About
Dabīrān’s Atlas of Premodern Science
An Interactive Map and Reference Guide to Scientists, Patrons, Institutions, and Intellectual Exchange
What this is
Dabīrān’s Atlas of Premodern Science is an interactive map for exploring the temporal and geographic distribution of the most significant figures in the early history of science. It gathers major scholars of the ancient and medieval world — with particular attention to those who contributed to the mathematical sciences — and places each where and when they worked, so that the temporal and geographic dimensions of premodern scholarship can be seen together, in one integrated view.
Who is included
A group of researchers selected the scholars represented here. Alongside the familiar figures of the major intellectual centres, we have made a deliberate effort — within the limits of the surviving record — to include women scholars and figures from the geographic peripheries so often overshadowed by the great capitals of learning.
How to read the map
Each scholar is a single point, fixed by a date and a place. The date is the scholar’s floruit (when they were active); where none is recorded, a death date stands in. The place is the locality most frequently associated with the scholar in the sources. To avoid misreading the historical record, these values are not printed on the map and no modern place name appears there. They are approximations, drawn largely from secondary sources, and exist only to make visualization possible — not as precise biographical or geographic claims. For exact detail, follow the sources cited in each record. Selecting a marker reveals the open-access resources available for that scholar.
The tools
Beneath the map are controls for narrowing what it shows: set the start and end of the time span, filter by gender or by category of activity (mathematician, astronomer, physician, philosopher, geographer, and others), and search by name, place, or role. As you filter the map or pan and zoom across it, the list below names exactly the scholars currently in view. Every record links to the standard reference works that describe the scholar, and the full dataset — the 500 scholars, 138 localities, and their sources — is published as open, versioned JSON for anyone to reuse or build upon.
The team
Dabīrān’s Atlas of Premodern Science is compiled by a small team of historians of science.
- Sajjad Nikfahm-Khubravan
Affiliate Research Scholar at the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland. A historian of the exact sciences in the premodern Islamic world, with a focus on textual criticism, philology, and scholarly editing. Ph.D., McGill University.
- Fateme Savadi
Research Associate at the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University. A specialist in the history of science and geographical writing in the premodern Islamic world; her doctoral research received international awards in the history of science. Ph.D., McGill University.
- Osama Eshera
Assistant Research Professor at the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland, and Assistant Director of the Arabic-script OCR Catalyst Project. His research treats the history of philosophy and science in the Islamic world, ca. 800–1600. Ph.D., McGill University.
- Browse
- Scholars — search and filter all 500 records
- Places
- Localities — 138 centres of activity
- Sources
- Reference works cited throughout
- Data
- scholars.json, localities.json, sources.json
- Contract
- data/README.md — published URLs, stability promise, CORS caveat
- Source
- GitLab repository