Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word zīj comes from a Middle Persian term meaning cord. This etymology reveals the fundamental nature of these books as intricate tapestries of information designed to predict the movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets with remarkable precision.
The Zij-i Sultani was published by the astronomer and sultan Ulugh Beg in 1438 or 1439. This work became the standard reference throughout Islam during the early modern era and was notable for its accuracy and the sheer scale of the observations that went into its creation.
Sawai Jai Singh of Amber compiled the Zīj-i Muhammad Shāhī in the Kingdom of Amber. This work was notable for employing the use of telescopic observations and was updated throughout the modern era under various sultanates.
The last known zīj treatise was the Zīj-i Bahadurkhani written in 1838 by the Indian astronomer Ghulam Hussain Jaunpuri and printed in 1855. This treatise was dedicated to Bahadur Khan and incorporated the heliocentric system into the zīj tradition.
The greatest centers of production were Baghdad under the Abbasid caliphs in the ninth century, the Maragheh observatory in the thirteenth century, the Samarkand observatory in the fifteenth century, and the Constantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Din in the sixteenth century. These institutions were hubs of innovation where the boundaries of human knowledge were constantly being pushed.
A typical zīj was far more comprehensive than a simple almanac and functioned as a complete manual for astronomical science. These volumes included materials on chronology, geographical latitudes and longitudes, star tables, trigonometrical functions, and the equation of time.