Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was born on 7 December 903. He worked at the Buyid court in Isfahan, where he undertook the patient labor of charting the heavens. In 964, he completed "Kitāb ṣuwar al-kawākib" ("The Book of Fixed Stars"), a work that combined written descriptions with illustrations of the constellations. The polymath Al-Biruni later noted that al-Sufi conducted his observations of the ecliptic in Shiraz. He died on 25 May 986, leaving behind a record of the stars as they appeared to tenth-century eyes.