IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB131496297

A previously-unknown Iranian treatise on a terrestrial globe (2022)

Delgarm, Majid Heydari (Author)

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Volume: 95
Pages: 204-214

URI: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003936812200108X

DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.07.007

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Cartography Scientific apparatus and instruments Globes Safavid dynasty 17th century Iran Raḍī, Āqā

This paper introduces an unusual text from 17th century Iran: Āqā Raḍī's work, Qiblat al-āfāq. The treatise offers an insight into the making and use of terrestrial globes. The most interesting section of the text is a series of instructions for making terrestrial globes. The fact that no such instrument from the Ṣafavid period or earlier has survived adds to the text's significance. Another notable aspect of the text is that, unlike with other texts from earlier periods, which usually can be interpreted as depicting round or planar maps rather than globes, the Qiblat al-āfāq definitely describes a terrestrial globe, with clear instructions on its making and use. In this paper, I begin by reviewing the literature on early terrestrial globes known to the historians of Islamic cartography. I then introduce the author of the treatise, as he is described by his contemporary biographers. The treatise's structure is discussed afterwards, and I will present a visual reconstruction of the globe, step-by-step, using the instructions in the text. I elaborate on the purposes of the globe, and on the way in which the astronomer was expected to use it. Finally, I will trace the numerical data used in making the instrument. Furthermore this paper shows how the treatise develops our understanding of Ṣafavid maps and the instrument makers behind them.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB131496297/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Milanesi, Marica; (2009/2010)
Vincenzo Coronelli: Eine Karriere (/isis/citation/CBB001024587/)

Article Hofmann, Catherine; (2005/2006)
“Unvergleichliche” Globen oder “alte Geräte---so sperrig wie nutzlos”? Die Wechselfälle der großen Coronelli-Globen zwischen 1683 und 1915 (/isis/citation/CBB001024614/)

Article Milanesi, Marica; (2005/2006)
Eine “spezielle Geographie” für den König---Tiere und Menschen auf dem von Vincenzo Coronelli für Ludwig XIV. angefertigten Erdglobus (1681--1683) (/isis/citation/CBB001024613/)

Article (2009/2010)
Einige Ergebnisse einer Studie über Johann Schöners Erdglobus von 1515 (/isis/citation/CBB001024592/)

Article Christoph, Andreas; (2009/2010)
Zur Globenvielfalt aus Weimar. Ausgewählte Produktionen des “Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs” und des “Geographischen Instituts” (/isis/citation/CBB001024595/)

Article Bott, Gerhard; (2005/2006)
Zwei Straßburger Prunkgloben für den Grafen Philipp V. von Hanau-Lichtenberg (/isis/citation/CBB001024617/)

Chapter Jenks, Robert A.; (2006)
An Early Italian Globe? A Critical Study of a Terrestrial Globe in the Whipple Museum (/isis/citation/CBB000773528/)

Article Wawrik, Franz; (2005/2006)
Die Manuskriptgloben des Fritz Kerner von Marilaun (/isis/citation/CBB001024616/)

Article Cormack, Lesley B.; (2009)
The World at Your Fingertips: English Renaissance Globes as Cosmographical, Mathematical and Pedagogical Instruments (/isis/citation/CBB001034858/)

Article Celeste Gianni; George Saliba; Michele Tagliabracci; (2018)
Contextualising the Arabic Nomenclature of Coronelli’s Celestial Globe at the Biblioteca Federiciana in Fano (/isis/citation/CBB418816890/)

Book Taub, Liba Chaia; Willmoth, Frances; (2006)
The Whipple Museum of the History of Science: Instruments and Interpretations, to Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of R. S. Whipple's Gift to the University of Cambridge (/isis/citation/CBB000773371/)

Article Fomenko, I. K.; (2004)
Globus Blau: itogi i perspektivy izucheniia (/isis/citation/CBB000750390/)

Article Colombo, Lino; Manzini, Federico; (2005/2006)
Francesco Brunaccis Himmelsglobus (/isis/citation/CBB001024618/)

Article Marica Milanesi; (2018)
Il grande globo terrestre (1686–1689) / The Great Terrestrial Globe (1686–1689) // Der große Erdglobus (1686–1689) (/isis/citation/CBB760612720/)

Article Marica Milanesi; (2018)
Vincenzo Coronelli. Una Carriera / Vincenzo Coronelli. A career // Vincenzo Coronelli. Eine Karriere (/isis/citation/CBB985137354/)

Chapter Kett, Siegried; (2010)
Johann Gabriel Doppelmayer (1677--1750) (/isis/citation/CBB001214079/)

Article Schneider, Ulrich; (2007/2008)
Die Verwirklichung literarischer Utopie. Zur Genese des “Gottorfer Globus” (/isis/citation/CBB001024604/)

Article King, Robert J.; (2007/2008)
Der “Jagiellonische Globus”, Utopia und “Jave la Grande” (/isis/citation/CBB001024601/)

Article Barker, Peter; (2017)
The Social Structure of Islamicate Science (/isis/citation/CBB589668279/)

Article Matthew Melvin-Koushki; (2017)
Powers of One: The Mathematicalization of the Occult Sciences in the High Persianate Tradition (/isis/citation/CBB814580335/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}