ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Epistemic Lives of Ottoman Mathematical-Astronomical Instruments

• In Event: Contested Success and Celebrated Failure: The Practice of Mathematical Instruments in Varied Settings I

English Abstract

This paper explores methodological approaches to studying portable astronomical instruments in the Ottoman context by bringing together textual traditions, material traces, and practices of use. Rather than assuming a fully traceable or continuous artisanal tradition, it approaches instrument-making as only one, often fragmentary, component of a broader ecosystem in which instruments circulated, were used, referenced, copied, interpreted, and symbolically deployed. The focus lies not on reconstructing manufacture, but on tracing how instruments shaped and reflected scholarly authority, computational practice, and intellectual identity.

Author

• Gaye Danışan, Istanbul University, Department of the History of Science