Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mizzi, timekeeper

Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim al-Mizzi, the timekeeper (690–750/1291–1349), studied Qur'an readings and Arabic, then excelled in astronomy and mathematics; he was famous for unusual kinds of astrolabe, and it is said that his astrolabes sold in his time for ten dinars or more and his quadrants for two. ¹

• He studied in Cairo under Ibn al-Akfani and lived in Damascus as timekeeper at the Umayyad Mosque. ¹
• His interests were the making of observational instruments, the motion of the sun, and the study of apogee and perigee. ¹
• His works include treatises on the folded quadrant, the winged quadrant and the hidden quadrant, Tuhfat al-albab fi al-amal bil-asturlab and Kashf al-rayb fi al-amal bi-rub' al-jayb. ¹
• The book mentions a fine sundial bearing his signature in the British Museum. ²

He should not be confused with the hadith scholar Jamal al-Din al-Mizzi.