ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Tabular Practices and the Cross-cultural Exchange of Knowledge in Ancient in Medieval Astronomy 1

Session Submission Type: Organized Session

English Abstract

(Sponsored by the Commission for the History of Ancient and Medieval Astronomy.) Across Asia, Europe, and Africa, astronomical tables were the computational engines of the pre-modern world. Preserved in Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and other sources, these tables were indispensable for predicting planetary positions, managing calendars, and understanding the cosmos. Given their central role in the history of astronomy, methodologies to study astronomical tables are in constant discussion and re-elaboration. This symposium brings together recent research and new emerging approaches to the study of numerical tables, fostering new perspectives in the history of astronomy.
While traditional and well-established methods relying on the statistical analysis of historical tabular values for parameter estimation remain fundamental, new approaches exploring ‘computational scenarios’ that are reconstructing the specific mathematical practices of astronomers are emerging and complementing them. These new methodologies also highlight the material dimensions of astronomical tables—from their physical layout and the structure of historical number systems to the arithmetic techniques and foundational mathematical practices of astronomers. In the context of ‘computational scenarios’, tables do not appear to historians as finished products and traces of transmission or observation, but as a nexus in a chain of tables, which are dependent on each other until ephemerides or horoscope charts are established.
The symposium explores these different dimensions of ancient mediaeval tabular practices, revealing how these tables serve as vital sources for historians of astronomy. By examining their creation, circulation, and innovation, we aim to reconstruct the dynamic network of practices that shaped the long-term development of astronomy.

Sub Unit

• Organized Session

Chair

• Eleonora Andriani, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

Individual Presentations

• Towards a New Survey of Islamic Astronomical Handbooks with Tables - Benno van Dalen, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

• Qushji’s Commentary on Ulugh Beg’s Zij as a Key to Understanding Islamicate Zij - Mostafa Yavari, University of Tehran, Institute for the History of Science

• Inheritance and Innovation in Mughal Astronomy: A Critical Comparison of the Zīj-i Šāh Jahānī Tables with the Zīj-i Sulṭānī of Ulugh Beg - Anuj Misra, MPIWG Berlin

Session Organizers

• Matthieu Husson

• Stefan Zieme, Humboldt University Berlin