Stories

MediMath is engaged in the popularization of mathematical knowledge. In this section, we collect and publish blogposts written by the team members, project partners, invited speakers, as well as students. We call these posts "Stories". These Stories aim to promote online medieval and early modern mathematics (and science more broadly) of the Mediterranean world as a worldwide network of ideas. They are meant for a science-friendly audience, especially for high school and undergraduate students.

Portulan Chart of the Mediterranean Sea

Zehra Bilgin

Presentation at the MediMath Research Talks : Alī Qūshjī’s Treatise on the Science of Calculation

Alī Qūshjī (d. 879 AH / 1474 CE) was an astronomer, mathematician, theologian and linguist of fifteenth century and had a key role in the formation of scientific life in the Ottomans. A Treatise on the Science of Calculation (Risāla dar ʻIlm-i Ḥisāb), which is the first of two mathematical works by Alī Qūshjī, was written in Persian, probably in Samarkand, sometime before 861 AH / 1456 CE. This work has a remarkable place in the Islamic mathematical tradition given its numerous copies, its widespread distribution in Iran and Anatolia, and its being used as a textbook for centuries. In this blogpost, some facts from an analysis based on several copies of Treatise on the Science of Calculation will be shared.

Alī Qūshjī’s Treatise on the Science of Calculation (PDF, 332KB)

MediMath Team

Nacht der Forschung : an Astrolabe workshop with MediMath

On Saturday the 6 of October, 2025, MediMath celebrated with the University of Bern the “Nacht der Forschung” (the Night of Research), an academic event where research opens to the public : people of all ages and education wandered through the buildings of the University to attend lectures, workshops, games, prepared by the different research teams to present their projects and discoveries. Here at MediMath, we prepared an artsy mathematic workshop: creating your own astrolabe. Even though because of the technicity, the young public, and the time allowed, the tool constructed by the participants didn’t work exactly like a real astrolabe, it allowed them to discover important mathematical and astronomical notions, like latitude, and astronomical surveys. But why was it different? What did they do, compared to a real astrolabe?

Nacht der Forschung : an Astrolabe workshop with MediMath (PDF, 320KB)