Some Remarks About the Influences of Astronomical Phenomena on Islamic Architecture “Analytical and Applied Study on Selected Religious Architectural Models in Cairo”
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The Sundial, Beyond the Form and Time
ISAMA BRIDGES The International Society of the Mathematical Connections Arts, Mathematics, and Architecture in Art, Music, and Science The Sundial, Beyond the Form and Time ... Andrzej Zarzycki 227 Brighton Street Belmont, MA 02478 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract Architecture (iir" k 1-t].lk" ch ... r) n. 1. The art and science of designing and erecting buildings. Can a building inspire scientific thinking? Can an architectural structure reflect the complexity of the universe? Is there a relationship between the artistic and scientific? This paper discusses an approach to design, which uses an architectural structure as a research apparatus to pursue scientifically driven beauty. Architecture could be defined as the man-made universe - the universe whose primary function was to shelter us from elements, animals and other people. Broadly speaking, to protect us from the "outer Uni verse". It is not surprising that the evolution of architecture follows the same trajectories as the evolution of our thinking and perception ofthe surrounding world. However, somewhere along the lines of history, archi tecture acquired another purpose and began to playa new role in our self-awareness. In ancient, medieval and even modem times, we have viewed architecture as a medium to express, symbolize, and address the meaning of our existence. Ancient temples reveal an intimate knowledge of geometry and human perception by purposefully distorting their forms to balance visual illusions. Medieval cathedrals manifested greatness of God through art and structural achievements, while contemporary monu ments address the social and philosophical aspirations of a present-day society. As a result of this centuries long evolution~ we now associate architecture with its less utilitarian and more symbolic values. -
Durham E-Theses
Durham E-Theses First visibility of the lunar crescent and other problems in historical astronomy. Fatoohi, Louay J. How to cite: Fatoohi, Louay J. (1998) First visibility of the lunar crescent and other problems in historical astronomy., Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/996/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk me91 In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful >° 9 43'' 0' eji e' e e> igo4 U61 J CO J: lic 6..ý v Lo ý , ý.,, "ý J ýs ýºý. ur ý,r11 Lýi is' ý9r ZU LZJE rju No disaster can befall on the earth or in your souls but it is in a book before We bring it into being; that is easy for Allah. In order that you may not grieve for what has escaped you, nor be exultant at what He has given you; and Allah does not love any prideful boaster. -
Quarterly Bulletin, Q2
I II © Da Afghanistan Bank, 2009 Ibn-e-Sina Watt Kabul Afghanistan Telephone: +93-20-2100293 Internet: www.centralbank.gov.af Email: [email protected] All rights reserved First printing January 2009 1 2 3 4 5 10 09 08 07 Rights and permissions The material in this publication is copyrighted but may be freely quoted and reprinted. Acknowledgement is requested together with a copy of the publication. Data Notes Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar also known as the Jalali calendar, which was introduced on March 15, 1079 by the Seljuk Sultan Jalal-u-ddin Malik Shah I, based on the recommendations of a committee of astronomers, including Omar Khaiyam, at the imperial observatory in his capital city of Isfahan. It is a solar calendar in which each year begins on March 21. This Quarterly Bulletin covers developments in the second quarter 1387 which is equivalent June 22, 2008 – September 21, 2008 in the Gregorian calendar. Afghanistan figures are in current Afghani unless otherwise specified. Billion means 1,000 million III TABLE OF CONTENT Message of the Governor.......................................................................................................VIII THE INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT .....................................................................1 SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................1 1. UNITED STATES..................................................................................................................1 -
Mathematics in African History and Cultures
