“Christopher Columbus, Nasiraddin Tusi and discovery of America”

Writing about the remarkable Azerbaijani scientist Nasiraddin Tusi, who has a great scientific heritage, is very responsible and honorable. Nasiraddin Tusi, who has a very significant place in the world encyclopedia together with well-known phenomenal scientists, is one of the most honorary personalities of our nation. It may be named precious stone of the Academy of Sciences in the East. Nasiraddin Tusi has masterpieces about mathematics, geometry, astronomy, geography and ethics and he is an inventor of a lot of unique inventions and discoveries. According to the scientist, America had been discovered hundreds of years ago. Unfortunately, most peoples don’t know this fact. I want to inform readers about Tusi’s achievements by means of this work.
                    Courageous step towards the great purpose

I’m editing new work of the young writer. This work is an explanation of innovations made by Nasiraddin Tusi in the field of astronomy. The author has explained role of Nasiraddin Tusi’s scientific activity in realization of great geographic discoveries in “Christopher Columbus, Nasiraddin Tusi and discovery of America” written after his previous trilogy. He has written that, Nasiraddin Tusi’s works were taken to Columbus’s motherland – Italy, Columbus had analyzed them and went to Spain with those materials in order to organize his travel to India. N. Tusi’s activity, which supported science in Western Europe and global discoveries, has been discovered in the work. I’m editing Ramiz Daniz’s work “The scientist passed ahead of centuries – Nasiraddin Tusi”. What made him to write this book? He has gathered a lot of materials about the scientist’s activity and decided to write the second book about Nasiraddin Tusi. He named his work“The scientist passed ahead of centuries – Nasiraddin Tusi”. People haven’t been informed enough about works of the scientist written about astronomy, mathematics, geometry, ethics, pedagogy, philosophy and other sciences. So, the author wrote in the book: “… I began to investigate activities of genius personalities of Azerbaijan… Especially activity and scientific heritage of the notable scientist of Azerbaijan Muhammad Nasiraddin Tusi are very interesting. Though he is an author of very significant scientific discoveries, he isn’t known enough in the world”. The author expresses his regret and writes that, Nasiraddin Tusi’s works have been published by most scientists as their own works. Readers, please, be attentive! The well-known Pole scientist N. Copernicus, who lived 250 years before Nasiraddin Tusi, had written the scientist’s theorem “Two circles, diameter of one of which is equal to half of the other one, are on one plane” in his work “Rotation of celestial spheres”. For the first time, this theorem was proved by Nasiraddin Tusi and included in his work“Memories about astronomy”. The wall quadrant used in the observatory of the Dane scientist Tycho Brahe was invented in Maragha observatory as well. Nasiraddin Tusi’s devices and works had influenced the development of astronomy and mathematics in Western Europe, Chine and India. But these facts are unknown for us – N. Tusi’s countrymen. So, Ramiz Deniz tried to give enough information about Nasiraddin Tusi by means of this work.

The author has used historical facts in order to describe Nasiraddin Tusi’s activity. He has analyzed the development of cosmography in the world and mentioned roles of Azerbaijani scientists and especially Nasiraddin Tusi in this field. He especially investigated Tusi’s activity in fields of astronomy, mathematics and diplomacy. The author has proved that, devices invented by N. Tusi are kept in most museums of the world and they had a great role in the development of scientists all over the world. He has named one of headings of the book “N. Tusi’s scientific achievements of global importance”. He has mentioned that, N. Tusi’s “Tahriru Uglidis” (“Recension of Euclid’s Elements”), “Shaklul-qita” and “Collection of Counts” were basis for the development of geometry. The author has mentioned B. A. Rozenfeld’s following thought in order to prove this assumption: “Nasiraddin refused to prove the postulate of parallelism by means of two axioms and postulates and used only one simple postulate and it was an important step for Lobachevski’s proof”. He has proved his ideas by means of 24 items written at the end of the book.

The work of the writer Ramiz Deniz has been written on the basis of rich materials and it explains influence of the Azerbaijani scientist on the development of astronomy, mathematics, geodesy, ethics, geography, philosophy and other sciences. The work has been written in accordance with ideas of patriotism.

Readers will have an opportunity to read interesting scientific facts very easily. But it is necessary to read it attentively. We name the fifth investigation work of the young innovator writer Ramiz Deniz “Courageous step towards the great purpose” and wish him great future of creation.

