Prof. David King

Professor of the History of Science and Director of the Institute since 1985. Specialist on medieval Islamic science, Arabic scientific manuscripts and medieval Islamic and European scientific instruments. Lectures and seminars on aspects of medieval astronomy, astronomical instruments, Arabic scientific texts and manuscripts.

Personal:

Born in England in 1941.
1952-59: Studies at High Wycombe Royal Grammar School.
1960-72: Studied Mathematics at Cambridge (60-63), Education at Oxford (63-64), taught in secondary schools in Sudan (64-67) and Canada (67-68). Graduate Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Yale (68-72).
1972-79: Directed a Smithsonian Institution project on medieval Islamic astronomy at the American Research Center in Egypt.
1979-85: Associate Professor and then Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and History of Science at New York University.

Research interests:

The application of folk astronomy and mathematical astronomy to specific religious needs of the Muslim community from the 8th to the 19th century, namely, the regulation of the lunar calendar, the determination of the sacred direction (qibla), and the organization of the astronomically-defined times of prayer.
Regional schools of Islamic astronomy (Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iran, Maghrib, etc.).
Medieval mathematical geography and cartography.
Medieval Islamic and European scientific instruments.
Orientation of Islamic religious architecture.
Cults of medieval virgin saints, in particular St. Wilgefortis = Ontkommer = Uncumber = Kümmernis.

ASTRONOMY IN THE BAGHDAD OF THE CALIPHS

Complete list of publications

Publications in book form:

A Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library [in Arabic], 2 vols., Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, 1981-86.
A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library, (Publications of the American Research Center in Egypt), Catalogs, vol. 5, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 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.
Islamic Mathematical Astronomy, London: Variorum, 1986, 2nd rev. edn., Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.
Islamic Astronomical Instruments, London: Variorum, 1987, repr. Aldershot: Variorum, 1995.
Astronomy in the Service of Islam, Aldershot: Variorum, 1993.
World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999. [A detailed study of two 17th-century brass Islamic world-maps centred on Mecca which preserve both direction and distance to the centre.]
The Ciphers of the Monks - A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2001. [A history of the third number-notation of medieval Europe, a notation unknown to the vast majority of historians of mathematics and medievalists alike. Any integral number up to 9999 is represented by a single graphic cipher.]

New works and works in progress:

"Astronomical Handbook and Tables from the Islamic World (750-1900): an interim Report" (with Julio Samsó), Suhayl (Barcelona) 2 (2001), 9-105. [Basic documentation of the current state of research on the subject, anticipating further progress in the near future by Benno van Dalen].
Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islam, to be published by E. J. Brill, Leiden. [The first account of the way Muslim astronomers regulated time by the sun and stars and determined the times of prayer, based on over 500 unpublished manuscripts.]
"Medieval Astronomical Instruments: A Catalogue in Preparation", Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society no. 31 (Dec., 1991), pp. 3-7; "Making Instruments Talk - Some Medieval Astronomical Instruments and Their Secrets", ibid. no. 44 (March, 1995), pp. 5-12. Also: "Astronomical Instruments between East and West", in H. Kühnel, ed., Kommunikation zwischen Orient und Okzident - Alltag und Sachkultur, Vienna, 1994, pp. 143-198. [Description of a long-term project to prepare a catalogue of all medieval astronomical instruments, Islamic and European.] See http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/fb13/ign/instrument-catalogue.html for a preliminary table of contents.
The Sacred Geography of Islam, to be submitted to E. J. Brill. [A description of Muslim notions of organizing the world around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca, and determining the sacred direction (qibla) by methods of folk astronomy.]

Research assistants and associates:

François Charette
Dr. Benno van Dalen
Dr. Sonja Brentjes

Current projects supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (= German Research Foundation, Bonn):

1999-2002: European encounters with Islamic science in 16th- and 17th-century Iran and Turkey. Dr. Sonja Brentjes (full-time).
1999-2002: Catalogue of European astronomical instruments (to ca. 1550). Dr. Koenraad van Cleempoel (part-time), François Charette (part-time). For more information click here.
2000-2003: A survey of medieval Islamic zîjes (astronomical handbooks with tables). Dr. Benno van Dalen (full-time).

Doctoral students:

François Charette: medieval Islamic astronomical instruments
Petra Schmidl: medieval Islamic folk astronomy
Michael Hofelich: medieval Islamic ephemerides
Reinhard Glasemann: 16th-century instrument-making in Nuremberg
Mohamed Abu Zayed: lunar crescent visibility in the Islamic astronomical sources

Picture:
The Istanbul Observatory (16th century)

Mailing address:
Institute for History of Science
FB 13
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University
D-60054 Frankfurt am Main
Tel.: +49 69 798 22337
Fax: +49 69 798 23275

Email address:
king@em.uni-frankfurt.de