"The Great Comet of 1843," Charles PIazzi Smyth, 1843.

Smyth (1819-1900) is remembered today as a groundbreaking astronomer, but he was also a photographer, traveler, writer, and a pyramidologist. He was the son of an astronomer, his brother was a geologist, another brother was a distinguished Army officer, and a sister was the mother of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, so it was a pretty busy family. Smyth himself married Jessie Duncan, a noted geologist, and they formed quite a team.

This painting was done while he was working at an observatory in South Africa; it clearly shows a certain artistic talent, as well as the influence of the Romantics.

A few years later Smyth would be appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and began to work and teach in Edinburgh.

Despite much excellent work in the field of astronomy, he also studied and wrote about the Pyramid of Giza, and his work there is dismissed as pseudoscience today (because it is). He was also a vocal opponent of the metric system, as he felt it was atheistic and radical.

From the National Maritime Museum, London.

#Art #CharlesPiazziSmyth #Polymath #Romanticism #Astronomy #Pseudoscience #Oddball #BothALegitScientistAndACrank

A lot of people don't know that there are subreddits for polymathic people
https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernPolymath/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Polymath/

#polymath #modernpolymath

Who is the mathematician who communicated with Jeffrey Epstein about the polymath project in 2009?

https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00769858.pdf

#math #maths #polymath mathematics #epstein

John of Damascus

Born Yahya ibn Mansur. He was born into a wealthy Christian family in Damascus, which had fallen under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate. He inherited his dad’s post as a high-ranking tax official (or “Grand Vizier, this was also Jafar’s title in Disney’s Aladdin) for the Caliph Abd al-Malik.

His grandpa, Mansur ibn Sarjun, was a prominent Byzantine official of Damascus, who’d been responsible for the taxes of the region during the reign of Emperor Heraclius & also served under Emperor Maurice. Mansur seems to have played a role in the capitulation of Damascus to the troops of Khalid ibn al-Walid in 635 after securing favorable conditions of surrender.

Because John lived in the Umayyad Caliphate, the Byzantine Emperor couldn’t touch him. John could talk smack about the Emperor’s theology from the safety of Damascus & Jerusalem. John spoke Arabic & Greek fluently. Around 706 CE, he left the worldly life of the Damascus court to become a monk at the Monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem.

He was a polymath whose fields of interest, & contribution, included law, theology, philosophy, & music. He was given the by-name of Chrysorroas (literally “streaming with gold”). John’s most notable historical contribution was his defense of: Icons. In the 720s, Byzantine Emperor Leo III began the “Iconoclasm” (image-breaking) Movement, ordering the destruction of all religious art. Leo argued that icons were idols & that God couldn’t be pictured.

John made a crucial distinction that still the difference between Catholic/Orthodox & some Protestant views on art today:

• Latreia (Adoration): Worship reserved for God alone.
• Doulia (Veneration): Honor or respect paid to a created thing (like a flag, a photograph of a loved one, or an icon.

“I do not worship matter, I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake… & through accomplished my salvation.”

John was the 1st person to “systematize” Christian theology. Before him, theology was found in letters, sermons, & poems. John organized it like a modern textbook:

• The Fountain of Knowledge:
  • His magnus opus. The 3rd part, The Orthodox Faith, became the gold standard for theology in the East & later influenced Thomas Aquinas in the West.
• The Heresies in Epitome:
  • A list of 100 Heresies. Interestingly, number 100 was the “Heresies of the Ishmaelites” (Islam), providing 1 of the earliest Christian critiques of the new religion.
• Hymnography:
  • He’s credited with writing much of the Octoechos – the book of 8 tones used in Orthodox liturgical singing.

Because John lived among Muslims, his perspective on Islam is a vital historical document. He didn’t see Islam as a completely “new” religion. But rather as a Christian heresy, a “mutilated” version of the faith. John praised their monotheism. He critiqued their view of Jesus (which he saw as ironically Docetic, as the Quran suggests Jesus only appeared to be crucified).

His writings formed the basis of Christian-Muslim polemics for the next 1,000 years. He remains a hero to those who believe that the physical world is capable of carrying the divine.

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#706CE #720s #Aladdin #Arabic #Byzantine #ByzantineEmperorLeoIII #CaliphAbdAlMalik #Catholic #Christian #Chrysorroas #Damascus #Docetic #Doulia #GrandVizier #Greek #HeresiesOfTheIsmaelites #Hymnography #Iconoclasm #Icons #Islam #Jerusalem #JohnOfDamascus #Latreia #MansurIbnSarjun #MarSaba #Muslim #Octoechos #Orthodox #Polemics #Polymath #TheFountainOfKnowledge #TheHeresiesInEpitome #TheOrthodoxFaith #ThomasAquinas #UmayyadCaliphate #YahyaIbnMansur

#OnThisDay Birth Anniversary of Benjamin Franklin (1706) - American #Polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Birth Anniversary of Muhammad Ali (1942) - regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest #Boxers of all time.

British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reached the #SouthPole, one month after Roald Amundsen (1912)

https://knowledgezone.co.in/news