Ibn al-Saffar


Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn al-Saffar al‐Andalusi, also known as Ibn al-Saffar, was a Spanish-Arab astronomer in Al-Andalus. He worked at the school founded by his colleague Al-Majriti in Córdoba. His best-known work was a treatise on the astrolabe, a text that was in active use until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler. He also wrote a commentary on the Zij al-Sindhind, and measured the coordinates of Mecca.
Ibn al-Saffar later influenced the works of Abu al-Salt.
Paul Kunitzsch argued that a Latin treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Mashallah, and used by Chaucer to write A Treatise on the Astrolabe, is in fact written by Ibn al-Saffar.
The exoplanet Saffar, also known as Upsilon Andromedae b, is named in his honor.