Timekeeping in Islamic Civilization

David King
-CANCELED -

Dr. King has been forced to cancel due to illness.

In Islam, time is sacred and closely linked to astronomical phenomena. The months of a sacred calendar are regulated by the position of the moon relative to the sun, and the days are regulated around five prayers, whose times are defined according to the position of the sun relative to the local horizon. For over a thousand years Muslim astronomers were heavily involved in timekeeping, using astronomical tables and instruments such as the astrolabe, quadrant, and sundial to chart time. Several hundred manuscripts attesting to this activity have been studied in the past few decades. This presentation provides an overview of the sophisticated procedures developed by the Muslim astronomers, mainly for their own use, and the simple procedures prescribed by the scholars of the sacred law of Islam, which could be used by anyone. Join noted Islamicist David A. King, a historian of science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, for a discussion of these remarkable scientific measures of time.

David A. King is a British-born Islamicist who specializes in the history of Islamic science, with particular emphasis on the application of science to aspects of the daily life of the Muslim community (calendar, prayer-times, and sacred direction). He was educated at Cambridge, Oxford and Yale Universities, and has conducted research on manuscripts and instruments in libraries and museums all over the world. Since 1985 he has been Professor in the History of Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfort and director of the internationally-renowned Institute for History of Science there.