Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560–1660

Acknowledgments

I owe great debts to many individuals. My advisor, Theodore Porter, envisioned the potential of the project from our first meeting. I am especially grateful to him for showing me that historical scholarship requires not only strong evidence, clarity of mind, creativity, and power of imagination, but also a good sense of humor. I was fortunate to have a dissertation committee with each member covering a particular angle of this new niche. Herbert Davidson, Robert Westman, Norton Wise, and Hossein Ziai perfected my training in completely different fields and, thus, set the foundations for my training as a cross-cultural historian of science. Their guidance enriched the scope of my work and rescued it from internal dialogues. In the course of my work, I exchanged ideas with scholars from adjacent fields. John Christianson, Robert Evans, and Paul Rose gave illuminating comments and suggestions for chapter one and helped in solidifying my argument on the apocalyptic connection in astronomy between the Europeans and the Ottomans. Mario Biagioli and Nick Wilding offered stimulating suggestions on the possible connections to Galileo in the East. David Myers and the late Richard Popkin helped me place chapter three in a larger context of Jewish history and its critical dialogue with Christianity. I had fruitful discussions with Amir Alexander on the connection between voyages, mathematics, and politics in seventeenth-century England. Marry Terrall read most of the chapters and made constructive comments that helped me set the work in the larger context of print culture. George Saliba frequently provided wonderful insights, particularly concerning Arabic astronomy and its circulation in late medieval Europe. Benjamin Elman helped me situate the research in a larger discussion of the world history of science, with special reference to China. Owen Gingerich read the entire manuscript and made many useful comments, and he was particularly helpful in supplying additional documentation for sorting out the intricate publishing strategy of the a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s 168 Acknowledgments French cosmographer Noël Duret. Chapter five started as a seminar paper for Carlo Ginzburg, who first set me on the convoluted path to micro-history. Zvi Ben-Dor and Eugene Sheppard were roommates, close friends, and colleagues who enriched and stimulated some of the ideas in this book and also supplied strong moral support. My work was supported by several fellowships, to which I owe a great deal. The Amado Foundation, the International Sephardic Education Foundation, and an International Studies and Overseas Programs fellowship helped me conduct my research overseas. A Clark Library fellowship enabled me to enjoy that library ’s endlessly fascinating primary sources and the generous help of the librarians . The Milton Fund of Harvard University supported the transformation of my dissertation into a book manuscript. Diana Morse from the Harvard Society of Fellows facilitated the preparation of the manuscript and generously supplied the necessary means to promote its publication. I am indebted to the museums, archives, and galleries that permitted me to reproduce artwork from their collections. I thank the British Museum, Istanbul University, the Clark Library at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the Institute of Hebrew Manuscripts in Jerusalem, and Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. I am lucky to have close friends with whom I could share immature thoughts and first drafts of chapters. Ahmad Alwisha, Courtney Booker, Hillel Eyal, Minghui Hu, Minsoo Kang, Margaret Kuo, Kevin Lambert, Nitzan Leibovic, Ofer Nur, and Sandy Sufian were subjected to endless tedious discussions that helped me crystallize my thoughts. During my years in the Harvard Society of Fellows, I was fortunate to have friends and colleagues who sustained a substantial intellectual exchange. The many conversations with Bernard Bailyn, Joshua Blum, Debora Cohen, Peter Galison, Michael Gordin, Anna Henchman, Scott Johnson, Eric Nelson, Vanessa Ryan, Amartya Sen, Andrew Strominger, and Nur Yalman helped me solidify my arguments and expand them to other intellectual fields. Conversations with Ann Blair, Daniela Bleichmar, Jimena Canales, Daniel Margocsy , and Steven Shapin supplied many constructive comments. The original text went through several cycles of editing. Howard Goodman, friend and colleague, edited the last draft and made many fruitful suggestions. The illuminating responses of the reviewers supplied new research directions and constructive critiques that improved the text significantly. Bob Brugger and his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University Press helped me escape some Acknowledgments 169...