List of
Publications
Benno
van Dalen, Ph.D.
Former research
associate at the Lehrstuhl
für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, LMU, Munich
(Germany).
Former research
associate at the Institut
für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Goethe Universität,
Frankfurt am Main
(Germany).
See also: my homepage,
curriculum vitae, and description
of computer programs.
Monographs
- Ancient and Mediaeval Astronomical Tables: mathematical
structure and parameter values. Utrecht (Utrecht University) 1993.
ISBN 90-393-0167-0.
Edited volumes
- From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical
Ideas (editor, with Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Joseph W. Dauben and
Menso Folkerts), Boethius 46, Stuttgart (Steiner) 2002.
- Certainty, Doubt, Error: Aspects of the Practice of Pre- and
Early Modern Science in Honour of David A. King (editor, with
Sonja
Brentjes and François Charette), special issue of Early
Science
and Medicine 7-3 (2002).
- In preparation: Special issue of Annals of Science with
contributions from the conference Between
Orient and Occident: Transformation of Knowledge, (Munich, 6-7
November 2009) (guest editor, with Charles Burnett). To appear in July
2011.
Articles
- A Statistical Method for Recovering Unknown Parameters from
Medieval Astronomical Tables, Centaurus 32 (1989), pp. 85-145.
- A Table for the True Solar Longitude in the Jâmi`
Zîj, in: Ad Radices. Festband zum fünfzigjährigen
Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften der
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main (ed.
Anton von Gotstedter), Stuttgart (Franz Steiner) 1994, pp. 171-190.
- On Ptolemy's Table for the Equation of Time, Centaurus
37 (1994), pp. 97-153.
- Statistics and Medieval Astronomical Tables, in: Images of
SMC Research 1996, Amsterdam (SMC) 1996, pp. 167-178.
- al-Khwârizmî's Astronomical Tables Revisited:
Analysis of the Equation of Time, in: From Baghdad to Barcelona.
Studies on the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet
(eds. Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó), Barcelona (Instituto
Millás Vallicrosa
de Historia de la Ciencia Arabe) 1996, pp. 195-252.
- Article “Shams (the Sun) 2. In astronomy”, in The
Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, Vol. 9 (1996), pp. 291-294
(fasc. 151-152).
- The Chinese-Uighur Calendar in Tûsî's Zîj-i
Îlkhânî (with E.S. Kennedy and Mustafa K. Saiyid), Zeitschrift
für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 11
(1997), pp. 111-152.
- Islamic Astronomy in China during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties
(translation and partial revision of a chapter from a book by Kiyosi
Yabuuti), Historia Scientiarium 7 (1997), pp. 11-43.
- Article “Ta´rîkh 2. Era chronology in astronomical
handbooks”, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, vol. 10
(2000), pp. 264-271.
- Islamic Astronomy in China: Two New Sources for the Huihui li
(“Islamic Calendar”) (with Michio Yano), in Highlights of Astronomy,
vol. 11B (ed. J. Andersen), Dordrecht (Reidel) 1998, pp. 697-700.
- Tables of Planetary Latitude in the “Huihui li” - Part II, in Current
Perspectives in the History of Science in East Asia (eds.
Yung Sik Kim and Francesca Bray), Seoul (Seoul National University
Press)
1999, pp. 315-329.
- Origin of the Mean Motion Tables of Jai Singh, Indian
Journal of History of Science 35-1 (2000), pp. 41-66.
- A Non-Ptolemaic Islamic Star Table in Chinese, in Sic itur
ad astra. Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und
Naturwissenschaften. Festschrift für Paul Kunitzsch zum 70.
Geburtstag (eds. Menso Folkerts
and Richard P. Lorch), Wiesbaden (Harrassowitz) 2000, pp. 147-176.
- Islamic and Chinese Astronomy under the Mongols: a Little-Known
Case of Transmission, in From China to Paris: 2000 Years
Transmission of Mathematical Ideas (Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Joseph
W. Dauben, Menso Folkerts and Benno van Dalen, editors), Boethius 46,
Stuttgart (Steiner) 2002, pp. 327-356.
