'Curation Paper Number One' - (Printable) - New Mexico

66 Pages·2012·3.58 MB·English

THE NEW MEXICO MUSEUM OF SPACE HISTORY
CURATION PAPER NUMBER ONE
WINTER 2011

PART THREE OF ‘ASTRONOMERS BEFORE TELESCOPES,’ ‘THE PEN AND
THE SWORD: TRANSLATORS, MOORS, AND MONGOLS (1013-c. 1350),’ AND, A
COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTIETH YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HAM, THE
FIRST CHIMPANZEE IN OUTER SPACE, WRITTEN BY JIM MAYBERRY

FREDERICK II RECEIVES ARAB DEPUTIES TO HIS COURT

A FOURTEENTH CENTURY PAINTING OF MONGOLS AT WAR
The New Mexico Museum of Space 1) The Age of Giants (c. 2650 BC–c. AD
History, a branch of the Department of 520)
Cultural Affairs of the State of New 2) The Not So Dark Ages: the Rise of
Mexico, was founded in 1976 as the India and Islam (476-c. 1070)
International Space Hall of Fame. The 3) The Pen and the Sword: Translators,
Museum includes the Clyde W. Tombaugh Moors, and Mongols (1013-c. 1350)
IMAX Dome Theater and Planetarium, the 4) Copernicus, Ulugh Beg and the Golden
International Space Hall of Fame, the John Age of Jewish Astronomy (1288-1575)
P. Stapp Air and Space Park, and the 5) The Triumph of Europe (c. 1500-1652).
Hubbard Space Science Research
Building. Each issue contains a glossary of terms
used. The brief biographies of the more
Publisher’s Note: than 500 men and women discussed
illustrate the progress of the science of
The New Mexico Museum of Space astronomy, from its earliest days to the
History is pleased to announce publication Scientific Revolution that led to the birth
of the first of a series of papers by the of our modern world.
Curation Department. Curation Paper
Number One continues the five-part series This, the third installment of the series, is
on the early history of astronomy, titled “The Pen and the Sword:
‘Astronomers before Telescopes,’ written Translators, Moors, and Mongols.” It
by Assistant Curator Jim Mayberry. The recounts the development of astronomy
series began in Issues 11 and 12 of The from the years 1013 to c. 1350. This era
New Mexico Space Journal. saw the growth of Christian Europe from
the end of the Dark Ages to the Black
There are many discussions of Old World Plague and the start of the Renaissance.
astronomical traditions; none of them
focuses on the people who lived those The first chapters of the series, ‘The Age
histories however. As the names of of Giants,’ and ‘The Not So Dark Ages’
astronomers of New World cultures are told the story of the dawn of astronomy,
unknown, these articles will not deal with and its growth after the fall of Rome.
the Maya or other Native American Both articles have been rewritten and
groups. published as Curation Papers Two and
Three. The series concludes with Papers
This paper is the third in a five part series Four and Five. Curation Paper Number
that describes the rise, and often the Two also features the latest in Lt. Colonel
decline, of the science of astronomy prior (Ret.) Wayne Mattson’s series on military
to the seventeenth century and the mishaps in the Tularosa Basin.
widespread use of telescopes.
Also in this issue is a commemoration of
Each paper contains an introduction, and the fiftieth anniversary of the spaceflight
short biographies in chronological order, by the world’s first ‘astro-chimp’ HAM;
as well as other items. The ‘Astronomers the role played by Ed Dittmer, his lead
before Telescopes’ series consists of: trainer, is highlighted as well. Ed is a
volunteer at the museum and an inductee
of the International Space Hall of Fame.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the flight of HAM Page 1

Introduction, Astronomers before Telescopes: The Pen and the Sword Page 4

The Pen and the Sword: Translators, Moors, and Mongols, (1013-c. 1350) Page 11

The Pen and the Sword: Glossary of Terms Used Page 32

Period Astronomers in Contemporary Culture Page 53

Astronomical Features Named for Period Astronomers Page 56

Selected Bibliography Page 57

Al-Tusi (left) at the Maragha Observatory (from a painting done in 1582)

Author: Jim Mayberry, Assistant Curator
Editor: Stacie Pritchett
A COMMEMORATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FLIGHT
OF HAM, THE FIRST CHIMPANZEE IN OUTER SPACE, JANUARY 31, 1961.

HAM during pre-flight training, Ed Dittmer, his lead trainer, is on the left.

