Science between Europe and Asia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Feza Günergun, Dhruv Raina

   Pages 1-9

3. On Technologies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

      PDF

4. On technologies

   1. Reflections on the Transmission and Transformation of Technologies: Agriculture, Printing and Gunpowder between East and West

      • Christopher Cullen

      Pages 13-26

   2. The Ottoman Empire and the Technological Dialogue Between Europe and Asia: The Case of Military Technology and Know-How in the Gunpowder Age

      • Gábor Ágoston

      Pages 27-39

   3. General Observations on the Ottoman Military Industry, 1774–1839: Problems of Organization and Standardization

      • Kahraman Şakul

      Pages 41-55

   4. Cultural Attitudes and Horse Technologies: A View on Chariots and Stirrups from the Eastern End of the Eurasian Continent

      • Nanny Kim

      Pages 57-73

5. On Maps, Astronomical Instruments, Clocks and Calendars

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

      PDF

6. On maps, astronomical instruments, clocks and calendars

   1. Patchwork – The Norm of Mapmaking Practices for Western Asia in Catholic and Protestant Europe As Well As in Istanbul Between 1550 and 1750?

      • Sonja Brentjes

      Pages 77-101

   2. The Ottoman Ambassador’s Curiosity Coffer: Eclipse Prediction with De La Hire’s “Machine” Crafted by Bion of Paris

      • Feza Günergun

      Pages 103-123

   3. The Clockmaker Family Meyer and Their Watch Keeping the alla turca Time

      • Atilla Bir, Şinasi Acar, Mustafa Kaçar

      Pages 125-136

   4. The Adoption and Adaptation of Mechanical Clocks in Japan

      • Takehiko Hashimoto

      Pages 137-149

   5. Adoption and Resistance: Zhang Yongjing and Ancient Chinese Calendrical Methods

      • Pingyi Chu

      Pages 151-161

7. On Localizing, Appropriating and Translating New Knowledge

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163

      PDF

8. On localizing, appropriating and translating new knowledge

   1. Travelling Both Ways: The Adaptation of Disciplines, Scientific Textbooks and Institutions

      • Dhruv Raina

      Pages 165-176

   2. Between Translation and Adaptation: Turkish Editions of Ganot’s Traité

      • Meltem Akbaş

      Pages 177-191

   3. Eclecticism and Appropriation of the New Scientific Methods by the Greek-Speaking Scholars in the Ottoman Empire

      • Manolis Patiniotis

      Pages 193-206

9. On Medicine and Medical Practices

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207

      PDF

10. On medicine and medical practices

    1. Conveying Chinese Medicine to Seventeenth-Century Europe

       • Harold J. Cook

       Pages 209-232

    2. Adoption and Adaption: A Study of Medical Ideas and Techniques in Colonial India

       • Deepak Kumar

       Pages 233-243

This book explores the various historical and cultural aspects of scientific, medical and technical exchanges that occurred between central Europe and Asia. A number of papers investigate the printing, gunpowder, guncasting, shipbuilding, metallurgical and drilling technologies while others deal with mapping techniques, the adoption of written calculation and mechanical clocks as well as the use of medical techniques such as pulse taking and electrotherapy. While human mobility played a significant role in the exchange of knowledge, translating European books into local languages helped the introduction of new knowledge in mathematical, physical and natural sciences from central Europe to its periphery and to the Middle East and Asian cultures. The book argues that the process of transmission of knowledge whether theoretical or practical was not a simple and one-way process from the donor to the receiver as it is often admitted, but a multi-dimensional and complex cultural process of selection and transformation where ancient scientific and local traditions and elements. The book explores the issue from a different geopolitical perspective, namely not focusing on a singular recipient and several points of distribution, namely the metropolitan centres of science, medicine, and technology, but on regions that are both recipients and distributors and provides new perspectives based on newly investigated material for historical studies on the cross scientific exchanges between different parts of the world.

• History of Medicine
• History of Science
• History of Technology
• History of cultural exchanges
• History of scientific instruments

• Dept. History of Science, Istanbul University, Eminönü, Istanbul, Turkey

  Feza Günergun

• School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

  Dhruv Raina

Policies and ethics