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DOI :10.26650/PB/AA08.2023.002.009   IUP :10.26650/PB/AA08.2023.002.009    Full Text (PDF)

A Little Known Paper by Professor Fuat Sezgin on the Meridian Instrument of Ibn al-Haytham

Jan P. Hogendijk

When Fuat Sezgin came to Istanbul in 1943, he became a student of mathematics and engineering, only changing to Oriental Studies after meeting Hellmut Ritter. We will analyze a paper which Fuat Sezgin published in 1986 and which is a witness of his mathematical abilities. The paper includes an edition of a mathematically difficult text by Ibn al-Haytham which Sezgin reconstructed from a unique Arabic manuscript written with very few diacritical marks. In this treatise, Ibn al-Haytham discusses the theoretical and practical aspects of an instrument which he produced for determining the meridian with utmost accuracy.



References

  • Güldütuna, H.D. (2020). Fuat Sezgin and His Mentor Hellmut Ritter. In Fahameddin Başar, Mustafa Kaçar, Mehmet Cüneyt Kaya, Ayse Zisan Furat (Eds.), The First International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book (pp. 11-17). Istanbul: Istanbul University Press. google scholar
  • Hogendijk, J.P. (2022). Two Treatises by Ibn al-Haytham on the Determination of the Meridian Line, Translated from the Edition of Fuat Sezgin. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 23, 149-184. google scholar
  • Kennedy, E.S. (1989). Ibn al-Haytham’s Determination of the Meridian from One Solar Altitude. Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabischislamischen Wissenschaften, 5, 144-147. google scholar
  • Sezgin, F. (1974). Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band 5: Mathematik. Leiden: Brill. google scholar
  • Sezgin, F. (1978). Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band 6: Astronomie. Leiden: Brill. google scholar
  • Sezgin, F. (1986). Tariqat ibn al-Haytham fi ma`rifat khatt nisf al-nahar [Ibn al-Haytham’s Method for the Determination of the Meridian Line], Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften, 3, (Arabic section), 7-43. google scholar
  • Sezgin, F. (2010). Science and Technology in Islam. Frankfurt: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science google scholar


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