Figures

1.1 Zatü’l kürsi (Celestial globe) from Seyyid Ali bin Hüseyin, Mirʾat-ı Kâinat (Istanbul University Rare Books Library) 9

2.1 Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī, first page (Istanbul, Military Museum) 17

2.2 The half cubit scale (miqyās niṣf al-dhirāʿ) from Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī (Istanbul, Military Museum) 22

2.3 The aerial kūnyā (al-kūniyā al-hawāʾiyya) from Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī (Istanbul, Military Museum) 24

2.4 The table (al-ṭabla) in the only copy of Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī where this instrument is drawn (Cairo, Egyptian National Library) 27

2.5 The half-circle (niṣf al-dāʾiraʿ) from Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī (Istanbul, Military Museum) 28

2.6 A universal instrument for throwing bombs, from Bernard Forest de Bélidor, Neuer Cursus Mathematicus, Pentz, Vienna and Leipzig, 1745 33

2.7 The universal instrument with which one can throw a bomb (al-āla al-kulliya yumkin bihā ramī al-khumbara) from Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī (Istanbul, Military Museum) 34

2.8 The magnetic compass (al-būṣula) from Hadiyyat al-Muhtadī (Istanbul, Military Museum) 36

3.1 Mehmed Said Efendi’s treatise on the sector: how to use the sector with compasses (Istanbul, Topkapı Palace Museum) 44

3.2 Risale-i Şerh-i Pergarü’n-Nisbe (Istanbul University Rare Books Library) 46

3.3 Manuscript C2 (Kütahya, Vahidpaşa Public Library) 48

3.4 Manuscript D2 (Istanbul Atatürk Library, Muallim Cevdet Manuscripts) 50

4.1 a. The seal on the Muhadarat-ı Feyzi (Istanbul University Rare Books Library); b. Sultan Selim III’s seal (İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Mühürler Seksiyonu Rehberi, Istanbul, Şehir Matbaası, 1959) 62

4.2 a. Portrait of “Feyzi Bey the engineer” with the sextant (Muhadarat-ı Feyzi, Istanbul University Rare Books Library); b. detail 66

4.3 The note of appreciation signed by Antoine Juchereau, with its Turkish translation (Istanbul University, Rare Books Library) 75

5.1 Nicholas of Cusa’s turketum, 1444; from Hartmann, Die astronomischen Instrumente des Kardinals Nikolaus Cusanus, Berlin, 1919 82

5.2 The turketum as depicted in Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors, 1533 (London, National Gallery) 83

5.3 The turketum as depicted in P. Apianus, Astronomicum Caesareum, Ingolstadt, 1540 85

5.4 Lorch’s reconstruction of the Arabic description of Geber’s instrument; from Lorch, “The Astronomical Instruments of Jābir ibn Aflaḥ and the Torquetum”, Centaurus 20 (1976) 94

5.5 Lorch’s reconstruction of the Latin description of Geber’s instrument; from Lorch, “The Astronomical Instruments of Jābir ibn Aflaḥ and the Torquetum”, Centaurus 20 (1976) 95

5.6 Reconstruction of the Arabic equatorial circle; from Brice, Imber and Lorch, The Dāʿire-yī Muʿaddel of Seydī ʿAli Reʾīs, Manchester, 1976 96

5.7 “Balzo alla turca” (Turkish-style headdress); Parmigianino, Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1530 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum) 101

7.1 The ruler, the equatorium and the alidade drawn to scale 125

7.2 Ptolemaic planetary theory for superior planets 131

7.3 Mars in the standard plate 134

7.4 The single apogee plate 135

7.5 Mars on the parallel plate 138

7.6 Equality of the parallel plate with the standard plate 140

8.1 Portrait of Reza Abbasi with spectacles, painted in 1673 by Moiin Mosavvar (Princeton University, USA) 144

8.2 The first page of the Persian manuscript by della Valle; from Kamran Amir-Arjomand, “Enteqal-e Elm Dar Ahd-e Safavi …”, Tarikh-e Elm 9, 1 (2011) 145

8.3 Title page of the printed edition of The Mejmua Shemsi, Calcutta, 1826 148

8.4 Drawings of Venus as seen through a telescope; from Merrick, “Elm ol-Nojum” (Tehran, Majlis Library of Iran) 151

8.5 Drawings of Mars as seen through a telescope; from Merrick, “Elm ol-Nojum” (Tehran, Majlis Library of Iran) 151

8.6 Drawings of Jupiter as seen through a telescope; from Merrick, “Elm ol-Nojum” (Tehran, Majlis Library of Iran) 152

8.7 Drawing of Saturn as seen through a telescope; from Merrick, “Elm ol-Nojum” (Tehran, Majlis Library of Iran) 152

9.1 Hugo Masing’s Golitsyn-Vilip seismograph from the University of Tartu Museum collection 155

9.2 Hugo Masing’s Golitsyn-Vilip seismograph from the University of Tartu Museum collection 156

10.1 The physics laboratory of Zografeion School in about 1910 174

10.2 The building of Theological School of Halki; Drawing by the architect Perklis Fotiadis, around 1894 176

10.3 The chemistry laboratory of the Theological School of Halki in 2016 (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 178

10.4 A battery of six Leyden jars in a wooden case, in the collection of the Phanar Greek Orthodox College (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 179

10.5 The building of Phanar Greek Orthodox College erected in 1882, also known as the “Red Castle” (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 181

10.6 The Bonetti electrical machine of the Phanar Greek Orthodox College, made by A. Gaiffe (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 182

10.7 The “Cosmographe de Girod” or tellurion of Zografeion School, made by E. Ducretet (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 183

10.8 The electric whirl with seven luminous tubes of the Theological School of Halki (Photo: Panagiotis Lazos) 185

11.1 George Petrovic at the opening for his exhibition “A Vision of the Future”, 1986 (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 188

11.2 Exhibition poster for “A Vision of the Future”, 1986 (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 194

11.3 Four rules (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 196

11.4 Details from a nineteenth-century mercantile rule attributed to Benghazi, Libya (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 199

11.5 Plumb bobs (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 200

11.6 Fifteenth-century level attributed to Istanbul, Turkey (Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation) 201

13.1 Typical professional dissolving view lanterns 230

13.2 Example of a fine hand-painted dissolving view set, Spectre of the Brocken, produced by the Royal Polytechnic Institution, London, 1858 234

13.3 Hand-painted slide The sweet waters of Asia, showing a scene in Istanbul, Turkey. English, 1850s 236

13.4 Hand-painted slide with a winter scene. English, 1850s 238

14.1 Jean Verdoux’s bill for the Yıldız Palace, December 1907 (Istanbul, Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi [Ottoman Archives]) 250

Tables

1.1 Operations that could be performed with the instruments described in Mirʾat-ı Kâinat 12

2.1 Comparison of Christian and Islamic length units 20

3.1 List of the manuscripts consulted 41

3.2 Distribution of the manuscripts consulted in libraries in Turkey 42

3.3 A comparison between the title of Usage VII in Bion’s Traité and its English, Ottoman Turkish and Arabic translations 51

11.1 Number of instruments in the Petrovic collection by date of production 189

12.1 Instruments, tools and other objects purchased for scientific purposes by General Caffarelli 209

14.1 Retailers of scientific instruments in late nineteenth-century Istanbul 245

14.2 Some of Verdoux’s contracts and bills 253