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The astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi spent years working at Alamut, and when the Mongols took the fortress he entered their service and won backing for a great observatory at Maragha.

Nasir al-Din al-Tusi

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Why it matters

The idea in context

He wrote at Alamut for years under a regime the whole region feared, and some of his treatises are among the few things that escaped the library's burning. When the fortress fell he did not vanish with it — he went to work for the conquerors and persuaded them to fund an observatory whose instruments and star tables shaped astronomy for centuries afterwards. Careers are usually told as straight lines. His ran through the worst thing that could happen to it.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Gökbilimci Nasîrüddin Tûsî yıllarca Alamut'ta çalıştı; Moğollar kaleyi aldığında onların hizmetine girdi ve Meraga'da büyük bir rasathane için destek kopardı.
Nasîrüddin Tûsî

Bütün bölgenin korktuğu bir yönetimin altında yıllarca Alamut'ta yazdı; risalelerinden bazıları kütüphanenin yakılışından kurtulan birkaç şeyden biridir. Kale düştüğünde onunla birlikte yok olmadı — fatihlerin hizmetine girdi ve onları, aletleri ile yıldız cetvelleri yüzyıllarca gökbilimi biçimlendirecek bir rasathaneyi finanse etmeye ikna etti. Kariyerler genellikle düz çizgi olarak anlatılır. Onunki, başına gelebilecek en kötü şeyin içinden geçti.

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Background reading: Nasir al-Din al-TusiAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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