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by David A. King
[from Yemen Update 30/31(1992):15,35]
[The following is excerpted from anarticle by Prof. David A. King in the Bulletin of the ScientificInstrument Society 31 (December, 1991), pp. 3-7. Among theinstruments described are several made in Yemen]
A catalogue of medieval Islamic and Europeanastronomical instruments is currently being prepared at the Institutefor the History of Science at Frankfurt University. It is hoped thatthis catalogue will serve as a useful research tool by providingcritical descriptions of all historically-significant instruments,arranged according to provenance and type.
The total number of instruments included inthe catalogue will be about 550 astrolabes (some 300 Islamic and 250European) and 250 quadrants, sundials and other instruments...
The basic philosophy behind the preparationof the catalogue is that it is essential to hold the instrument inone's hands, to take it apart, to examine each part carefully -- inshort, to play with it for a while-- in order to begin to understandit properly. Photographs are inadequate for this purpose, but insome cases must suffice. One may need to examine some details with amagnifying glass, or even a microscope. The task for the unsignedand undated instruments is then to relate them to a school or aperiod. Again it is particularly useful, but rarely possible, toexamine related instruments together.
Important collections have already beenvisited and most of the early Islamic and European instrumentsinspected and described. A substantial amount of the basicdescriptive work (perhaps one-half of the total required) has beencarried out. The planned critical analysis of this vast corpus ofmaterial can only be conducted when more of the descriptive work hasbeen completed. Good-quality photographs are already available foronly about one-fifth of the instruments, but about four-fifths havebeen studied, mainly by inspecting the actual instruments and in somecases using published or unpublished photographs.
The catalogue is arranged according to thefollowing general categories (* indicates that only selectedinstruments will be treated in detail): 1. Early Easternastrolabes; 2. Late Eastern astrolabes*; 3. Eastern quadrants; 4.Eastern sundials; 5. Misc. Eastern instruments*; 6. Early Europeanastrolabes (to ca. 1500); 7. Late European astrolabes (to ca. 1600);8. Early European quadrants; 9. Early European sundials; 10. Misc.early European instruments*...
Numerous fakes will be featured in thecatalogue, and carefully distinguished as such. On the other hand,several instruments generally regarded as fakes will be reinstated asgenuine medieval instruments. A regrettable trend amongst thecognoscienti has been to brand as fake any instrument that did notfit their notions of medieval instrumentation...
The advantages to be gained by inspectinglarge numbers of mainly uncatalogued and unpublished historicalobjects at first hand will be obvious to any historian. The variousIslamic traditions of instrument making can now be related to thehistory of astronomy in general in the various parts of the Islamicworld. We can see the innovations made to the standard astrolabe inBaghdad in the ninth and tenth centuries, and can pursue thedevelopment of universal astrolabes and plates in Islamic astronomy.
The cost of photography for this project isenormous, far beyond the means of a small institute. Several museumshave already contributed photographic materials without charge, andit is hoped thatothers will follow suit... The text of the catalogueis being prepared on a computer (MS Word 4.0 on an Apple MacintoshLC), and the standardized format for the entries can be changed atwill for the entire text... The text currently amounts to about 2,500pages. But it is easier to begin such a catalogue than to completeit, and in order to produce a final camera-ready copy forpublication, additional funding is currently beingsought...
The completion of this catalogue will surelystimulate renewed interest in a field which is of prime importance inthe history of science. The unity of medieval astronomicalinstrumentation in the Islamic East and the Christian West willbecome apparent, and the Islamic and early European contributions toinstrument-making will become clear as never before...
[Prof. King can be reached at: Institutfür Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Universität JohannWolfgang Goethe, 6000 Frankfurt am Main, Republic of Germany. He hasrecently received a substantial grant from the Deutsche Forschungs- gemeinschaft to fund three assistants for two years, aswell as limited funding for travel to museums and procurement ofphotographs.]
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