![]() Supported by their own observational records, they identified discrepancies between scientific models and reality and set out to create theories regarding the celestial bodies that would address these inconsistencies. The treatise, which describes the circular motion of the sun and the planets around a fixed earth, became the most important point of departure for astronomers working in the Islamic world. One of the most influential of these translated works was Ptolemy's Almagest (the Latinized version of the Arabic title al-Majisti, or "Great Compilation"). Court patronage also supported an intensive program of translation of Greek, Sanskrit, and Pahlavi (early Persian) astronomical texts into Arabic, a practice that was instrumental in preserving this important body of knowledge. ![]() During the eighth and ninth centuries, under the rule of the first Islamic dynasties (the Umayyads and Abbasids), scientists built upon this knowledge to develop new theories and instruments. By the ninth century, Islam had expanded into regions where a knowledge of the stars and their movements had long helped in the calculation of time, the prediction of weather and river floodings, and navigation across trackless deserts.
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