Zīj as-Sindhind (Arabic:زيج السندهند الكبير,Zīj as‐Sindhind al‐Kabīr, lit. "Great Astronomical Tables of the Sindhind"; fromSanskritsiddhānta, "system" or "treatise") is a work ofzij (astronomical handbook with tables used to calculate celestial positions) brought in the early 770s AD to the court of Caliphal-Mansur inBaghdad fromSindh in present dayPakistan. Al-Mansur requested an Arabic translation of this work from the Sanskrit. The 8th-century astronomer and translatorMuḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī is known to have contributed to this translation.[1] In his bookṬabaqāt al-ʼUmam "Categories of Nations",[2]Said al-Andalusi informs that others who worked on it includeibn Sa'd andMuhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. He adds that its meaning isal-dahr al-dahir (infinite time or cyclic time).
This is the first of many Arabic zijs based on the Indian astronomical methods known as the Sindhind. The work contains tables for the movements of the sun, the moon and the five planets known at the time. It consists of approximately 37 chapters on calendar and astronomical calculations and 116 tables with calendar, astronomical and astrological data, as well as a table of sine values.[citation needed]
As described by Said al-Andalusi, as-Sindhind divides time into cyclic periods of creation and destruction which are calledkalpas.
