Constellations Thesis Book by Nesrin Zidan

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94
Commonly, Asia was known for
being a patron of the arts and sciences
with many notable contributions. There
are numerous contributions of Ancient
India in the field of Astronomy but the
most notable one was by Aryabhatiya.
It is through him that Indian astronomy
veered away from the mystical and religious
and towards the scientific. Although
his works are under the premise that the
world is geocentric, many are still of value
to modern mathematics and astronomy.
Aryabhatiya was able to assume that
the Earth is rotating on its axis and that
the Moon and other planets shine through
the reflected light from the Sun (7 Ancient
Cultures and how they shaped Astronomy,
2018).
Astrology was a branch of science
that coexisted alongside astronomy
in Central Asia, as it did in other Muslim
nations. Consequently, al-Biruni, who disagreed
with astrology’s teachings, draws a
dividing line between astronomy and astrology.
He describes astronomy as “ilm
al-nujum” (the science of the stars) or
“ilm hay’at al-nujum” (the science of the
structure of the stars), the word “ilm” being
a reminder that astronomy is a science
(Dani et al., 1992).
On the other hand, he describes
astrology by the terms “sinacat al-nujum,”
“sinacat ahkam,” and “sinacat ahkam
al-nujum” (the art of star-counting,
the art of divination, and the art of predicting
the future by the stars); in other
words, astrology is an art or practice that
is separate from astronomy, which is purely
scientific. Additionally, the word “art”
has connotations of “swindle,” “machination,”
and other similar meanings in all
these contexts that indicate that astrology
does not follow the scientific method.