Abul Aabas Akhmad ibn Mukhammad Kasir aI-Farghani, the great astronomer, mathematician and geographer was known in Europe as Alfaraghanus in Europe and as Khasib in the East, which means "mathematician". Not much of his biography is known today, mainly that pan of i¹" is name "Faghani" is evidence of his roots being in the Ferghana Valley. His scientific immortalized the name giving it international recognition.

Akhmad al-Farghani was one of the Pleiad scientists, a member of the House of Wisdom  established by Khaliph AL-Ma'mun in the 9^th century. This large scientific center was also known as the al-Ma'mun Academy. It was first in Mery, then in Baghdad that the scientists whom he invited from Khoresm, Sogdiana, Shash, Farab, Khorosan conducted their scientific. The two observatories were equipped with the most modem equipment for that era It was there that astronomers from the al-Ma'mun Academy calculated the Earth's circumference, the degree length of the Earth's meridian, investigated the stars, compiled the "zibjes" (tables) and wrote scientific reports. AI-Farghani was also invited to work with these scientists. During his work in Egypt, he created the famous "Cairo Nilemeter", a measuring device for the water in the Nile. This invention has preserved its scientific value to this day, used for the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Akhrnad Farghani's major works known to us today consist of three titles: The Book About Sky Movements and the Science of Star Codes", 'Thirty Elements", 'Theoretical Computations or Spheres". This treatise was one of the first works on astronomy in Arabic. Owing to Farghcini's the Ma'mun Academy's research works on astronomy became known in the West. Fargl'ani the great oriental scientist, decided "after checking" Ptolemeus' data-precision, specifj/ing and correcting previous astronomic data, proved the spherical shape of the earth based on the observation of heavenly bodies and forecasted the solar eclipse of 812.

In the 12^th century "The Book About Sky Movements..." was translated into Latin twice, and in the 13^th century it was translated into Kastil and old French. In 1669 Jacob Helios the Dutch expert in Arabic and mathematics, made another Latin translation and published this work in its original state.

Alig'eri Dante (1264-1321) was familiar with Alfraganusa's book. He was in love with Beatriche, a beautiful Florentine and dedicated all his poems to her. Beatriche died at the age of 27. After ier death the poet sought consolation in the study science and philosophy. He was mainly interested in ancient philosophers, oriental scientists, Christian theologians. His fervent studies resulted in the philosophical treatise "Feast", which in its incomplete state, is still regarded as the encyclopedia of the European Medieval scientific thought. In creating "Feast", took Aristotle, Farabi, Ibn Sino, Ibn Rushd, and others as the basis of his scientific theories. All his judgments on astronomy and space are based completely on AI-Faghani's treatise. In the second chapter of his book, Dante estimates the Venus year to be 1168 earth days, as it was early calculated by al-Faghani. In calculating Saturn's epicentric movement, he quotes Alphraghanusa: 'The sky of Saturn has two peculiarities... one is the slow movement through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The second movement through the Zodiac is 9 days faster as compared with the first. In modem astronomy the first movement is called sidereal and the second - tropic."

There are many other instances where the poet used the work of the great oriental scientist as a source of information about the sky, planets, stars.

Dante's "Divine Comedy", his greatest work, owes much to oriental science. The author places purgatory on a mountain in the western part of the southern hemisphere of the earth. It was Farghani presumed the existence of the unknown continent in the west and described its sky. The sky above purgatory in 'The divine Comedy" had the same stars.

When Amerigo de Visputchi, an Italian cartographer arrived in "India" at the end of the 15the century discovered by Christopher Columbus, i.e. the southern part of the continent, he saw the stars in the sky described by Dante and exclaimed: "Ah We've arrived at Dante's purgatory!".

Amerigo de Visputchi was the first to prove that this was not India but place unknown to the world until then, which resulted in the continent being named after its discoverer. That's how the great oriental scientist al-Faghani predicted the discovery of America.