Heinrich Suter


Heinrich Suter was a historian of science specializing in Islamic mathematics and astronomy.

Education and career

After graduation from the Industrie Schule at Zürich, Suter studied in Berlin and at ETH Zürich and the University of Zürich. He received in 1871 from the University of Zürich his Promovierung with dissertation Geschichte der mathematischen Wissenschaften von den ältesten Zeiten bis Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts. His dissertation was published in 1872 as a book and was subsequently translated into Russian.
In 1874 Suter began teaching as a vicar at the Gymnasium in Schaffhausen, then taught from 1876 to 1886 in Aarau, and finally from 1886 until his retirement in 1916 in Zürich.
Suter in his early forties learned Arabic and acquired some knowledge of Syriac, Persian and Turkish. He studied the history of mathematics and astronomy in the Islamic societies. In Moritz Cantor's "Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik“ were published in 1892 Suter's translation of the mathematically related entries in the Kitāb al-Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim and in 1893 Suter's translation of the mathematical parts of the catalog of the Khedivial Library in Cairo. One of his most important works is his work, commissioned by the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, on the astronomical tables of Al-Khwarizmi.
In 1904 Suter was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in Heidelberg.

Publications

Books

BM. – Bibliotheca Mathematica, ZM. – Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, ZDMG – Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, SE – Sitzungsberichte der phys.-med. Sozietät Erlangen, OLZ – Orientalistische Literatur-Zeitung.

Collections