Abstract
The transmission of technical knowledge from Europe to the Ottoman world has come to be studied mainly within the modernization attempts of Ottoman educational institutions and the Ottoman military. Individual efforts deployed in the transmission process and the encounter between the newly transmitted knowledge and the local practices still remain as an intriguing domain to study. The present paper focuses a Turkish treatise accounting for the eclipse calculator designed Philippe de La Hire (1640–1718) and manufactured by Nicolas Bion (1652–1733). This calculator was brought from Paris to Istanbul by Mehmed Said Efendi (d. 1761), the Ottoman ambassador in Paris in 1741–1742. The translation of the calculator's manual to Turkish was made by the mathematician Mustafa Sıdkı Efendi (d. 1769–1770) whose explanations witnesses his intention to adapt this instrument for predicting the date of eclipses to the Islamic calendar in use in Ottoman society.
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Notes
- 1.
F. Günergun, “Ottoman Encounters with European science: sixteenth and seventeenth-century translations into Turkish,” in P. Burke and R. Po-chia Hsia, eds., Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 192–211.
- 2.
J. Galland, Relation de l’Ambassade de Méhémet Efendi à la Cour de France en 1721, écrite par lui même et traduite du Turc. Paris 1757; Relation de l’Ambassade de Mohammed Effendi. Paris: Typographie Firmin Didot Frères, 1841; Tacryr ou Relation de Mohammed Effendi. Ali Süavi, ed., Paris: Imprimerie de Victor Goupy, 1872, 48 pp.; F.R. Unat, Osmanlı Sefirleri ve Sefaretnameleri (Ottoman ambassadors and their reports). 2nd ed., Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1987 (1st ed. 1968); Mehmed Efendi, Le Paradis des Infidèles. Un ambassadeur Ottoman en France sous la Régence. G. Veinstein (Commentaires), J.-C. Galland (Traduction), Paris: Librairie François Maspero, Collection La Découverte, 1981; F. M. Göçek, East Encounters West – France and the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
- 3.
The term müneccim is generally used to denote an astrologer and is derived from the Arabic word necm (a star).
- 4.
This passage is translated from the Turkish text given in Yirmisekiz Çelebi Mehmed Efendi’nin Fransa Sefaretnamesi. Beynun Akyavaş, ed., Ankara: Türk Kültürünü Araştırma Enstitüsü, 1993, pp. 48–49. This version of the embassy report is based on the Ottoman Turkish text published in 1283 (1866) in Istanbul; The text in Ottoman is given as an appendix in the 1993 edition. See also, Mehmed Efendi, Le Paradis des Infidèles, pp.149–150.
- 5.
- 6.
J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 420–422.
- 7.
F. R. Stephenson and S. S. Said, “Precision of Medieval Islamic Eclipse Measurements,” Journal of History of Astronomy, 22, 69/3(August 1991): 195–207.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
P. Duffett-Smith, Practical Astronomy with your Calculator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 157 (lunar eclipse), p. 161 (solar eclipse).
- 10.
R. Colton and R. Martin, “Eclipse cycles and eclipses at Stonehenge,” Nature 213 (04 February 1976): 476–478. Bill Kramer, “Stonehenge Eclipse Calculator,” http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/tseStonehenge.html
- 11.
For the various publications mentioning the use of the Antikythera as an eclipse calculator see ‘The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project’ at http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/
- 12.
T. Freeth, “Decoding an ancient computer,” Scientific American, December 2009, pp. 52–59.
- 13.
Equatoria were never as common as astrolabes, playing no part in the curricula of the schools. They became outdated as the parameters of the planetary theory were revised. As a purely calculating device (in contrast to the astrolabe which was used both as an observing instrument and as a computer) the equatorium did not require great durability. See J. D. North, “A post-Copernican equatorium,” The Universal Frame: Historical Essays in Astronomy, Natural Philosophy, and Scientific Method. London: The Hambledon Press, 1989, pp. 145–184. The reason may be that astrolabes were used to determine the positions of the sun and the stars, the equatoria those of the moon and the planets.
- 14.
F. Sezgin and E. Neubauer, Science et Technique en Islam, Tome II (Astronomie). Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 2004, p. 177.
- 15.
D. J. Price, The Equatorie of the Planetis. Cambridge: University Press, 1955.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
E. S. Kennedy, “A Fifteenth-Century Planetary Computer: al-Kashi’s “Tabaq al-Manateq” I. Motion of the Sun and Moon in Longitude,” Isis, 41, 2 (July 1950): 180–183; E. S. Kennedy, “A Fifteenth-Century Planetary Computer: al-Kashi’s “Tabaq al-Manateq” II.Longitudes, Distances and Equations of the Planets,” Isis, 43, 1 (April 1952): 42–50; E. S. Kennedy, “An Islamic Computer for Planerary Lattitudes,” Journal of American Oriental Society, 71, 1 (January–March 1951): 13–21.
