Ibn as-Saffar

{{short description|Spanish-Arab astronomer in Al-Andalus}}

Abu al‐Qasim Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Umar al‐Ghafiqī ibn as-Saffar al‐Andalusi (born in Cordoba, died in the year 1035 at Denia), also known as Ibn as-Saffar ({{Langx|ar|ابن الصَّفَّار}}, literally: son of the brass worker), was a Spanish-Arab{{cite book|last1=North|first1=John|title=Cosmos: An Illustrated History of Astronomy and Cosmology|date=2008|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226594415|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qq8Luhs7rTUC&q=%22astronomer+Ibn+al-Saffar+%22&pg=PA223|language=en}} astronomer in Al-Andalus. He worked at the school founded by his colleague Al-Majriti in Córdoba. His best-known work was a treatise on the astrolabe, a text that was in active use until the 15th century and influenced the work of Kepler. He also wrote a commentary on the Zij as-Sindhind, and measured the coordinates of Mecca.{{sfn|Rius|2007}}

Ibn as-Saffar later influenced the works of Abu as-Salt.

Paul Kunitzsch argued that a Latin treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Mashallah, and used by Chaucer to write A Treatise on the Astrolabe, is in fact written by Ibn as-Saffar.{{Cite journal| volume = 31| issue = 106| pages = 42–62| last = Kunitzsch| first = Paul| title = On the authenticity of the treatise on the composition and use of the astrolabe ascribed to Messahalla| journal = Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences Oxford| date = 1981}}{{Cite book| publisher = Springer Science & Business Media| isbn = 978-1-4020-4559-2| last = Selin| first = Helaine| title = Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures| date = 2008-03-12|page=1335|quote=Paul Kunitzsch has recently established that the Latin treatise on the astrolabe long ascribed to Ma'sh'allah and translated by John of Seville is in fact by Ibn al-Saffar, a disciple of Maslama al-Majriti.}}

The exoplanet Saffar, also known as Upsilon Andromedae b, is named in his honor.

Saffar Island in Antarctica is named after Ibn as-Saffar.