Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar

Visualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

2021-04-27 12:00:002021-04-27 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongVisualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
Visualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

Dr. Scott Trigg
(Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong)

Date/Time: April 27, 2021 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)
Venue: Conducted via Zoom
Enquiry: ihss@hku.hk

    2021-04-27 12:00:002021-04-27 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongVisualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

    Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
    Visualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

    Dr. Scott Trigg
    (Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong)

    Date/Time: April 27, 2021 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)
    Venue: Conducted via Zoom
    Enquiry: ihss@hku.hk

      Overview

      Title:

      Visualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

      Speaker:

      Dr. Scott Trigg (Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong )

      Date/Time:

      April 27, 2021, 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Title:

      Visualizing the Configuration (hay’a): Thinking with Images in Islamic Astronomical Manuscripts

      Speaker:

      Dr. Scott Trigg (Society of Fellows in the Humanities, The University of Hong Kong )

      Date/Time:

      April 27, 2021, 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Abstract

      This paper explores the relationship between image and text in Islamic manuscripts from the 13th-15th centuries, particularly commentaries written by the director of the Samarqand observatory Qāḍīzāde al-Rūmī, and one of Qāḍīzāde’s prominent students Fatḥallāh al-Shirwānī. Using examples of how these commentators portrayed the components and motions of complex models, as well as more basic celestial phenomena, it describes how students could begin to put together an impression of how they combined to produce the apparently irregular motions we observe in the heavens, as well as the outstanding problems of Ptolemaic planetary theory that these astronomers were attempting to explain and resolve. This paper analyzes the extent to which images may have helped the reader visualize different kinds of motion and extrapolate from two-dimensional static “mathematical” images to the three-dimensional dynamic “physical” motions of the heavens. This paper suggests that differences in the kinds of images each commentator chose to add to their texts, the manner in which they portrayed the models and particular motions, and the ways in which they highlighted and analyzed different issues reflect differences in the intended audiences for the two commentaries.

      About the Speaker

      Dr. Scott Trigg is member of the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at HKU. He is scholar of Islamic science and intellectual history, with a focus on the tradition of mathematical astronomy and its engagement with debates in philosophy and theology. His research investigates how scholars elaborated, and criticized, ideas about science and nature within a social and intellectual milieu shaped by belief in direct divine control over the universe. His current project explores how commentaries, often overlooked as meaningful sources for the study of Islamic science, can in fact shed light on the nature of scientific education and provide evidence of sophisticated efforts to assess, criticize, and build upon previous developments in theoretical astronomy. Dr. Trigg completed a Joint PhD in History and the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Notre Dame.

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