commentary is the most important of his works, which covers a wide area such as theology (Islamic philosophy), Hadith, tafsir, Arabic grammar, and syntax, as well as science. Ali Kuşçu, in this explanation written in Persian, gives the most advanced theoretical mathematical knowledge of that period, organized by Zic.

He wrote his work Risâletul-Fethiyye, which consists of three articles, in Persian with the name Risale fi'l-Heyye in 1457, and translated it into Arabic in 1473. He presented it to Mehmed. Also at the end of the book is a world map with a section showing the distances of celestial bodies from the Earth. The first annotated Turkish translation was by Seyyid Ali b. In this astronomy study conducted by Hüseyin in Aleppo in 1548, Ali Kuşçu determines the tendency of the ecliptic to be 23° 30′ 17″.

The mathematical book Risale fi'l-Hesab, which he wrote in Persian while he was in Samarkand, was later translated into Arabic and named Risale-i Muhammedi, again under the name of II. Ali Kuşçu, who presented it to Mehmed, also wrote an annotation on Nasıreddin Tusî's work called Tecridü'l-Kelâm on Islamic philosophy. This book of explanations was known as Şerh-i Cedid among madrasa students. In addition, his works called Unkudü'l-Zevâhir on Arabic grammar and his poetic Unkudü'l-Cevâhir, which examines the syntax of Arabic, are among Ali Kuşçu's important studies. On the other hand, although Ali Ekber states in his Hıtâ'înâme that Uluğ Bey sent Ali Kuşçu to China at one time and asked him to write down his observations, no documents were found showing that Ali Kuşçu wrote such a travel book. On the other hand, it is known that Ali Kuşçu went to Herat and visited the Iranian poet Molla Mosque.

https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Ali_Qushji/