The posts in this weblog are mainly about history, heritage, language, art, and culture of Persia (that is named Iran since 1934). Persia is, therefore, equal to Iran, and Persian is equal to Iranian. Note that Persian is a nationality not an ethnicity. Pars (or Fars) is the major ethnicity in Persia but there are also Persian Kurds or Arabs. Similarly, the official language in Persia is Persian (Farsi is the local name and may not be used internationally). For more details please read my posts.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
From "Mathematics in Persia" to "Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art"
Have you ever heard of Al-Sijzi, the 10th century Persian mathematician? Or do you know that one of the world's analemmatic sundials is recently built in Rasht, Persia? I think you will like reading this post:
From 11 Sep 2006 through 15 Sep 2006, there is a workshop in Leiden University, the Netherlands, about Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art. Let me write a bit of background how this workshop came to existence. In spring 2006, the Seminar on History of Mathematics in Iran (Persia) was organized at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Leiden (Netherlands) by Dr. Jan P. Hogendijk (one of the coordinators of the current workshop). In that seminar, Jan Hogendijk also conducted a series of optional short classes on the Persian and Arabic alphabet and on Qur'an recitation.
On May 14, the eight ex-participants of the seminar made a trip to Persia, together with Prof. Dr. Remke Kruk (another coordinator of the current workshop) and Jan Hogendijk. They performed three workshops, together with Prof. Dr. Mohammad Bagheri (the third coordinator of the current workshop), during a conference on Mathematics and Art from May 16 - May 18, 2006, which took place in the House of Mathematics in Esfahan.
After the conference, some members left Esfahan and returned to the Netherlands. The remaining members of the group stayed for another week in Persia, and travelled to Yazd, Shiraz, and the province of Sistan and Baluchistan in South-Eastern Persia. In the cities of Zahedan and Zabol, a small international conference on ancient and medieval astronomy was organized by the astronomical society Mehbang. During that conference, an astrolabe workshop was conducted, and Jan Hogendijk held a lecture on the 10th-century mathematician al-Sijzi, who came from that province.
By the way, Mohammad Bagheri is the one who designed the analemmatic sundial in Rasht (also look at this link about the sundial in Rasht). You may also like to know that Jan Hogendijk and Mohammad Bagheri translated an interesting book from al-Sijzi:
Al-Sijzi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Treatise on Geometrical Problem Solving, ed. Bagheri, M., Hogendijk, J. Tehran: Fatemi Publications, 1996. Arabic text with Persian and English translations of a treatise on problem solving strategies in geometry, which resembles G. Polya's How to Solve It.
The workshop "Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art" is mentioned in an interesting article, "A heptagon from Esfahan," about mathematics and architecture in Persia. The article is published yesterday, 2 September, in a famous Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad.
* Also available in Persian language
Have you ever heard of Al-Sijzi, the 10th century Persian mathematician? Or do you know that one of the world's analemmatic sundials is recently built in Rasht, Persia? I think you will like reading this post:From 11 Sep 2006 through 15 Sep 2006, there is a workshop in Leiden University, the Netherlands, about Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art. Let me write a bit of background how this workshop came to existence. In spring 2006, the Seminar on History of Mathematics in Iran (Persia) was organized at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Leiden (Netherlands) by Dr. Jan P. Hogendijk (one of the coordinators of the current workshop). In that seminar, Jan Hogendijk also conducted a series of optional short classes on the Persian and Arabic alphabet and on Qur'an recitation.
On May 14, the eight ex-participants of the seminar made a trip to Persia, together with Prof. Dr. Remke Kruk (another coordinator of the current workshop) and Jan Hogendijk. They performed three workshops, together with Prof. Dr. Mohammad Bagheri (the third coordinator of the current workshop), during a conference on Mathematics and Art from May 16 - May 18, 2006, which took place in the House of Mathematics in Esfahan.
After the conference, some members left Esfahan and returned to the Netherlands. The remaining members of the group stayed for another week in Persia, and travelled to Yazd, Shiraz, and the province of Sistan and Baluchistan in South-Eastern Persia. In the cities of Zahedan and Zabol, a small international conference on ancient and medieval astronomy was organized by the astronomical society Mehbang. During that conference, an astrolabe workshop was conducted, and Jan Hogendijk held a lecture on the 10th-century mathematician al-Sijzi, who came from that province.
By the way, Mohammad Bagheri is the one who designed the analemmatic sundial in Rasht (also look at this link about the sundial in Rasht). You may also like to know that Jan Hogendijk and Mohammad Bagheri translated an interesting book from al-Sijzi:Al-Sijzi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Treatise on Geometrical Problem Solving, ed. Bagheri, M., Hogendijk, J. Tehran: Fatemi Publications, 1996. Arabic text with Persian and English translations of a treatise on problem solving strategies in geometry, which resembles G. Polya's How to Solve It.
The workshop "Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art" is mentioned in an interesting article, "A heptagon from Esfahan," about mathematics and architecture in Persia. The article is published yesterday, 2 September, in a famous Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad.
Labels: Art, Astronomy, Persian heritage
¶ 12:50:00 pm
