Edward Stewart Kennedy (3 January 1912 in Mexico City – 4 May 2009 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania) was a

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

specializing in medieval Islamic astronomical tables written in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. Edward S. Kennedy studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

, graduating in 1932. He then traveled to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

to teach at Alborz College, at that time directed by the American Presbyterian Mission. In the

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and ...

environment, Kennedy made a study of Persian and became fluent in the language. After four years he returned to Pennsylvania and took up study of

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

of exponential form related to

Lambert series In mathematics, a Lambert series, named for Johann Heinrich Lambert, is a series taking the form :S(q)=\sum_^\infty a_n \frac . It can be resumed formally by expanding the denominator: :S(q)=\sum_^\infty a_n \sum_^\infty q^ = \sum_^\infty b_m ...

while at

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...

. He graduated Ph.D. in 1939. When war broke out he enlisted with the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

and was sent to Tehran to serve as an attaché, given his fluency in

. After the war he saw Sarton and Neugebauer at Harvard as he had taken an interest in early Persian and Arabic science. Then he began to teach at the

American University in Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, au ...

(1946 to 1976). In 1951 he married Mary Helen Scanlon. He participated at the

American Research Center in Egypt American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

until 1978 when he joined the Institute for the History of Arab Science at

University of Aleppo University of Aleppo ( ar, جَامِعَة حَلَب, Jāmiʿat Ḥalab, also called Aleppo University) is a public university located in Aleppo, Syria. It is the second largest university in Syria after the University of Damascus. During 2005 ...

. Edward and Mary-Helen left Lebanon in 1984. Kennedy died in

Doylestown, Pennsylvania Doylestown is a borough and the county seat of Bucks County in Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northwest of Trenton, north of Center City, Philadelphia, southeast of Allentown, and southwest of New York City. As of the 2020 cen ...

at the age of 97.

Publications

* 1956: ''A survey of Islamic astronomical tables'',

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, N. S. Vol. 46, Part 2.

* 1959: (with Mohammad Saffouri & Adnan Ifram), ''Al-Bīrūnī on Transits''. Beirut:

American University of Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, aut ...

, reprinted 1988: Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, ''Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy'' 33 * 1960: ''The Planetary Equatorium of Jamshīd Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Kāshī (d. 1429)''.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

* 1968: "The Exact Sciences in Iran under the Saljuqs and Mongols," in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' Volume 5: ''The Saljuq and Mongol Periods'', edited by J. A. Boyle.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, * 1969: "The History of Trigonometry", chapter 6 of ''Historical Topics for the Mathematics Classroom'', Washington DC:

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds an ...

* 1970: "The Arabic Heritage in the Exact Sciences," ''Al-Abhath'' 23: 327–344. * 1971: (with David Pingree) ''The Astrological History of Mā'shā'allāh''. Cambridge MA:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

* 1973: ''A Commentary upon Bīrunī's Kitaāb Taādīd ihāyātal-Amākin – An 11th century treatise on mathematical geography''. Beirut:

Reprinted 1992: Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften * 1975: "The Exact Sciences during the Abbasid Period," in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' Volume 4: ''The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs'', ed. Richard Nelson Frye, Cambridge University Press * 1976: ''The Exhaustive Treatise on Shadows by Abu al-Rayḥān Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī'', 2 volumes,

, Institute for the History of Arabic Science * 1976: (edited with Imad Ghanem) ''The Life & Work of Ibn al-Shāṭir--An Arab Astronomer of the Fourteenth Century''. Aleppo: University of Aleppo, Institute for the History of Arabic Science * 1981: (translated with Fuad I. Haddad, commentary with David E. Pingree) ''The Book of the Reasons Behind Astronomical Tables'' (Kitāb fi 'ilal al-ziījāt) by 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Hashimi. New York: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Delmar * 1986: "The Exact Sciences in Timurid Iran," in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'' volume 6: ''The Timurid and Savafid Periods'', edited by Peter Jackson & Lawrence Lockhart. Cambridge University Press * 1987: (with Mary Helen Kennedy) ''Geographical Coordinates of Localities from Islamic Sources''. Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften * 1990: ''Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences'',

Syracuse University Press Syracuse University Press, founded in 1943, is a university press that is part of Syracuse University. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. History SUP was formed in August 1943 when president William P. Tolley prom ...

* 1998: ''On the Contents and Significance of the Khāqānī Zīj by Jamshīd Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Kāshī'' (Islamic Mathematics and Astronomy volume 84). Frankfurt am Main: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften * 1998: ''Astronomy and Astrology in the Medieval Islamic World''. Aldershot UK: Ashgate/Variorum * 1999: (with Paul Kunitzsch and Richard P. Lorch) ''The Melon-Shaped Astrolabe in Arabic Astronomy''. Stuttgart: Steiner. * 2008: "Al-Bīrūnī (or Bērūnī), Abū Rayḥān (or Abu'l-Rayḥān) Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad",

Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography The ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'' is a scholarly reference work that was published from 1970 through 1980 by publisher Charles Scribner's Sons, with main editor the science historian Charles Gillispie, from Princeton University. It consi ...

, Encyclopedia.com, 970–80

References

* Van Dalen, Benno; King, David A.; Samsó, Julio; Kennedy, Nora Wallace; Kennedy-Scanlon, Michael
''In memoriam Edward S. Kennedy (1912 – 2009)''
— Includes eulogy, list of publications * King, David A., & Saliba, George (eds.), ''From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in the Ancient and Medieval Near East in Honor of E. S. Kennedy.'' Special issue of ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'' 500 (1987), 569 pp.

Publications

References

See also