Son of Ulugh Beg’s falconer and later a renowned astronomer, founder of Ottoman astronomy, and author of a ringing defense of astronomy’s autonomy from philosophy. He performed many of his most notable studies at the Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand. He later founded a madrasa in Constantinople that became one of the most notable intellectual institutions in the Islamic world. Works on astronomy and arithmetic by Ali Qushji were among the earliest Arabic scientific tracts to be translated into Latin and published in England in the 17th century, influencing the work of Western scientists throughout the Enlightenment.