- 18.
E. S. Kennedy, “A Fifteenth Century Lunar Eclipse Computer,” Scripta Mathematica, 17 (1951): 91–97.
- 19.
E. S. Kennedy, “Al-Kashi’s “Plate of Conjunctions”, Isis, 38, 1/2 (November 1947): pp. 56–59; See also The Planetary equatorium of Jamshīd Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Kāshī (d. 1429): an edition of the anonymous Persian manuscript 75 <44b> in the Garrett Collection at Princeton University; being a description of two computing instruments, the plate of heavens and the plate of conjunctions. With translation and commentary by E. S. Kennedy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960. For the replicas of al-Kashi’s and other equatoria see F. Sezgin and E. Neubauer, op. cit, pp. 173–201.
- 20.
- 21.
Existing samples are rather rare. A copy of Römer’s eclipsarium is kept in Rosenburg Castle (Kopenhagen) and Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Département des Cartes et Plans, Paris). For the copy at Kopenhagen see http://www.rosenborgslot.dk/v1/genstand.asp?GenstandID=170&countryID=2. An eclipseometrum which is similar to de La Hire’s “machine a eclipses” is kept in Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum (See Fig. 3).
- 22.
“Planisphère pour les éclipses inventé par M.Roemer,” in Gallon, Machines et Inventions Approuvées par l’Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris, 1735, pp. 85–89.
- 23.
“Une machine des éclipses de La Hire où l’on voyait d’un coup d’œil les éclipses de chaque année et par le mouvement de quelques platines de cette machine on apercevait les éclipses d’une autre année et ainsi de suite pour les années à venir et passées.” In 1722, these instruments were transported to the Library of Louis XV. See L. Paris, Essai Historique sur la Bibliothèque du Roi: Aujourd’hui Bibliothèque Impériale. Paris 1856, p. 117.
- 24.
Philippe de La Hire, Tables astronomiques. 3rd edition, Paris, Chez Montalant, 1735, pp. xiv–xv (first published in Latin in 1702).
- 25.
Among them were Johann Andreas von Segner’s (1704–1777) “Macchina ad Eclipses” (1741), James Ferguson’s (1710–1776) “Piece of Mechanism contrived for exhibiting the time, duration and quantity of solar eclipse” (1754), and Veneziani’s ‘Macchina pel cui mezzo si predice l’avenimento di ecclissi del Sole e della Luna (1807). See M. L. Todd, Total Eclipses of the Sun. Boston: Robert Brothers, rev. ed. 1900 (rep. 2008), p. 6.
- 26.
“Sa majesté [britannique] monta ensuite à la Salle des Machines [de l’Observatoire] où elle admira principalement celle des Eclipses inventée par M. Roemer, & exécutée par le Sieur Thuret d’une manière toute particulière.” Histoire de l’Académie des Sciences, Tome II (Depuis 1686 jusqu'à son renouvellement en 1699), Paris 1733, p. 63.
- 27.
G. Veinstein (Le Paradis des Infidèles, p. 149, n. 222), guided by M.J-P.Verdet also assumes that Mehmed Çelebi alluded to Römer’s eclipsarium. Interestingly, Römer’s instruments are not deposited at the Paris Observatory nowadays (see the catalogue at http://patrimoine.obspm.fr/Instruments/Instruments/Instruments.html), but at BNF as mentioned above. According to the testimony of the members of the Académie des Sciences (Paris) these instruments served for about 50 years to confirm astronomical calculations, then stored at the Academy. Following the French Revolution, they were deposited at BNF (J.-Y. Sarazin, “Belles et obsolètes: deux ‘machines’ astronomiques,” Revue de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, 14 (2003): 46–47). These instruments, after being presented to academy members, have been moved to the Paris Observatory for calculations.
- 28.
“Sa Majesté passa ensuite dans la Salle des Assemblées ordinaires de l’Académie…. M.Cassini expliqua ensuite la construction & l’usage des deux machines astronomiques de M. Römer auxquelles le Roi s’arrêta assez longtemps. L’une sert au calcul des Eclipses & l’autre représente toute la Théorie des Planètes.” Histoire de l’Académie des Sciences, Tome I (Depuis son établissement en 1666 jusqu'à 1686), Paris 1733, pp. 319–320. A year earlier, in 1680, Römer had demonstrated to the Academy in Paris, a machine showing the orbits of the planets (a planetarium) and a machine for calculating the Moon's eclipses (an eclipsarium): Histoire de l’Académie des Sciences, Tome I, p. 206.
- 29.
I. Landry-Deron, “Les Mathématiciens envoyés en Chine par Louis XIV en 1685,” Arch. Hist. Exact Sci., 55 (2001): 423–463 (p. 434).
