Ingenuity and Beauty — Astrolabe Study Day
You're invited...
Join Dr Taha Yasin Arslan, Dr Stephen Johnston and Dr Silke Ackermann for an astrolabe Study Day at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
Spend a day with the universe in your hand and immerse yourself in the wonder and beauty of the astrolabe.
Explore the astrolabe
The astrolabe was the most iconic of early astronomical instruments: it promised to bring the heavens literally into your hands. A user could explore and even control time, the seasons, space and place. Its ingenuity was matched by its beauty and it was sought after by both scholars and rulers for more than a millennium.
Oxford's History of Science Museum has lent some of its most stunning objects to the Centre for Islamic Studies for the exhibition "Lines of Faith: Astronomy and the Art of the Astrolabe in the Islamic World". This study day provides a hands-on accompaniment to the exhibition.
Astrolabe by Qassim 'Ali Qa'inbi, Persian, 1682
What to Expect
Join Dr Taha Yasin Arslan, exhibition curator Dr Stephen Johnston and Museum Director Dr Silke Ackermann for an exploration of the astrolabe.
Participants will each assemble and learn to use their own laser-cut modern astrolabe to take home afterwards. You will also get to try your hand at the metalworking techniques needed to shape the historical examples in the exhibition, from sawing and filing, to riveting and shaping.
The session gives a taste of the way that the astrolabe embodied science, religion, art and craft in one exquisite object.
For more information and to book your ticket click below.
Meet the facilitators
Dr Taha Yasin Arslan teaches History of Science at Istanbul Medeniyet University, and runs a university workshop where astrolabes and other early instruments are created and recreated.
Dr Stephen Johnston is Curator Emeritus at Oxford's History of Science Museum and a specialist on medieval and Early Modern scientific instruments.
Dr Silke Ackermann is Director of the History of Science Museum, University of Oxford and researches the transfer of knowledge between the Islamic World and Europe and the interconnectedness of science, art and faith.