The launch of MR-2; aboard was HAM,
the first chimp to travel to space. HAM after his mission.
1
‘HAM’ and USAF Sergeant Ed Dittmer

Edward C. Dittmer Sr. was born on HAM was launched by a Redstone Rocket
September 24, 1918, in Laverne, on MR-2, a suborbital flight from Cape
Minnesota. After serving in the US Army Canaveral, Florida on January 31, 1961.
during World War II, he enlisted in the He traveled 5,857 miles an hour to an
Army Air Corps in 1946. In 1956, altitude of 127 miles. He experienced
Sergeant Dittmer transferred to Holloman almost seven minutes of weightlessness;
Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New he then endured almost fifteen ‘G’ forces
Mexico. In 1957, Col. (Dr.) John Stapp during re-entry. He performed his
named Ed to the Space Biology Branch. required tasks admirably during the
sixteen and a half minute mission. His
That same year, a young male chimpanzee vital signs were closely monitored during
was captured in Cameroon, Africa; in his flight, which was recorded by on-board
1959, he was shipped to Holloman. cameras as well. HAM was shocked just
Known originally as ‘Chimp Number 65,’ twice, for not paying close attention. His
he was assigned to the Aeromedical Lab. only visible injury was a bruised nose.
Ed Dittmer was by then the NCOIC (Non-
Commissioned Officer in Command) at Although his Mercury capsule landed 60
the Laboratory’s Space Biology Branch. miles off course, it was retrieved safely.
In that role, he oversaw the training of the HAM was rewarded with an apple and half
‘space chimps’ for eighteen months, as an orange once aboard the rescue vessel.
part of NASA's Mercury Program. The With this successful test of the Mercury
chimpanzees learned to operate a capsule and no signs of serious injury to
relatively simple control panel for use HAM by his exposure to weightlessness,
during a sub-orbital flight. the sub-orbital flights of Alan Shepard and
Gus Grissom soon followed.
HAM, as ‘Chimp Number 65’ would be
named (for ‘Holloman Aero Medical’) After his mission, HAM was sent to the
learned to pull a lever with his right hand National Zoo in Washington D.C. In
when a white light flashed and another 1979, he was moved to the North Carolina
with his left when a blue light flashed, and Zoo, in Asheboro. On January 19, 1983,
to do so within seconds. If he did not pull he died there of heart and liver disease at
the correct lever fast enough, he was the age of 26. His grave is in front of the
shocked on the bottom of his feet. For New Mexico Museum of Space History.
correct answers, he was automatically
rewarded with a banana pellet. In 1963, Ed Dittmer transferred to Saigon,
Vietnam, where he flew on many pilot
HAM was a very affectionate, cuddly, and rescue missions. On one, his aircraft was
aptly named chimp. As Sergeant Dittmer shot down behind enemy lines and Ed had
recalled, “...I think...I know he liked me. to make his way to safety on foot. He
I'd hold him and he was just like a little retired as a Senior Master Sergeant in
kid. He'd put his arm around me and he'd 1973, after 30 years of service. In 2001,
play, you know. He was a well tempered Ed Dittmer was inducted into the
chimp.” International Space Hall of Fame.
2
’The Famous Hand Shake’; the commander of the recovery ship makes the first contact
with HAM after his successful mission.
3
INTRODUCTION, ASTRONOMERS BEFORE TELESCOPES: THE PEN AND THE
SWORD (1013-c. 1350)

The year 1000 was the dawn of a new secrets of the ‘infidel’ Muslims.
millennium, at least in the Christian world. Encouraged by first the Church, and then
At the time, Western Christians held only by enlightened monarchs such as
what are now Germany, France, Austria, Frederick II and Alfonso X, teams of Jews
Switzerland, and the Low Countries; they and Christians were translating Arabic
also ruled parts of England, Spain, and texts by the year 1120. One center of this
Italy. Just 50 years earlier, attacks by foes was the Spanish city of Toledo; Christians
such as the pagan Magyars and Northmen had taken it from the Moors in 1085.
(Vikings) and raids by Muslim Moors and
Arabs had seemed to threaten the The translations done there, as well as in
existence of Latin Europe. Sicily, Provence, and other Christian lands
helped the reemergence of much of the
By the year 1350, the frontiers of Western Greco-Roman lore that had been lost to the
Christianity had expanded to include Dark Ages. These tracts included the
Scandinavia, Hungary, and Poland, as well writings of Aristotle and Ptolemy. Other
as much of the rest of Eastern Europe. texts revealed innovations in science and
Christians had taken Sicily and the other math from India and the Muslim world;
large islands of the Mediterranean, most of translations of these works fostered much
Spain, and all of Italy and the British Isles. of the progress of the Christian West.
Northmen, Magyars, and other former foes
were all by then in the Christian fold. The
Christians had humbled the Arabs, and
crushed the Moors; soon, the Moors ruled
only Granada. That kingdom was usually
a vassal to the Spanish Christians.