- Islamic Astronomical Tables in China : The Sources for the
Huihui li, in History of Oriental Astronomy. Proceedings of the
Joint Discussion-17 at the 23rd General Assembly of the
International Astronomical Union, organised by the Commission 41
(History of Astronomy). held in Kyoto, August 25-26, 1997
(S.M. Razaullah Ansari, editor), Dordrecht (Kluwer) 2002, pp. 19-31.
- The Zîj-i Nâsirî by Mahmûd
ibn `Umar. The Earliest Indian-Islamic Astronomical Handbook with
Tables and
its Relation to the `Alâ'î Zîj, in Studies
in
the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree
(Charles
Burnett, Jan Hogendijk, Kim Plofker and Michio Yano, eds.), Leiden
(Brill)
2004, pp. 825-862.
- The Activities of Iranian Astronomers in Mongol China, in Sciences, Techniques et Instruments dans
le monde Iranien (Xe-XIXe siècle). Actes du colloque tenu
à l'Université de Téhéran (7-9 juin 1998)
(eds. N. Pourjavady and Z. Vesel), Tehran (Presses Universitaires
d'Iran / Institut Français de Recherche en Iran) 2004, pp. 17-28.
- A Second Manuscript of the Mumtahan Zîj, Suhayl 4 (2004), pp. 9-44.
- Articles “al-Battânî” (vol. 1, pp. 101-103), “Ulugh
Beg” (vol. 2, pp. 1262-1263), “Shams al-munajjim
al-Wâbkanwî”
(vol. 2, pp. 1187-1188), “Yahya ibn Abî Mansûr” (vol. 2,
pp. 1249-1250), and “Zhamaluding” (vol. 2, pp. 1262-1263), in Biographical Encyclopaedia of Astronomers
(eds. Thomas A. Hockey, F. Jamil Ragep, et al.), Berlin (Springer) 2007.
- An Index of Authors
to A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian
National Library
(with David A. King), Suhayl 7 (2007), pp. 9–46.
- Re-Editing the Tables
in the Sâbi' Zîj
by al-Battânî (ca. AD 900) (with
Fritz S. Pedersen), in Mathematics Celestial and Terrestrial. Festschrift für Menso Folkerts zum 65.
Geburtstag (eds. Joseph
W. Dauben, Stefan Kirschner, Paul Kunitzsch, Andreas Kühne
and Richard P. Lorch), Halle a/d Saale (Deutsche Akademie der
Naturforscher
Leopoldina) 2008, pp. 405–428.
- In Memoriam E.S. Kennedy
(1912-2009), Historia Mathematica
37 (2010), pp. 159-163.
- Al-Battânî's
Astrological History of the Prophet and the Early Caliphate (with E.S.
Kennedy, George A. Saliba and Julio Samsó), Suhayl 9 (2009-2010), pp. 13-148.
Articles in Press
Reviews
- Michio Yano, Kûshyâr Ibn Labbân's
“Introduction to Astrology”, Tokyo 1997. In: Isis 90
(1999), pp. 591-592.
- Christopher Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient
China: the “Zhou bi suan jing”, Cambridge 1996. In: Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society 9 (1999), pp. 343-345.
- James Evans, The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy,
Oxford 1998. In: Isis 91 (2000), pp. 580-581.
- David A. King, World-Maps for Finding the Direction and
Distance to Mecca, Leiden (Brill) 1999. In: Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society 12 (2002), pp. 371-373.
- Alexander Jones, Astronomical Papyri from Oxyrhyncus (P. Oxy.
4133-4300a),
2 vols., Philadelphia (American Philosophical Society) 1999. In: Journal
of the Royal Asiatic Society 14 (2004), pp. 127-129.
- Carlos Dorce, El Tây
al-Azyây de Muhyî
al-Dîn al-Magrîbî, Barcelona (Instituto “Millás Vallicrosa” de
Historia de la
Ciencia Árabe) 2002-2003. In:
Zeitschrift für
Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 17 (2006/07),
pp.
390–396.
- Petra G. Schmidl, Volkstümliche
Astronomie im
islamischen Mittelalter. Zur Bestimmung der Gebetszeiten und der Qibla
bei al-Asbahî, Ibn Rahîq und al-Fârisî (2 vols.), Leiden (Brill) 2007. In: Journal of the American
Oriental
Society 130 (2010), pp. 121-124.
