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The Timbuktu Astronomer Who Measured the Stars
Long before European observatories, scholars in Timbuktu were calculating the width of the Red Sea, predicting lunar eclipses, and mapping the heavens with astonishing accuracy. This episode follows the work of Muhammad al-Wangari, a 17th-century astronomer and mathematician of the Songhai Empire, who composed the Mir'at al-'Alam (Mirror of the World), a compendium of astronomy, astrology, and geography. Drawing on the Toledan Tables of al-Zarqali and the Almagest of Ptolemy, al-Wangari corrected earlier calculations and applied practical geometry to everyday life — from prayer…
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