Goethe Universität
Symposium

India and Islam:
Episodes from the History of Pre-Modern Astronomy

Date and time: 

Monday, July 16, 2007, from 2.00 pm till 6.15 pm


Location: 

Building FLAT, Robert-Mayer-Straße 1 (at the corner with the Senckenberganlage), 60325 Frankfurt am Main, room 006 (on the ground floor). The Institute for History of Science is a short walk south of the U-Bahn station Bockenheimer Warte (U4 or U6/U7, south exit in the direction Senckenbergmuseum) along the Senckenberganlage.


Organization: 

Petra Schmidl and Benno van Dalen
Institute for the History of Science
    (Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften)
P.O. Box 111932 (FB 13)
60054 Frank­furt am Main, Germany.

 Instrument




Jai Singh

Jai Singh
 Preliminary Program
2.00 pm
 Opening
2.15-2.30 pm

Prologue: al-Khwarizmi's Sindhind Zij: the earliest extant Islamic zij based on Indian methods of computation (Benno van Dalen)

2.30-2.45 pm Petra Schmidl: Information on Indian astronomy in the works of al-Biruni
2.45-3.15 pm

Mohamed Abu Zayed: An overview of the manuscripts of the anonymous Shamil Zij (Iraq / Iran, ca. 1240)

3.15-3.45 pm Break with refreshments
3.45-4.00 pm Intermezzo: The Nasiri Zij (ca. 1250): The earliest Islamic zij written in India and its dependence on Iraqi / Iranian Sources (Benno van Dalen)
4.00-4.45 pm S.M.R. Ansari: Jai Singh: His efforts and failure to assimilate Islamic Astronomy
4.45-5.15 pm Break with refreshments
5.15-5.30 pm David A. King: Two enigmatic Islamic astrolabes from India
5.30-6.15 pm S.R. Sarma: An overview of Indian astronomical Instruments, including  those at Jai Singh's observatories
6.30 pm Dinner at a local Indian restaurant

All talks will be given in English. The shorter contributions will include relevant general background information on Islamic astronomy in India also aimed at non-specialists.
Beverages will be available in the library of the institute during the breaks. We would appreciate your pre-registration for the symposium by telephone (069/798 22338), fax (069/ 798 23275) or email (schmidl@em.uni-frankfurt.de).