- Eighteen reviews in Mathematical Reviews and 31 abstracts in Zentralblatt
für Mathematik
und ihre Grenzgebiete.
Preprints
- A Statistical Method for the Analysis of Medieval
Astronomical Tables, Universiteit Utrecht, Mathematisch Instituut,
Preprint no.
517.
Selected Invited
Lectures
- Recovering Unknown Parameters in Islamic Astronomical Tables,
at the XVIIIth International Congres of History of Science, Hamburg and
Munich (Germany), 1-9 August 1989.
- Transmission of Astronomical Parameter Values from East to
West, at the XIXth International Congress of History of Science,
Zaragoza (Spain), 22-29 August 1993.
- Tables of Planetary Latitude in the “Huihui li” - Analysis,
at the Eighth International Conference on the History of Science in
East Asia, Seoul (Korea), 26-31 August 1996.
- Islamic Astronomy in China: Two New Sources for the Huihui-li
(with Michio Yano), at the XXIIIrd General Assembly of the
International Astronomical Union, Kyoto (Japan), 18-30 August 1997.
- Islamic Astronomical Tables and Their Transmission to Europe
and China, at the Conference “Harmony of the Heavens”, London
(United Kingdom), 13-14 March 1998.
- The Activities of Iranian Astronomers in China in the 13th
Century, at the Conference “La science dans le monde iranien”,
Tehran (Iran), 7-9 June 1998.
- Islamic Astronomical Tables: What we can learn from them and
how they were transmitted to other cultures, in the colloquium of
the Dibner Institute, Cambridge MA (USA), 6 October 1998.
- An Example of Applied Mathematics in Islamic Astronomy: the
Calculation of the Vernal Equinox by al-Kashi, at the Second Joint
Meeting of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of
Mathematics
and the British Society for the History of Mathematics, Toronto
(Canada),
15-17 July 1999.
- The transmission of mathematical knowledge between Iran and
China in the Mongol Period: a Little Known Route, at the Conference
“2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas”, Bellagio (Italy), 8-12
May 2000.
- Transmission of Astronomical Knowledge within the Islamic
World, at the XXIth International Congress of History of Science,
Mexico City (Mexico), 8-14 July 2001.
- Tables for calculating
planetary longitudes in Islamic astronomical handbooks, at the
3rd Joint Conference of the BSHM and the CSHPM, Clare College,
Cambridge (England), 9-11 July 2004.
- Islamic Astronomy in China:
State of the Art of Research on the Huihuilifa, at the 11th
International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia,
Deutsches Museum, Munich (Germany), 15-20 August 2005.
- Transmission of
Islamic Astronomy to China,
at the David Pingree Memorial Seminar “Empires and Exact Sciences in
Pre-modern
Eurasia”, Leiden (Netherlands), 29–30 May 2006.
- Islamic Astronomy
in
Northeastern Tibet (14th c.),
at the International Conference “Islam & Tibet: Cultural
Interactions”, The
Warburg Institute, London, 16–18 November 2006.
- Islamic
Astronomy in China: Latest Developments, at the International Conference “A Shared
Legacy.
Islamic Astronomy East and West”, Barcelona (Spain),
11–14 April 2007.
- Mixing Islamic and
Chinese Astronomy in the Huihuilifa, Twelfth International Conference on
the History of
Science in East Asia, Baltimore, 14.–18. Juli 2008.
- Mathematical
Astrology in
Islamic Astronomical Handbooks,
Conference „From Masha’allah to
Kepler: The Theory and Practice of Astrology in the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance“, Warburg Institute,
London, 13.–15. November 2008.
- Methods
for Correcting the Ascendant in Islamic zijes. In Memoriam: Edward S.
Kennedy
(1912–2009),
XXIIIrd International Congress of History of Science and Technology,
Budapest,
28. Juli–2. August 2009
- Islamic
Astronomical Handbooks and their Transmission to India and China (invited lecture in the
section History of Mathematics),
International Congress of Mathematicians, Hyderabad (India),
19-27 August 2010.
Last modification:
January 3, 2011.