Paulus Gerdes & Ahmed Djebbar MATHEMATICS IN AFRICAN HISTORY AND CULTURES: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY African Mathematical Union Commission on the History of Mathematics in Africa (AMUCHMA) Mathematics in African History and Cultures Second edition, 2007 First edition: African Mathematical Union, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004 ISBN: 978-1-4303-1537-7 Published by Lulu. Copyright © 2007 by Paulus Gerdes & Ahmed Djebbar Authors Paulus Gerdes Research Centre for Mathematics, Culture and Education, C.P. 915, Maputo, Mozambique E-mail: [email protected] Ahmed Djebbar Département de mathématiques, Bt. M 2, Université de Lille 1, 59655 Villeneuve D’Asq Cedex, France E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Cover design inspired by a pattern on a mat woven in the 19th century by a Yombe woman from the Lower Congo area (Cf. GER-04b, p. 96). 2 Table of contents page Preface by the President of the African 7 Mathematical Union (Prof. Jan Persens) Introduction 9 Introduction to the new edition 14 Bibliography A 15 B 43 C 65 D 77 E 105 F 115 G 121 H 162 I 173 J 179 K 182 L 194 M 207 N 223 O 228 P 234 R 241 S 252 T 274 U 281 V 283 3 Mathematics in African History and Cultures page W 290 Y 296 Z 298 Appendices 1 On mathematicians of African descent / 307 Diaspora 2 Publications by Africans on the History of 313 Mathematics outside Africa (including reviews of these publications) 3 On Time-reckoning and Astronomy in 317 African History and Cultures 4 String figures in Africa 338 5 Examples of other Mathematical Books and 343 -
G.K. Mukanova IDENTIFICATION of AL-FARABI: PROBLEM TRENDS
ISSN 1563-0242 еISSN 2617-7978 Хабаршы. Журналистика сериясы. №1 (59) 2021 https://bulletin-journalism.kaznu.kz IRSTI 03.61; 19.21 https://doi.org/10.26577/HJ.2021.v59.i1.04 G.K. Mukanova Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan, Almaty, e-mail: [email protected] IDENTIFICATION OF AL-FARABI: PROBLEM TRENDS The article is devoted to the urgent problem of national identity, within the available information space. Monitoring of foreign publications revealed tendencies to unreasonably narrow or limit the impor- tance of the works of geniuses of scientific thought to ethnic boundaries. Using al-Farabi’s identification as an example, the author identifies and classifies system trends that demonstrate the duplication in time and space of “algorithms” that may contradict each other in the light of ideological concepts. Methods and materials relied on the basic principles of dialectics, logic and induction, comparative analysis and interdisciplinarity, in order to determine the subjective and objective factors of the forma- tion of national identity. The materials for the research were taken from sources obtained by means of digital technologies from the sites of foreign library funds and archival depositories of foreign research centers. We studied an array of thematic publications in English on Farabi studies in foreign countries. Digital copies of the publications of interest to us are indicated in the links. Scientific originality of the research lies in the detection of a complex of subjective and objective factors that influenced the external “design” of the identity of such an author of scientific treatises as al-Farabi in the context of different cultures. -
Walbridge, J. (2014). the Alexandrian Epitomes of Galen Vol. 1: on the Medical Nº 18, Sept.-Dec
Rodrigo Pinto de Brito - Universidade Federal de Sergipe (Brasil) [email protected] Walbridge, J. (2014). The Alexandrian Epitomes of Galen vol. 1: On the Medical nº 18, sept.-dec. 2016 Sects for Beginners; The Small art of Medicine; On the Elements According to the Opinion of Hippocrates. A parallel English-Arabic text translated, introduced, and annotated. Utah, Brigham Young University Press BRITO, R. (2016). Review: Walbridge, J. (2014). The Alexandrian Epitomes of Galen vol. 1: On the Medical Sects for Beginners; The Small art of Medicine; On the Elements According to the Opinion of Hippoc- rates. A parallel English-Arabic text translated, introduced, and anno- tated. Utah, Brigham Young University Press. Archai, nº 18, sept.-dec., p. 389-394. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/1984‑249X_18_11 389 The book is edited, translated, introduced and an- notated by John Walbridge, who earned his PhD in 1983 from Harvard University. Nowadays, Walbridge is Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington, his researches are mainly in the area of Islamic Philosophy, Religion and Sciences. Walbridge has been writing books and pa- pers on the Islamic culture, especially on the Islamic reception of the Greek culture in Medieval period. As examples, in 1992 he published The Science of Mys- tic Lights: Qutb al-Din Shirazi and the Illuminationist Tradition of Islamic Philosophy: a monograph about the philosophy of Qutb al-Din Shirazi, an Iranian phi- losopher of the 13th century who was influenced by nº 18, sept.-dec. 2016 Platonism, Avicennian Neoplatonist theory of emana- tions and Iranian Mythology. -
The Calendars of India
