David King (science historian)

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David A. King (* 1941 in England ) is a British orientalist and astronomy historian who deals with the astronomy of the Islamic culture and the history of astronomical instruments.

Life

King graduated from Cambridge University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1963 and education from Oxford University . From 1964 to 1967 he was a math teacher in Sudan (Atbara, Darfur) and then in Toronto. From 1968 he was at Yale University , where he received his doctorate in literature and languages ​​of the Middle East in 1968 with the dissertation The Astronomical Works of Ibn Yûnus . From 1972 to 1979 he headed a Smithsonian Institution project on medieval Islamic astronomy at the American Research Center in Egypt, cataloging the Arabic, Persian and Turkish scientific manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library in Cairo. In 1979 he became Associate Professor and in 1984 Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages ​​and Literatures at New York University . From 1985 until his retirement in 2007 he was Professor of the History of Natural Sciences and Director of the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences (IGN) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Among other things, he dealt with the history of mathematical astronomy and folk astronomy in the Islamic cultural field. He is particularly concerned with the aspects of Islamic cult that have to do with astronomy (lunar calendar, determining the orientation towards Mecca, organizing the five daily astronomically-defined times of prayer). He was one of the first to systematically evaluate scientific instruments (astrolabes, quadrants and sundials) from the Islamic world as historical sources.

King wrote the first surveys in the history of astronomy in Yemen, Egypt, Syria ( Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah al-Khalili ), and the Magreb, published books on newly discovered world maps for determining direction (qibla) and distance to Mecca, to determine the times of prayer and how the Muslims calculated them over 1400 years and scientific instruments of the Islamic culture.

He discovered a forgotten medieval number notation, which originally came from ancient Greece and was used especially by the Cistercians and can also be found on an astrolabe from Picardy from the 14th century.

On the basis of two discoveries in 2005 by Berthold Holzschuh, a participant in his instrument seminar, King drew an acrostic of a Latin epigram of Regiomontanus on an astrolabe, which he gave to his patron Cardinal Bessarion in 1462 , for the interpretation of the painting Flagellation of Christ by Piero della Francesca approach. According to King, two of the people in the painting represent Bessarion (third from the right in the foreground with a beard) and Regiomontanus (to the right of Bessarion), other classical gods, but with multiple additional identifications, as in the epigram. The epigram on the astrolabe was the direct inspiration for the painting, according to King.

A secondary interest of King is church history of the Middle Ages, among other things he published on the cult of the fictional Flemish saints of the 14th century Wilgefortis (Sorrow).

King has been married to Patricia Cannavaro since 1969 and has two sons. He received the Paul Bunge Prize for the History of Scientific Instruments in 1996 for his scientific life's work and the Koyré Medal of the Académie internationale d'histoire des sciences in 2013 .

Works

  • A Catalog of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library [in Arabic], 2 volumes, Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization 1981, 1986.
  • Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen - A Bio-Bibliographical Survey, (Publications of the American Research Center in Egypt, Catalogs, vol. 4), Malibu, California: Undena Publications 1983.
  • A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library, (Publications of the American Research Center in Egypt), Catalogs, Volume 5, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns 1986.
  • Islamic Mathematical Astronomy, London: Variorum 1986, 2nd edition, Aldershot: Variorum 1993 (collection of articles).
  • Islamic Astronomical Instruments, London: Variorum, 1987, repr. Aldershot: Variorum 1995 (collection of articles).
  • Astronomy in the Service of Islam, Aldershot: Variorum 1993 (collection of articles).
  • World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science, Leiden: EJ Brill 1999.
  • The Ciphers of the Monks - A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages, Boethius, Volume 44, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 2001.
  • In Synchrony with the Heavens. Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. Volume 1: The Call of the Muezzin (Studies I - IX), Leiden: Brill 2004.
  • In Synchrony with the Heavens. Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. Volume 2: Instruments of Mass Calculation (Studies X-XVIII), Leiden: Brill 2005.
  • Astrolabes and Angels, Epigrams and Enigmas - From Regiomontanus' Acrostic for Cardinal Bessarion to Piero della Francesca's Flagellation of Christ - An essay by David A. King inspired by two remarkable discoveries by Berthold Holzschuh, Boethius, Volume 56, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner 2007.
  • Editor with George Saliba: From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East in Honor of ES Kennedy, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 500, 1987.
  • Astrolabes from Medieval Europe, Aldershot & Burlington VT: Ashgate-Variorum, 2011 (collection of articles).
  • Islamic Astronomy and Geography, Aldershot & Burlington VT: Ashgate-Variorum, 2012 (collection of articles).

Some essays:

  • Islamic Astronomy , in: Christopher Walker (Ed.), Astronomy before the Telescope, London: British Museum Press, 1996, pp. 143–174 (reprinted in King, Islamic Astronomy and Geography)
  • Astronomical Instruments between East and West , in: Harry Kühnel (Hrsg.), Kommunikation between Orient und Occident, Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1994, pp. 143–198 (reprinted in King: Astrolabes from Medieval Europe)
  • with Julio Samsó and contribution by Bernard R. Goldstein: Astronomical handbooks and tables from the Islamic world (750-1900): An interim report , Suhayl - International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilization, Volume 2, 2001 , Pp. 9-105
  • An astrolabe from 14th-century Christian Spain with inscriptions in Latin, Hebrew and Arabic - A unique testimonial to an intercultural encounter , Suhayl - International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilization, Volume 3, 2002/03, p . 9–156 (revised version in King, In Synchrony with the Heavens)
  • The Cult of St. Wilgefortis in Flanders, Holland, England and France , in: Sigrid Glockzin-Bever, Martin Kraatz (Ed.): Am Kreuz - Ein Frau: Beginnings - Dependencies - Updates, Aesthetics - Theology - Liturgy (Münster: LIT Verlag), Volume 26, 2003, pp. 55-97

He has also written biography articles for the Dictionary of Scientific Biography , and articles on astronomical subjects for the Encyclopaedia of Islam and other encyclopedias.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ King, The Ciphers of the Monks - A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages, Boethius - texts and treatises for the history of mathematics and natural sciences, ed. Menso Folkerts, Volume 44, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2001
  2. ↑ David A. King, An introduction to Ioannes Regiomontanus' Acrostic Cardinal Basileios Ioannes Bessarions's Agenda, and Piero della Francesca's Enigma , King 's homepage, accessed on July 13, 2020
  3. ↑ David King, Astrolabes and Angels, Epigrams and Enigmas - From Regiomontanus' Acrostic for Cardinal Bessarion to Piero della Francesca's “Flagellation of Christ”, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2007.
  4. ^ King, The Cult of St. Wilgefortis in Flanders, Holland, England and France. In: Sigrid Glockzin-Bever, Martin Kraatz (Hrsg.): Am Kreuz - a woman: Beginnings - Dependencies - Updates. Münster 2003, pp. 55-97.
personal data
SURNAME King, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, David Anthony (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English historian of science
DATE OF BIRTH 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH England