THE SULTAN ASTRONOMER
You’re looking at something historically and scientifically astonishing. It is what remains of an astronomical observatory built 600 years ago – in 1420 – by a Sultan in Central Asia who loved science and mathematics more than war and conquest.
Born Mirzo Taraghay, he is known to history as Ulugh Beg (“Great Ruler,” 1394-1449).
Grandson of the nomadic conqueror Tamerlane (1336-1405) who devoted his life to war upon other peoples as did his ancestor Genghiz Khan, Ulugh Beg ruled over Sultanate of Turan, known to the Romans as Transoxiana – the land between Central Asia’s two great rivers, the Oxus (now the Amu Darya) and the Jaxartes (the Syr Darya), from his capital of Samarkand.
It was in Samarkand, the most fabled oasis of the Silk Road, that Ulugh Beg built his circular observatory, three stories high of white marble.