The Calendars of India By Vinod K. Mishra, Ph.D. 1 Preface. 4 1. Introduction 5 2. Basic Astronomy behind the Calendars 8 2.1 Different Kinds of Days 8 2.2 Different Kinds of Months 9 2.2.1 Synodic Month 9 2.2.2 Sidereal Month 11 2.2.3 Anomalistic Month 12 2.2.4 Draconic Month 13 2.2.5 Tropical Month 15 2.2.6 Other Lunar Periodicities 15 2.3 Different Kinds of Years 16 2.3.1 Lunar Year 17 2.3.2 Tropical Year 18 2.3.3 Siderial Year 19 2.3.4 Anomalistic Year 19 2.4 Precession of Equinoxes 19 2.5 Nutation 21 2.6 Planetary Motions 22 3. Types of Calendars 22 3.1 Lunar Calendar: Structure 23 3.2 Lunar Calendar: Example 24 3.3 Solar Calendar: Structure 26 3.4 Solar Calendar: Examples 27 3.4.1 Julian Calendar 27 3.4.2 Gregorian Calendar 28 3.4.3 Pre-Islamic Egyptian Calendar 30 3.4.4 Iranian Calendar 31 3.5 Lunisolar calendars: Structure 32 3.5.1 Method of Cycles 32 3.5.2 Improvements over Metonic Cycle 34 3.5.3 A Mathematical Model for Intercalation 34 3.5.3 Intercalation in India 35 3.6 Lunisolar Calendars: Examples 36 3.6.1 Chinese Lunisolar Year 36 3.6.2 Pre-Christian Greek Lunisolar Year 37 3.6.3 Jewish Lunisolar Year 38 3.7 Non-Astronomical Calendars 38 4. Indian Calendars 42 4.1 Traditional (Siderial Solar) 42 4.2 National Reformed (Tropical Solar) 49 4.3 The Nānakshāhī Calendar (Tropical Solar) 51 4.5 Traditional Lunisolar Year 52 4.5 Traditional Lunisolar Year (vaisnava) 58 5. -
The Correct Qibla
The Correct Qibla S. Kamal Abdali P.O. Box 65207 Washington, D.C. 20035 [email protected] (Last Revised 1997/9/17)y 1 Introduction A book[21] published recently by Nachef and Kadi argues that for North America the qibla (i.e., the direction of Mecca) is to the southeast. As proof of this claim, they quote from a number of classical Islamic jurispru- dents. In further support of their view, they append testimonials from several living Muslim religious scholars as well as from several Canadian and US scientists. The consulted scientists—mainly geographers—suggest that the qibla should be identified with the rhumb line to Mecca, which is in the southeastern quadrant for most of North America. The qibla adopted by Nachef and Kadi (referred to as N&K in the sequel) is one of the eight directions N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW, depending on whether the place whose qibla is desired is situated relatively east or west and north or south of Mecca; this direction is not the same as the rhumb line from the place to Mecca, but the two directions lie in the same quadrant. In their preliminary remarks, N&K state that North American Muslim communities used the southeast direction for the qibla without exception until the publication of a book[1] about 20 years ago. N&K imply that the use of the great circle for computing the qibla, which generally results in a direction in the north- eastern quadrant for North America, is a new idea, somehow original with that book. -
The History of Arabic Sciences: a Selected Bibliography
THE HISTORY OF ARABIC SCIENCES: A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Mohamed ABATTOUY Fez University Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin A first version of this bibliography was presented to the Group Frühe Neuzeit (Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin) in April 1996. I revised and expanded it during a stay of research in MPIWG during the summer 1996 and in Fez (november 1996). During the Workshop Experience and Knowledge Structures in Arabic and Latin Sciences, held in the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin on December 16-17, 1996, a limited number of copies of the present Bibliography was already distributed. Finally, I express my gratitude to Paul Weinig (Berlin) for valuable advice and for proofreading. PREFACE The principal sources for the history of Arabic and Islamic sciences are of course original works written mainly in Arabic between the VIIIth and the XVIth centuries, for the most part. A great part of this scientific material is still in original manuscripts, but many texts had been edited since the XIXth century, and in many cases translated to European languages. In the case of sciences as astronomy and mechanics, instruments and mechanical devices still extant and preserved in museums throughout the world bring important informations. A total of several thousands of mathematical, astronomical, physical, alchemical, biologico-medical manuscripts survived. They are written mainly in Arabic, but some are in Persian and Turkish. The main libraries in which they are preserved are those in the Arabic World: Cairo, Damascus, Tunis, Algiers, Rabat ... as well as in private collections. Beside this material in the Arabic countries, the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, the Biblioteca del Escorial near Madrid, the British Museum and the Bodleian Library in England, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Süleymaniye and Topkapi Libraries in Istanbul, the National Libraries in Iran, India, Pakistan.. -
History of Sundials