- 30.
For a list dated 15 Juillet 1722 of items ordered from the Ottoman court to France see “RF Affaires Étrangères. Cp Turquie, vol. 64, s.99RV in M. Kaçar, Osmanlı Devleti’nde Mühendishanelerin Kuruluşu, unpublished PhD dissertation, Istanbul University 1996, p. 217.
- 31.
A multicultural written language formed as a result of the merging of Arabic and Persian words with the vocabulary, syntax and grammar of Turkish. Present day Turkish linguists term this composite language “Ottoman Turkish”, the language employed in literary and scientific works as well as Ottoman State’s official correspondence.
- 32.
The manuscript in Turkish is catalogued under the title “Devair-i ictima ve istikbalin resm ve istimali” (The construction and usage of circles of conjunction and opposition) and kept in Selimiye Library (Selimiye Yazma Eser Kütüphanesi, Edirne, Turkey) at Nr.560/4 (ff. 64–72). It is bound together with a treatise in Persian on calendar computing and two others in Arabic on mathematics dated to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The owner of the corpus is unknown but it was donated to the library in 1797 by Çelebi Mustafa Pasha (d.1811). A high military official, Mustafa Pasha donated his private collection of manuscripts to the library he had founded next to the Selimiye Mosque during his mission in Edirne. This corpus might have once belonged to the Pasha’s private library.
- 33.
In 1748 (date inscribed on the translation), the translator refers to Mehmed Said Efendi as “former deputy grand vizier”. Said Efendi was appointed to this post in 1746. Apparently he was holding a different, lower position when he commissioned the translation.
- 34.
T. Timur, in his article “Said Mehmed Efendi” (Toplumsal Tarih, Nr.128 (Ağustos 2004): 55–61) besides analyzing Çelebi’s diplomatic mission gives a summary of Çelebi’s visits to the cabinets as based on information published in Mercure de France of Juin 1742.
- 35.
Mercure de France, Juin 1742, pp. 984, 985, 987.
- 36.
Honorary member of the Académie des Sciences, Count Onsenbray invented many mechanical devices, among them an anemometer. See B. Jacomy, “L’Anémomètre de Pajot d’Ons-en-Bray,” La Revue (CNAM), No.30, Juin 2000.
- 37.
Mehmed Çelebi does not mention his visit to d’Onsenbray’s cabinet in his embassy report. An account is given in Mercure de France, Juin-Juillet 1721. See Mehmed Efendi, Le Paradis des Infidèles, pp. 198–199.
- 38.
Mercure de France, Juin 1742, pp. 1016–1017, 1023.
- 39.
In the last decades of the seventeenth century, small microscopes of 6 or 7 in. high with a silver foot and screw and composed of three lenses were being sold in Paris. C. Huygens wrote of them that they were “polished by the expert process of which the little widow Lebas jealously guards the secret. “Optician to the French king, Philippe Claude Lebas (1637–1677) developed his own personal method of polishing lenses. Following his death, his wife and son carried on the workshop which remained in production at least until 1721. Lebas, later on his wife and son were the suppliers of lenses to the Paris observatory. M. Daumas, Scientific Instruments of the 17th & 18th Centuries and their Makers. Trans. by M. Holbrook, London: Portman Books, 1972, pp. 73–74.
- 40.
Mercure de France, Juin 1742, p. 1028.
- 41.
Said Efendi is reported to have a son named Süleyman Tevfik (d.1767–68) who was a madrasa teacher (Sicill-i Osmani, vol. 3, pp. 29–30). Mercure de France mention his name as Meksous Bey.
- 42.
At the time of Said Efendi’s mission, the French instrument maker Nicolas Bion (1652–1733) had passed away and his atelier was run by his son Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Bion who was also among the King’s engineers.
- 43.
Mercure de France, Juin 1742, pp. 1022–1023.
- 44.
See the figure (pl. 3, fig. 9) with a ring and ribbon given in J. Ozanam’s Recreations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy (vol. 3, London 1814).
- 45.
The Hadji denomination testifies his pilgrimage to Mecca.
- 46.
Mehmed Süreyya, Sicill-i Osmani, vol. 3, [Istanbul]: Matbaa-i Amire 1311 (1893), p. 225.
- 47.
C. İzgi, Osmanlı Medreselerinde İlim, vol. 1, Istanbul: İz Yayıncılık, 1997, pp. 302–306.
- 48.
He is said to have invented a surveying instrument to measure the area of lots (Bursalı Mehmed Tahir, Osmanlı Müellifleri, vol. 3, Istanbul 1975, p. 287).
- 49.