Scientific editor –

The Associate Member of ANAS,

Doctor of geographical sciences,

Professor Eybali Mehraliyev

                                                              Preface

I got acquainted with the author of this book in June of 2002. The society of “Education” invited me to the scientific-practical conference about “Scientific services of Nasiraddin Tusi and N. Tusi in the activity of the writer and researcher Ramiz Gasimov (Daniz)” and offered me to make speech about his book “Christopher Columbus, Nasiraddin Tusi and discovery of America”. To say the truth I was surprised when heard the author’ name.

Probably, readers know that, R. Gasimov works in the Oil Refining Factory of SOCAR as a worker and isn’t high-educated, but I don’t want to speak about his autobiography. As the name of the book was too haughty, I investigated the author’s previous activity and it turned out that, he is the author of several books and trilogy written in this field. After reading his books I asked myself: Who is R. Gasimov? Is he a writer or researcher and what does he want to gain? I understood that, he has his own style and tries to combine notions of “writer” and “researcher” and is the first author, who has achieved it. For example, he is a researcher in the above mentioned book and books used for this work prove it. Of course, most of issues mentioned in the book are disputable. But the author shouldn’t be accused for it as his purpose was to lay bare the truth by means of discussions and investigations.

R. Gasimov tried to describe different ages together. So, his books resemble scientific annals and historical adventure novels. This style can be considered one of new directions of our literature.

Of course, I’ll not describe the book in the preface. But as the acquaintance with books starts in the preface, it will be advisable to describe main purposes of the book. The book, which is about Tusi’s activity mainly, includes brief information about main results achieved in fields of geography, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, physics etc., their history, conditions of development and authors of those results. The activity of the Azerbaijani traveler and researcher Sheikh Muhammadali Babakuhi Bakuvi has also been described in detail. It is important to know these facts in order to understand Tusi’s activity. Thus, if you want to learn Tusi’s activity, you should learn scientific-social conditions existed in the ancient time and middle ages and role of Eastern scientists in development of world. I think that, the author could overcome this difficult and honorable work.

He has described historical conditions of the age of Tusi, Hulegu khan’s victory on Abbasids and mentioned that, he used advices of scientists before attacking Baghdad. Other skills of Nasiraddin Tusi were discovered after being freed from prison. It turned out that, he was skilful organizer and statesman. He could get permission of the ruler of Mongolia for construction of Maragha observatory and organized this construction. Of course, previous inventions of the scientist had significant role in this achievement. The book includes detailed information about Maragha observatory and scientists, who worked there. The author has compared “Zij-i Ilkhani” and “Zij-i Ulugbek” and proved that, the first work wasn’t worse than the second.

Scientific achievements of Nasiraddin Tusi also were mentioned in the book. The author has mentioned that, the scientist’s “Tahriru Uglidis” was used as a source by most well-known scientists of Europe. According to the author, Tusi had developed trigonometry as an independent branch of science.

Geographical coordinates determined by Tusi by means of simple astronomical equipments were determined more precisely afterwards. It is known that, the world map was made in accordance with coordinates fixed in “Zij-i Ilkhani” and America was described on that map. So, R. Gasimov tries to prove that Columbus had used Nasiraddin Tusi’s map during the discovery of America. Readers may ask following question – Was it necessary to write such book about Tusi? The initial answer may be “No”. But it is an unconsidered answer. Thus, how many Azerbaijanis have enough information about great Azerbaijani scientist Nasiraddin Tusi? Unfortunately, the answer of this question is certainly negative.

Investigations prove that, H. Mammadbayli’s book is almost the only monumental work written about Nasiraddin Tusi. It turns out that, we can get the most detailed information about N. Tusi by means of the encyclopedia “Cambridge history of Iran”. It is a great gap for Azerbaijani science. R. Gasimov gives interesting information about Tusi’s activity in mentioned book. It shouldn’t be forgotten that, he is a writer and has his own style. I think that, it is necessary to inform readers about the Azerbaijani scientist in an interesting and new way.

As it was mentioned above, the author tries to prove that, the map made by Tusi had an important role in discovery of America by Columbus. This thought should be proved by means of additional researches. So, the author has created new issue for researchers though he is a writer.

The author’s style and morphology of sentences are satisfactory, don’t tire readers and the book is read easily. All these facts prove that, the author is talented enough, though he is not high-educated. But education could help him to work on more complicated issues.

R. Gasimov is hard-working writer and so, we can wait for his next books soon. I wish him success.

The Associate Member of ANAS,

Doctor of technical sciences, oceanologist,

Professor Ramiz Mammadov