World-maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca
World-maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca

Author: David King

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2021-09-06

Total Pages: 670

ISBN-13: 9004450734

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Two remarkable Iranian world-maps were discovered in 1989 and 1995. Both are made of brass and date from 17th-century Iran. Mecca is at the centre and a highly sophisticated longitude and latitude grid enables the user to determine the direction and distance to Mecca for anywhere in the world between Andalusia and China. Prior to the discovery of these maps it was thought that such cartographic grids were conceived in Europe ca. 1910. This richly-illustrated book presents an overview of the ways in which Muslims over the centuries have determined the sacred direction towards Mecca (qibla) and then describes the two world-maps in detail. The author shows that the geographical data derives from a 15th-century Central Asian source and that the mathematics underlying the grid was developed in 9th-century Baghdad.

Sic Itur Ad Astra
Sic Itur Ad Astra

Author: Paul Kunitzsch

Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 9783447042901

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Die Festschrift vereinigt 29 Beitrage, die folgende Sachgebiete betreffen: arabische und mittelalterlich-europaische Mathematik, Uberlieferungsgeschichte der indisch-arabischen Ziffern, die arabisch-islamische Astronomie, die volkstumliche arabische Himmelskunde, das Astrolab und seine Nomenklatur, antike und spatgriechische astronome Traditionen, weitere Fragen bzw. Texte zur Uberlieferung der Wissenschaften im griechisch-syrisch-arabisch-lateinischen Traditionsraum. Alle Arbeiten sind originell und beruhen auf einschlagigen Originalquellen. Mehrere griechische, syrische, arabische und lateinische Texte bzw. Auszuge daraus sind auch ediert. Die Sammlung enthalt somit wichtige, neue Bausteine fur unser Gesamtbild von den arabischen Wissenschaften, ihrem Nachleben in Europa und weiteren Ausstrahlungen auf die europaische Geistesgeschichte.

In Synchrony with the Heavens, Volume 2 Instruments of Mass Calculation
In Synchrony with the Heavens, Volume 2 Instruments of Mass Calculation

Author: David King

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 1142

ISBN-13: 9047406753

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This is the first investigation of one of the main interests of astronomy in Islamic civilization, namely, timekeeping by the sun and stars and the regulation of the astronomically-defined times of Muslim prayer. The study is based on over 500 medieval astronomical manuscripts first identified by the author, now preserved in libraries all over the world and originally from the entire Islamic world from the Maghrib to Central Asia and the Yemen. The materials presented provide new insights into the early development of the prayer ritual in Islam. They also call into question the popular notion that religion could not inspire serious scientific activity. Only one of the hundreds of astronomical tables discussed here was known in medieval Europe, which is one reason why the entire corpus has remained unknown until the present. A second volume, also to be published by Brill, deals with astronomical instruments for timekeeping and other computing devices.

The Ciphers of the Monks
The Ciphers of the Monks

Author: David A. King

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9783515076401

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This is the first comprehensive study of an ingenious number-notation from the Middle Ages that was devised by monks and mainly used in monasteries. A simple notation for representing any number up to 99 by a single cipher, somehow related to an ancient Greek shorthand, first appeared in early-13th-century England, brought from Athens by an English monk. A second, more useful version, due to Cistercian monks, is first attested in the late 13th century in what is today the border country between Belgium and France: with this any number up to 9999 can be represented by a single cipher. The ciphers were used in scriptoria - for the foliation of manuscripts, for writing year-numbers, preparing indexes and concordances, numbering sermons and the like, and outside the scriptoria - for marking the scales on an astronomical instrument, writing year-numbers in astronomical tables, and for incising volumes on wine-barrels. Related notations were used in medieval and Renaissance shorthands and coded scripts. This richly-illustrated book surveys the medieval manuscripts and Renaissance books in which the ciphers occur, and takes a close look at an intriguing astrolabe from 14th-century Picardy marked with ciphers. With Indices. "Mit Kings luzider Beschreibung und Bewertung der einzelnen Funde und ihrer Beziehungen wird zugleich die Forschungsgeschichte - die bis dato durch Widerspruechlichkeit und Diskontinuit�t gepr�gt ist - umfassend aufgearbeitet." Zeitschrift fuer Germanistik.

Scientific Instruments, 1500-1900
Scientific Instruments, 1500-1900

Author: Gerard L'Estrange Turner

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9780520217287

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The impulse to collect is universal. Collections containing natural curiosities date from the 16th century, and it was this type of collection in which scientific instruments found a home. This book traces the historical origins and development of instruments as they spread across the globe, explaining their manufacture, use, and adaptations. 91 color and 20 b&w plates.

Astrolabes from Medieval Europe
Astrolabes from Medieval Europe

Author: David A. King

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-10-28

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 1040241824

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This is the fourth set of studies in the Variorum series by David King, a leading authority on the history of astronomy in Islamic civilization and on medieval astronomical instruments, European as well as Islamic. The first of the eleven studies collected here deals with medieval instruments in general, as precious historical sources. The following papers focus on individual astrolabes from the European Middle Ages and early Renaissance that are of singular historical importance. Two look at the origins of the simple universal horary quadrant and the complicated universal horary dial (navicula). The collection concludes with a list of all known medieval European astrolabes, ordered chronologically by region. Three "landmark" astrolabes are discussed: (1) the earliest known European astrolabe from 10th-century Catalonia, that milieu in which the astrolabe first became known to Europeans; (2) an astrolabe from 14th-century Picardy bearing numerals written in monastic ciphers as well as a later dedication mentioning two friends of Erasmus; (3) the splendid astrolabe presented in 1462 by the German astronomer Regiomontanus to his patron Cardinal Bessarion, with its enigmatic angel and Latin dedication, here presented in the context of other astrolabes of similar design from 15th-century Vienna.