On Wednesday 25 October between 16h15 and 17h45, historian of science Taha Yasin Arslan will hold a talk titled 'John Greaves and his Pursuit of Knowledge from the Islamic World'. This talk will focus on the Englishman John Greaves (1602-1652), a polymath who worked on astronomy, mathematics, metrology, and philology. His passion for learning did not recognize any boundaries, but was never aimless or simply theoretical. He was a scholar in action, striving to establish concrete evidence and proofs in the so-called exact sciences.
Taha Yasin Arslan is a historian of science and deputy director of the Institute for the History of Science at Istanbul Medeniyet University, Türkiye. He specializes in astronomical instruments from the Islamic world in the 13th-16th centuries. As part of his academic work, he makes replicas and reproductions of scientific instruments, which he also includes in his teaching. He also worked at St John’s College, Oxford with a project on John Greaves and his annotations of 17th-century Arabic and Persian astronomical manuscripts. Arslan is internationally recognized as one of the foremost experts on Islamic world astronomical instruments.
Workshop
On Thursday 26 October, Arslan will hold a workshop from 14:00 to 16:00 in which participants will have the opportunity to work with a replica of an early 18th century Persian astrolabe.
You can register for both the lecture and the workshop here.
The initiative for the KIIP series comes from VUB professor Kees-Jan Schilt, knowledge historian and philosopher. Every two weeks for four years, a renowned intellectual will come to VUB to give a talk on a topical subject. The aim behind the series is to break down the barriers between different sciences and create more connection between professors and students from different disciplines.
In addition to the talk and workshop by Prof Dr Taha Yasin Arslan (Istanbul Medeniyet University), Dr Joëlle Weis (Trier Centre for Digital Humanities), Prof Dr Daniel Margocsy (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Dr. Rens Bod (University of Amsterdam) are scheduled in the coming weeks and months.