El mecenazgo cortesano de las ciencias antiguas en las sociedades islámicas post-clásicas

In this paper I study evidence for courtly patronage for the ancient sciences in specific post-classical societies in the Arab and Persianate worlds. I show that there are plenty of historical sources for seriously challenging the widely held belief that courtly patronage for the ancient sciences disappeared in the post-classical period. I discuss similarities and differences between the classical and post-classical period at large and between specific post-classical dynasties in particular. I ask which disciplines courts sponsored, which products they privileged and which institutions and norms they used and mobilized for and through their patronage. I compare the relationship between patronage for scholars in two main settings —the court and the madrasa. I suggest that the proposed causal link between the disappearance or decrease of courtly patronage and the so-called decline of the ancient sciences needs to be revisited.Este artículo estudia el mecenazgo cortesano de las ciencias de los antiguos en determinadas sociedades post-clásicas del ámbito cultural árabe y persa. El autor muestra que un gran número de fuentes históricas cuestionan la idea, muy extendida, de que ese mecenazgo desapareciera en las sociedades post-clásicas, y analiza a ese respecto las similitudes y las diferencias entre los períodos clásico y post-clásico en general, y entre distintas dinastías del período post-clásico en particular. Indaga también qué disciplinas y resultados financió y favoreció ese mecenazgo, y a través de qué instituciones y normas se ejerció, comparando sus dos principales escenarios: la corte y la madrasa. Como conclusión, sugiere que la hipótesis de que la desaparición o el debilitamiento del mecenazgo causaron el llamado declive de las ciencias de los antiguos debe ser revisada

Research Foci in the History of Science in Past Islamicate Societies

In recent years, numerous changes have emerged in the History of Science of what has traditionally been called the Islamic world. By now, it has become usual to speak of the Islamicate world, albeit more so in Islamic Studies and related historical disciplines. The notion Islamicate wishes to express that the societies rule by Muslim dynasties were multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-confessional and plurilingual. Different Muslim denominations could form majority but also minority groups. The processes of change in the study of the sciences in those societies can be summarized as efforts to pluralize research approaches and to historicize objects, themes, people, institutions and practices. The pluralization of approaches includes the multiplication of (1) modern disciplinary homes for studies of scientific topics dealt with in Islamicate societies, (2) the languages acknowledged as languages of scientific texts such as New Persian, Ottoman Turkish or Urdu worthwhile to analyze, (3) the number of historical disciplines accepted under the umbrella of history of science, (4) the centuries or periods as well as the regions that have been incorporated into the investigation of past scientific knowledge and (5) the recognition that more than a single history can and should be told about the sciences in past Islamicate societies. The process of historicization means, first and foremost, to turn away from macro-units of research (Islam, medieval or Arabic science) to medium- or micro-level units. Historicization indicates, secondly, the turn toward contextualization beyond the analysis of individual texts or instruments. And thirdly, it signifies the integration of features or aspects of scholarly practices that are not limited to the content of a discipline or a text but include layouts, the organization of text production, types of visualizations of knowledge or rhetorical strategies and paratextual elements. My paper reports on trends that I consider relevant for understanding how the field changed over the last decades and how it ticks today. But it does not try to be comprehensive

MS Paris, Bibliothèque des Missions étrangères 1069: The French-Arabic Dictionary of François Pétis de la Croix (1653–1713)?

This paper analyses an anonymous French-Arabic dictionary preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque des Missions étrangères. I argue that it seems to be a copy of a dictionary compiled by the early modern French Orientalist and diplomat François Pétis de la Croix, the younger. Beyond the question of authorship, I survey the themes and structure of the dictionary and discuss the compiler’s cultural insights into Ottoman and Safavid societies and the cultural barriers that his translations reveal.This paper analyses an anonymous French-Arabic dictionary preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque des Missions étrangères. I argue that it seems to be a copy of a dictionary compiled by the early modern French Orientalist and diplomat François Pétis de la Croix, the younger. Beyond the question of authorship, I survey the themes and structure of the dictionary and discuss the compiler’s cultural insights into Ottoman and Safavid societies and the cultural barriers that his translations reveal

Measurements of the Water Surface Contour Behind a Hydrofoil of Moderate Aspect Ratio

An experimental program has been carried out for the measurement of the water surface contour due to a submerged hydrofoil of finite span. Because of the hydrofoil downwash, the water surface has a rather pronounced depression in the form of a long, narrow trough which extends many chords aft the hydrofoil. When the trailing vortex cores becomes sufficiently close to the water surface depression, flash ventilation of the vortices and the entire upper surface has been observed to occur abruptly. The model used here was a hydrofoil with a NACA 16-206 section and a rectangular plan form, mounted on a NACA 16-006 strut. The hydrofoil has a chord of 3 inches and an aspect-ratio of l.33. It has been found that the length and depth of the surface depression, and the location of the trough bottom are well defined functions of the Froude number and of the ratio of chord-to-submergence depth. It has also been observed that the distance between the trailing vortex core and the lowest points of the depression is an important parameter in effecting the onset of ventilating flow. This investigation covers a range of flow velocity, angle of attack, depth of submergence, and the flap angle deflection

On some symmetric multidimensional continued fraction algorithms

We compute explicitly the density of the invariant measure for the Reverse algorithm which is absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure, using a method proposed by Arnoux and Nogueira. We also apply the same method on the unsorted version of Brun algorithm and Cassaigne algorithm. We illustrate some experimentations on the domain of the natural extension of those algorithms. For some other algorithms, which are known to have a unique invariant measure absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure, the invariant domain found by this method seems to have a fractal boundary, and it is unclear that it is of positive measure.Comment: Version 1: 22 pages, 12 figures. Version 2: new section on Cassaigne algorithm, 25 pages, 15 figures. Version 3: corrections during review proces

Free-surface water tunnel studies of a family of base-ventilated hydrofoils

This test program is one of a series designed to investigate the properties of base-ventilated hydrofoils. The purpose of this study was to determine the two-dimensional force and ventilation characteristics of an uncambered hydrofoil which could be truncated by removing four removable trailing edge sections. The program was performed at the request of T. G. Lang of the Naval Ordnance Test Station, Pasadena, who in Reference 1 analyzed the possibilities of reducing the cavity drag of base-ventilated hydrofoils by selecting appropriate section profiles and foil base thicknesses. Using a profile developed in Reference 1, it was intended to study the effects of ventilation air flow rate, angle of attack, and the position of the trailing edge cutoff points, and to compare the experimental values of the drag with those predicted from a linearized flow theory

Cross-communal scholarly interactions

This chapter traces cross-communal interactions in the fields of medicine, mathematics and what the historical actors called the natural sciences. It discusses various modern interpretations of those interactions and engages with a number of historical problems researchers face when studying the extant sources. After a substantive survey of the current state of research, the chapter addresses four areas which offer fascinating evidence for interactions between scholars adhering to different faith communities: textual practices; teaching; patronage; workplaces. The chapter ends by suggesting future research directions