Ulugh-Beg

Ulugh-Beg, the grandson of Tīmūr, or Tamerlane (q.v.), governed Western Turkestan as regent for his father Shah Rokh, while the latter was employed in regulating the affairs of the southern half of the empire, and succeeded in 1447 to the imperial throne on his father's death. He was a successful warrior, as every ruler of this period had to be, but happened, unfortunately, to conceive suspicions of the loyalty of his eldest son, suspicions founded only upon astrological indications. The offended and injured prince rebelled, defeated and captured his father, and soon after caused him to be put to death, thus fulfilling the prediction, 1449. Ulugh-Beg is known to posterity as the founder of the observatory at Samarcand, as the liberal patron of astronomers, and as himself a most diligent observer. The astronomical tables which bear his name, in all probability compiled by himself and his fellow-labourers, enjoy a high reputation for accuracy. The astronomical works of Ulugh-Beg were written in Arabic, afterwards translated into Persian, and thence the chronological portion of them rendered into Latin (Lond. 1650) by Greaves, who followed with a Latin version of the geographical part in 1652. An independent version of the same work in Latin and Persian was published by Dr Thomas Hyde, at Oxford, in 1665. A new edition of Ulugh-Beg's catalogue of stars will be found in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xiii. Some of Ulugh-Beg's coins have been published by S. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum, vol. vii., and Additions, part ii.