Advances in math and the sciences, such
as astronomy, fueled much of this increase
in the power and prosperity of Western
Christendom. The spread in literacy after
the year 1000 aided the growth of
commerce and industry, as did the (slow)
adoption of more modern mathematics. A
major force in the rise of Western Europe
was the translation of documents to Latin
from Arabic; most of this work took place
in newly conquered Sicily and Spain.
Toledo, Spain

The Christians of Spain had burned
In the Middle East, exchanges between
Moorish manuscripts by the hundreds of
Latin Europe and the Muslim world
thousands in the first flush of their victory;
increased after 1099; that year saw the
soon, however, some Christian rulers and
conquest of Jerusalem by the First
clerics realized the benefits of learning the
Crusade. Many Crusaders returned to
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Europe with new ideas in medicine, The Byzantines retook the city in 1261,
agriculture, and math, as well as in other but it and their realm were mere shells of
practices. The jihad led by Saladin retook what they had been. Neither one would
Jerusalem in 1187, but Crusaders held recover. In the year 2004, Pope John Paul
most of the coasts of what are now Israel, II apologized to the Greek Orthodox
Lebanon, and Syria until the year 1291. Church for the Fourth Crusade, but ill will
Despite these wars of religion, cultural and between some Orthodox and Catholic
economic ties survived between Muslims Christians still simmers.
and Western Christians in the Holy Land.
The need to defend the parts of the empire
One result of the Crusades was the ruin of seized by the Fourth Crusade drained both
the only significant Christian power in the fighters and funds that might have gone to
Middle East, the Byzantine Empire. In the the Holy Land. This helped to seal the
year 1203, due to economic tensions fate of the last Christian outposts there.
between the Byzantines and the Republic By 1350, the Ottoman Turks had forced
of Venice, as well as centuries of friction the Byzantines to be their vassals. In four
between the Catholic and Orthodox years, the Turks crossed from Asia into the
Churches, the Fourth Crusade did not sail Balkans; they ruled the region until the eve
to Egypt as planned. of World War I.

Instead, the Crusade, now led by Venice, The fall of Toledo, their largest city, to the
besieged Constantinople, the capital of the Spanish Christians in 1085 had shocked
Byzantine Empire. The next year, the city, the Moors; they appealed to their fellow
which was by far the largest and the Muslims in North Africa for aid. Armies
richest in the Christian world, fell to the of Berbers invaded Spain the next year,
Crusaders. They sacked it in ‘one of the and again, in 1145. They drove the
greatest crimes in history.’ Although Pope Christian tide back for more than a
Innocent III condemned this at first the century, but they spent most of their time
Crusaders brought such riches back with subduing the hapless Moors.
them that he soon pardoned them.
The Berbers, unlike the more tolerant
Moors, were Islamic fundamentalists; they
soon launched the first planned Muslim
persecutions of the Jews of Spain. This
betrayal of the Moors’ faithful allies
sparked the first exodus of Spanish Jews.

In 1212, an alliance of all Spanish and
Portuguese Christians, joined by Crusaders
from France, routed the Berbers and
Moors in the Battle of Las Navas de
Tolosa. This broke the power of Muslim
Spain forever. By the year 1266, the
Moors held only the weak Kingdom of

Granada; it was a vassal to the Spanish
The Entry of the Crusaders into
Christians for most of its existence.
Constantinople, Eugene Delacroix, 1840
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The Crusades were but a few of the
conflicts roiling the Middle East in this
era. The Seljuk Turks, a tribe of Muslims
from Central Asia, had conquered most of
the Middle East from 1055 to 1092. Malik
Shah, the greatest Seljuk sultan, sponsored
the young Persian scientist and poet, Omar
Khayyam; he wrote the Jalali calendar for
the Shah, who adopted it in 1079. It was
the best calendar in the world at the time;

Iran still uses it, in modified form, to this
A Chinese painting of a Mongol archer
day. The First Crusade had weakened the

