Ḥasan Ḥusayn
Flourished Isfahan, (Iran), second half of the 17th century
Muḥammad Ḥusayn
Flourished Isfahan, (Iran), second half of the 17th century
Ḥasan Ḥusayn and Muḥammad Ḥusayn were two instrument makers in Isfahan, Iran, and were somehow associated with the various better-known makers of fine astrolabes and other instruments that grace many a museum the world over. Their two names, however, are new to the literature. They made European-style inclined sundials fitted with compass dials; two instruments made by each one of them are of particular historical interest because the horizontal bases for the sundials are engraved with world maps. These are fitted with complex mathematical grids that preserve direction and distance to Mecca at the center. The former (discovered in 2001) is more carefully engraved than the latter (discovered in 1995), and a third example, unsigned and now missing sundial and compass (known since 1989), may also be by Ḥasan Ḥusayn. The underlying mathematics...
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Selected References
King, David A. (1999). World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
— (2004). In Synchrony with the Heavens: Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization. Vol. 1, The Call of the Muezzin (Studies I-IX). Leiden: Brill. VIIc (“Safavid Mecca-Centred World-Maps-A Third Example and New Light on the Origin of the Grids”).
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King, D.A. (2014). Ḥusayn, Hasan and Muḥammad. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_665
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