The defense session of Naimeh Heydari's master's thesis was held on the subject of "A comparative study of astrolabe designs from the Safavid era to the contemporary period"

Naimeh Heydari's master thesis defense session on the subject of "A comparative study of astrolabe designs from the Safavid era to the contemporary period" was held on February 27, 2021

Title:
A comparative study of astrolabe designs from the Safavid era to the contemporary period

Supervisor: Dr.Nasrallah Taslimi
Advisor: Iraj Safaei
Research by: Naeimeh Heydary

ABSTRACT

Astrolabe is an astronomical instrument, that was made by hands of a skillful and knowledgeable Iranian craftsman through thousands of years especially in the Islamic period.
Due to the various applications of this instrument, such as knowing the time of sunset and sunrise for performing religious duties. Also geographical applications especially marine navigation. These uses of the astrolabe made it an important instrument between scientist of that time and even the governments. Inscriptions that are usually drawn on the astrolabe not only scientific, furthermore, decorative drowning were used.
The methodology of this research is (Historical – comparative) and sampling is random. The aim of this dissertation is to identify the astrolabes that can be used in Iran.
By selecting four Iranian astrolabes from the simple of North Bsit planispheric astrolabe and located in museums and private collection in Iran, belonging to four historical periods (Safavi, Qajar, Pahlavi and contemporary) has been written to answer question such as:
What are the meaning of strobe inscriptions?
What are the changes that have been done to these inscriptions throughout the years? And why?
What could be the reason behind using artistic inscriptions in a scientific instrument?
By analyzing the patterns and decorations of the sample, common features such as the triangular thrones, the plant form of the spider, the use of arabesque traceries, cathay, Nastaliq Naskh line, Pahlavi, delicate berry net in the spider and thrones part, which shows the influence of astrologers in different historical periods from each other. Of course, there are also differences in astrolabes that can be examined and we have mentioned them in introduction of the dissertation. The point to be considered in this research is addressing the artistic aspect of this scientific instrument.
In general, in this dissertation, an attempt has been made to briefly introduce the aesthetic aspect while introducing astrolabes, functional background and structure analysis.

Keywords: comparative studies, patterns, astrolabe motifs, Safavieh, Qajar, Pahlavi, contemporary