Seljuks, but they would still rule much of
After they seized Central Asia and east
the Middle East until 1194.
Persia, the Mongols returned to the slow

conquest of China until 1237. That year,
That year, the Khwarezmians, yet another
Ogedei Khan, the son and successor of
Muslim Turkic tribe from Central Asia,
Genghis Khan, sent a Mongol army west;
ousted the Seljuks. In just twenty-four
it overran what are now western Russia
years, this newest group helped to unleash
and the Ukraine in just three years. In
the greatest catastrophe ever to befall the
March of 1241, 120,000 Mongols rode
Muslim world. That year, 1218, the
west from Russia to Prussia, Poland, and
Khwarezmian Shah, or King, executed an
Hungary. In the course of the next 40
emissary of an obscure Mongol chieftain;
days, they defeated Christian armies from
the chieftain’s name was Genghis Khan.
those lands that were five times their size.
The Khan (‘Ruler’) had united the
By May, Mongol scouts were near Vienna;
nomadic Mongol tribes just twelve years
soon they were raiding into the north of
before. He was still subduing northern
Italy.
China at the time; he had not yet focused

on the West. He was hoping for an
Western Europe may have escaped the fate
economic alliance with the Shah, as they
of China with the death of Ogedei Khan in
shared control of the ‘Silk Road,’ the trade
Mongolia that winter, after one too many
route from China to the West.
drinking bouts. By law, all of the royal

family had to attend his funeral; within
Outraged by the death of his diplomat,
days, the Mongols rode back to the east.
Genghis Khan invaded the Khwarezmian
They destroyed Serbia and Bulgaria en
Empire in the year 1220 with an army of
route, but they never again threatened
up to 200,000 warriors. In less than two
Western Europe. Russia languished under
years, the Mongols routed much larger
their yoke until 1480, however.
Muslim armies; they killed millions of

civilians in the process. The Khan had the
In the year 1256, Mongke Khan, the
Shah pursued to an island in the Caspian
grandson and heir of Ogedei Khan,
Sea; the Mongols said that he died there of
ordered a new campaign in the Middle
a ‘broken heart.’ To this day, much of
East. Its first goal was the elimination of a
Central Asia shows signs of this war in
Shiite Muslim sect, the Ismailis. These
abandoned irrigation systems and the ruins
religious fanatics were feared in much of
of cities the Mongols destroyed.
Asia due to their assassins; the word
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originated with them. Based in Abbasid Caliph, as legend tells, by rolling
strongholds in Persia and Syria, they had up a carpet with him in it, then trampling it
tried to kill Mongke in his palace. His with their horses. The Mongols left
brother Hulagu Khan led the largest army Baghdad a ghost town. As with the
the Mongols ever assembled against them. destruction to Central Asia, the deserts
This overawed the Persian Ismailis; they born of their wreckage of Iraq’s canal
quickly surrendered on favorable terms. system still exist.
In just two years, Mongke Khan had more
than 200,000 of them, of all ages,
massacred.

That same year, Hulagu Khan invaded
Iraq; after a brief siege, the Mongols
captured Baghdad. The city was the last
refuge of the Abbasid Caliphs. They had
ruled most of the Muslim world during the
‘Golden Age of Islam’ (see Curation
Paper Number Three). The Mongol army
Hulagu and his Christian wife, Dokuz
was for the most part made of Muslim and
Christian vassals from the Middle East;
One of the prisoners taken when the
they subjected the city to seventeen days
Ismailis had surrendered was a Persian
of destruction. Its citizens died in the
named Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Not only did
hundreds of thousands. The victors
Hulagu Khan spare him, the Khan soon
destroyed the famed ‘House of Wisdom’
grew to depend on his skill in astrology.
and other libraries. They dumped such a
In the year 1259, the Khan built the most
large volume of books in the Tigris River
sophisticated observatory in the world at
that it ran black with ink. Some sources
that time for al-Tusi, in Maragha, Persia.
say the mass of books formed a bridge that
It was soon a center for advanced research;
horses could cross (below, upper right).
scholars from across the Mongols’ empire
staffed it. One of al-Tusi’s
accomplishments was his map of comets’
motions; this was the first evidence for the
rotation of the Earth.
In 1276, Hulagu Khan’s brother, Kublai
Khan, conquered the last independent
Chinese state. He was one of the last
‘Great Khans,’ these were the heads of the
loosely united Mongol realm. This was
the largest land empire in history; it

stretched from Korea and Vietnam to
The Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258
Syria and Poland. Kublai Khan, like most

Mongol rulers, promoted trade as well as
Hulagu Khan did spare the city’s
the arts and sciences, including astronomy.
academics and its Christians; his favorite
Science in China had reached new heights
wife, and his best general, were both
two centuries prior to the Mongol
Christians. The Mongols killed the last
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