N. Bion, Traité de la construction et des principaux usages des instruments de mathématique. Paris: Chez Jombert et Nion fils, 1752. For the Chapter V on eclipse calculator see pp. 231–236. The reference to the pamphlet is on p. 236. I have not been able to consult earlier editions (1709, 1723, 1725) of the Traité, but I assume that same statements are included.
- 50.
E. İhsanoğlu et al., in their work entitled Osmanlı Astronomi Literatürü Tarihi – History of Astronomy Literature during the Ottoman Period (vol. 2, Istanbul: IRCICA, 1997, p. 466) argued that the Turkish text is the translation of N.Bion’s book titled L’Usage des astrolabes tant universels que particuliers accompagné d’un traité qu’en explique la construction. There is, however, no account of an eclipse calculator in L’Usage des astrolabes. This statement implies these authors assumed that the translation dealt with an astrolabe and not with an eclipse calculator. This misleading information is echoed in Mustafa Sıdkı’s biographies published from 1997 on.
- 51.
The most precise of the figures is published by De La Hire in his Tables astronomiques. The figure given by Bion is the Traité is less precise. The one in Ozanam’s Récréations mathématiques is the less technical of all three figures.
- 52.
See Traité, p. 231. For the figure given by De La Hire see Tabulae astronomicae, Joannes Boudot, Parisiis 1702, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b26001153.item.r=Philippe+de+la+Hire.f3.legendes.langFR
- 53.
Each lunar year is represented by 4 divisions on the middle plate.
- 54.
D.A. King, Islamic Astronomical Instruments, London: Variorum 1987; World maps for finding the direction and distance to Mecca, Leiden: Brill 1999; In Synchrony with the Heavens – Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instrumentation in Medieval Islamic Civilisation, vol. 2 (Instruments of Mass Calculation), Leiden: Brill 2005.
- 55.
Kennedy, “Al-Kashi’s Plate of Conjunctions”, p. 57.
- 56.
Abbas Vesim Efendi (d.1760) was a Persian scholar who moved to Turkey in early sixteenth century. He is well known for his two-volume medical encyclopedia combining both the Islamic and European medical knowledge. He was a strong supporter of iatrochemistry, called “new medicine” by Ottoman physicians. His encyclopedia also introduced the practices of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century alchemists such as J. B. van Helmont, Daniel Sennert and many others. See F. Günergun, “Science in the Ottoman World,” in Imperialism and Science by G. N. Vlahakis et al., Santa Barbara California: ABC-Clio, 2006, pp. 87–89.
- 57.
Al-Birjandi’s work is an annotation of Kadızade-i Rumi’s commentary on al-Caghmini’s (d.1221) work al-Mulahhas fil-Hey’e. Birjandi’s annotation became popular in the Ottoman world and was taught in the madrasa). See Cevat İzgi, Osmanlı Medreselerinde İlim, vol. 1, Istanbul: Iz Yayıncılık, 1997, p. 381.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the following persons who kindly sent me material and shared information during my research: Paul Gagnaire who, in 2006, kindly sent me a copy of the “Chapter V” together with the figure of the eclipse calculator from Nicolas Bion’s Traité de Construction (Paris, 1752). Thanks to this material, I was able to compare the French text and the Turkish translation. My cordial thanks go to Atilla Bir and Mustafa Kaçar who have kindly contributed to the technical drawing of the eclipse calculator “De La Hire – Bion” and to Gaye Danışan who diligently assisted in accounting for the astronomical principles involved in its design and functioning. I am also grateful to David A. King who affirmed that equatoria were known to the Ottomans; to Marvin Bolt (Adler Planetarium, Chicago) for sending me information on and a high resolution image of the eclipseometrum kept in Adler Museum’s collection; to Peter Kristiansen (Royal Danish Collections, Rosenborg Castle, Kopenhagen) for providing me with Claus Thykier’s article on O. Römer’s instruments; to M. Kaçar who kindly fulfilled my request and made a photocopy of an issue of the Mercure de France (issue Juin 1742) at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF, Paris); to Sara Yontan and Nilgün Paner from BNF for sending me J.-Y. Sarazin’s article; to Christophe Benoit (Nice Observatory) for directing my attention to the Histoire de l’Académie Royale des Sciences; to Nilüfer Gökçe (Trakya University, Edirne) and Musa Öncel (The Public Library of Edirne) for providing me with information on the provenance of the manuscript containing Sıdkı Efendi’s translation kept at the Selimiye Library, Edirne; to Darina Martykanova for reading the final manuscript and her remarks. Last but not least, I am much indebted to Şeref Etker for his inspiring and useful comments.
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Günergun, F. (2011). The Ottoman Ambassador’s Curiosity Coffer: Eclipse Prediction with De La Hire’s “Machine” Crafted by Bion of Paris. In: Günergun, F., Raina, D. (eds) Science between Europe and Asia. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9968-6_7
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