Nuzhat al-tullab fi ilm al-asturlab (Umayya ibn Abi al-Salt al-Andalusi)

Nuzhat al-tullab fi ilm al-asturlab (al-Azhar Library no. 469/62519) is a treatise by Umayya ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Abi al-Salt al-Andalusi al-Dani, found in other libraries as Risala fi al-amal bil-asturlab. ^{1 2}

The Azhar copy has 33 folios in ninety chapters, introducing the astrolabe and explaining its parts, written in red ink to set them off, such as the suspension, ring, throne and alidade, then its uses: finding the sun's place in the zodiac, the courses of the planets, the sun's apogee and perigee, and a town's latitude from the altitude of the sun or a star. ² It was copied by Ali ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Umari al-Sakiki al-Amili in 1103 AH. ²

The book says he was born at Denia, lived in Seville, Ifriqiya and Cairo, left al-Andalus for Egypt in 510/1116 and died at al-Mahdiyya in 529/1134; it gives his birth as 460 AH; his works include al-Risala al-Misriyya, a treatise on music and Hadiqat al-adab. ¹