Southern Kyrgyzstan was fully integrated into the world of science and culture during the Timurid era, which produced many scholars, historians, poets, and thinkers.
Among them, a bright star shines in the form of Timur's grandson, the encyclopedic scholar and humanist ruler Ulugh Beg Muhammad Taragay (1394-1449).
In 1425, he personally led an invasion into the lands of the state of Moghulistan, which included most of Kyrgyzstan. The results of his raids were swift. He conquered the world not with a sword, but through his efforts and the organization of a scientific center in the city of Samarkand, the capital of his domain.
For a long time, the location of the observatory was unknown. Thanks to manuscripts long preserved by the family of Kurmandjan Datka, known in Russian literature as the "Queen of Alai," in 1908, archaeologist V.L. Vyatkin discovered the ruins of the former center of Ulugh Beg's astronomical school in Samarkand.
In his famous work "Zij-i jadid-i gurghani" - "New Astronomical Tables of Gurghani (Guragani), i.e., Ulugh Beg" (1437), all the achievements of astronomical observations of that time were summarized. As noted by Uzbek orientalist, academician Bori Akhmedov, this work, which encompassed the collective efforts of the scholars of the Samarkand Observatory led by Ulugh Beg, became a "pearl, a masterpiece of Eastern classical astronomy."
The tables addressed theoretical aspects of astronomical science. Even in the 15th century, the fame of this school reached Iran, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, India, and later, in the early 17th century, to European countries. In 1648 and 1650, English orientalist John Greaves published a catalog based on Ulugh Beg's tables (Oxford).
In 1665, another English scholar, Thomas Hyde, published the text of Ulugh Beg's work with comments and a Latin translation. Jan Hevelius extensively relied on Ulugh Beg's "Zij" in his work "Introduction to Astronomy" (1690).
Ulugh Beg also authored a book on history titled "Tarikh-i arba-i ulus" - "History of the Four Uluses (Domains)", which reflected the historical and genealogical information of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples and the history of the uluses of the Chinggisids. Ulugh Beg was also an education reformer. At the gates of the madrasah in the city of Bukhara, it was inscribed at his command: "Learning is the duty of every Muslim man and woman."
On this wave of intellectual life, outstanding representatives of Turkic and Tajik-Iranian literature flourished, such as Mir Alisher Navoi (1441 - 1501) and Nur ad-Din al-Lbu-r-Rahman Jami (1414-1492) and many other followers.
When Ulugh Beg was killed as a result of palace intrigues, Alisher Navoi was only eight years old. Later, in the dastan "Farhad and Shirin," he glorifies Ulugh Beg and all scholars:
"Ulugh Beg glorified the lineage of Timur:
Such rulers the world has never known...
Only he comprehended all the mysteries of the sciences;
Before him, the celestial sphere fell to dust.
His drawings of the heavens and star calculations -
The very sky descended to the world from heights!
Before him, the science of the heavens bowed low,
By the will of the heavens, he created the 'Table of Tables'...
The man who glorified science,
May he be glorified in the world forever!"
From Navoi's dastan "Farhad and Shirin" (1484).
