Ulugh Beg

Mirza Muhammad Taraghay bin Shahrukh, known as Ulugh Beg, was a Timurid sultan who was also an astronomer and mathematician, notable for his work in astronomy-related mathematics including trigonometry and spherical geometry. Between 1424 and 1429 he built the Ulugh Beg Observatory at Samarkand, recognized by scholars as one of the finest observatories in the Islamic world and the largest in Central Asia, and many scholars have called him the most important observational astronomer of the fifteenth century. He also founded madrasahs in Samarkand and Bukhara that helped make those cities centers of learning, though his scientific accomplishments were not matched by success as a ruler, and he was overthrown and killed around 1449.