History of Sundials The earliest record of the sundial dates back as early as 3500 BCE. At this time the ancient Egyptians were building tall, slender monuments from stone, called obelisks, which cast shadows that functioned like a sundial. Obelisks enabled people to divide the day into morning and afternoon, and they also showed the longest and shortest days of the year when the shadow they cast was longest or shortest at noon. Later on, additional markers were added around the base of the obelisk to indicate further subdivisions of time. Possibly the first portable timepiece came into use around 1500 BCE. Still a sundial, this was another Egyptian invention and it divided the day into ten parts plus two “twilight hours” in the morning and evening; was this the origin of the “twelve hour day” that we know today? Around 600 BCE the Egyptians came up with another invention, the merkhet (the oldest known astronomical tool), which allowed them to tell the time at night when there was no sun to cast a shadow. The merkhet worked in a similar way to a sundial: you would line up a pair of them in a north-south direction using the Pole Star, and then as certain stars crossed that line you would be able to tell what time it was. In the pursuit of year-round accuracy sundials gradually developed from their original shape, of a flat or vertical plate or surface, to much more elaborate forms. One version was a bowl-shape, cut into a block of stone, with a central vertical pointer (gnomon) whose shadow fell on lines marking sets of hour lines for different seasons. -
A Modern Approach to Sundial Design
SARENA ANISSA DR. JASON ROBERTSON ZACHARIAS AUFDENBERG A Modern Approach to Sundials DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES INTRODUCTION TO VERTICAL SUNDIALS TYPES OF VERTICAL SUNDIALS RESULTS Gnomon: casts the shadow onto the sundial face Reclining Dials A small scale sundial model printed out and proved to be correct as far as the hour lines go, and only a Reclining dials are generally oriented along a north-south line, for example they face due south for a minor adjustment to the gnomon length was necessary in order for the declination lines to be Nodus: the location along the gnomon that marks the time and date on the dial plate sundial in the Northern hemisphere. In such a case the dial surface would have no declination. Reclining validated. This was possible since initial calibration fell on a date near the vernal equinox, therefore the sundials are at an angle from the vertical, and have gnomons directly parallel with Earth’s rotational axis tip of the shadow should have fell just below the equinox declination line. angular distance of the gnomon from the dial face Style Height: which is visually represented in Figure 1a). Shown in Figure 3 is the final sundial corrected for the longitude of Daytona Beach, FL. If the dial were Substyle Line: line lying in the dial plane perpendicularly behind the style 1b) 1a) not corrected for longitude, the noon line would fall directly vertical from the gnomon base. For verti- cal dials, the shortest shadow will be will the sun has its lowest altitude in the sky. For the Northern Substyle Angle: angle that the substyle makes with the noon-line hemisphere, this is the Winter Solstice declination line. -
Prince Henry the Navigator, Who Brought This Move Ment of European Expansion Within Sight of Its Greatest Successes
This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com PrinceHenrytheNavigator CharlesRaymondBeazley 1 - 1 1 J fteroes of tbe TRattong EDITED BY Sveltn Bbbott, flD.B. FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD PACTA DUOS VIVE NT, OPEROSAQUE OLMIA MHUM.— OVID, IN LI VI AM, f«». THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON FAME SHALL LIVE. PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR GATEWAY AT BELEM. WITH STATUE, BETWEEN THE DOORS, OF PRINCE HENRY IN ARMOUR. Frontispiece. 1 1 l i "5 ' - "Hi:- li: ;, i'O * .1 ' II* FV -- .1/ i-.'..*. »' ... •S-v, r . • . '**wW' PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR THE HERO OF PORTUGAL AND OF MODERN DISCOVERY I 394-1460 A.D. WITH AN ACCOUNr Of" GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS THROUGH OUT THE MIDDLE AGLi> AS THE PREPARATION FOR KIS WORlf' BY C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S. FELLOW OF MERTON 1 fr" ' RifrB | <lvFnwn ; GEOGRAPHICAL STUDEN^rf^fHB-SrraSR^tttpXFORD, 1894 ule. Seneca, Medea P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON Cbe Knicftetbocftet press 1911 fe'47708A . A' ;D ,'! ~.*"< " AND TILDl.N' POL ' 3 -P. i-X's I_ • •VV: : • • •••••• Copyright, 1894 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London Ube ftntcfeerbocfter press, Hew Iffotfc CONTENTS. PACK PREFACE Xvii INTRODUCTION. THE GREEK AND ARABIC IDEAS OF THE WORLD, AS THE CHIEF INHERITANCE OF THE CHRISTIAN MIDDLE AGES IN GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE . I CHAPTER I. EARLY CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS (CIRCA 333-867) . 29 CHAPTER II. VIKINGS OR NORTHMEN (CIRCA 787-1066) .