Ibn Hazm - Spherical Earth

Spherical Earth

By the 9th century, many Muslims in Al-Andalus believed that the Earth was flat, contrary to the beliefs of Ancient Greek geographers such as Ptolemy and Eratosthenes. But scholars like Ibn Hazm began supporting the Ancient Greek view that the Earth was a sphere, he is known to have started his debate by stating verses from the Quran: "He makes the Night overlap the Day, and the Day overlap the Night" (Zumar;5)- the word "to make overlap" here, in Arabic kawwara ( كَوَّرَ ), is derived from kura( كُرَة ), which means "ball" or "sphere" -. And after detailed studies using celestial globes he concluded proof, and the now astronomer Ibn Hazm stated publicly stated that: "the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth". Ibn Hazm proof inspired generations later on including the geographer al-Idrisi, who depicted the world as a globe.