Mizzī was a muwaqqit, an adept instrument-maker, and the author of several treatises on astronomical instruments. He studied in Cairo under Ibn al-Akfānī. He was appointed as a muwaqqit in al-Rabwa (near Damascus), and then at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, a position he held until his death. He authored treatises on the use of the astrolabe, the astrolabic quadrant, and the sine quadrant. His treatises al-Rawḍāt al-muzhirāt fī al-`amal bi-rub` al-muqanṭarāt and Kashf al-rayb fī al-`amal bi-’l-jayb were popular. He also wrote on the use of less common instruments, such as the musattar and the mujannaḥ quadrants. Five quadrants of his fabrication are extant (dated between 1326/27 and 1333/34). According to Ibn al-`Aṭṭār (15th c), he also made astrolabes with mixed projections; according to al-Ṣafadī, Mizzī also excelled in oiling bows (bara`a fī dahn al-qisī) and constructing mechanical devices such as those of the Banū Mūsā. [F. Charette]
