Empire of Knowledge: How the Mongols Shaped Astral Sciences Across Eurasia

Qiao Yang (Polonsky Fellow, the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute)

Dates: Monday, 5 May 2025
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: F09.331. Madsen Building. Madsen Seminar Room 331
How to register: Free, no registration required

Abstract: The Mongol Empire is well known for its military prowess and its involvement in global trade. It is less appreciated, however, for its contribution to scientific development. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Mongol rule provided a fertile ground for the flourishing of Chinese and Islamicate astral sciences. It also facilitated an unprecedented exchange of astral experts, texts, and instruments across vast regions. This talk explores how the Mongols shaped the development of astral sciences by mobilizing astronomers across Eurasia, revealing a deep and often overlooked connection between scientific knowledge and imperial power in the premodern world. It also sheds new light on the complex exchanges between Mongol, Islamicate, and Chinese astral traditions during this period. Rather than a straightforward process of transfer and adoption, these encounters were oftentimes selective, indirect, and informal. 

Bio: Qiao Yang is a historian of science specializing in premodern China and the Islamicate world. Her research focuses on the social and cultural contexts that shaped the development and exchange of science. Her book project, Heavenly Knowledge, World Empire, examines the interplay between the Mongols’ imperial power and astral sciences (astronomy, astrology, calendar-making). It demonstrates that the Mongols governed with a sophisticated understanding of the heavens and shaped the development of astral sciences by elevating their social prestige and mobilizing astronomers across Eurasia. Before joining the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Qiao was a research scholar at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin.