On 10–12 October 2024 an international conference dedicated to the 630th Anniversary of Ulugh Beg was held in Samarkand. Within this conference, a special session, the Tenth International Conference on Oriental Astronomy (ICOA-10) took place. The theme of this meeting was Patrons and Patronage in Middle Eastern and Asian–Oceanic Astronomy, and this issue of JAHH features papers presented at the conference.

The first papers are dedicated to the life and activities of Ulugh Beg, including a review of the relevant treatises preserved in libraries and archives in St. Petersburg and Tashkent. Later papers discuss the role of emperors, shoguns, kings, sultans, caliphs, shahs, other rulers, and even a wealthy Australian Businessman and amateur astronomer in the development of astronomy. The image on the front cover is taken from the paper “Ulugh Beg’s Patronage and Astronomical Book-making” by Shuhrat Ehgamberdiev et al. on pages 337–342 in this issue of JAHH.

The image is an illustration of the Constellation Kai-Kaus (Cepheus) from a manuscript copy of al-Sufi’s Kitāb suwar al-kawākib in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Arabe 5036). From the central position of the big circular inscriptions indicating that the book “belongs to the library of … Miraz Ulugh Beg” and Ulugh Beg’s autograph right above the inscriptions on the cover page of the book, Shuhrat Ehgamberdiev et al. argue that the copy was indeed commissioned directly by Ulugh Beg for his own library. As another piece of evidence, they point out that the figure in this illustration shows a very strong resemblance to Ulugh Beg in a miniature painted in his lifetime. Therefore, the illustration is likely a lifetime portrait of Sultan Ulugh Beg represented in the form of the royal constellation.

On 10–12 October 2024 an international conference dedicated to the 630th Anniversary of Ulugh Beg was held in Samarkand. Within this conference, a special session, the Tenth International Conference on Oriental Astronomy (ICOA-10) took place. The theme of this meeting was Patrons and Patronage in Middle Eastern and Asian–Oceanic Astronomy, and this issue of JAHH features papers presented at the conference.

The first papers are dedicated to the life and activities of Ulugh Beg, including a review of the relevant treatises preserved in libraries and archives in St. Petersburg and Tashkent. Later papers discuss the role of emperors, shoguns, kings, sultans, caliphs, shahs, other rulers, and even a wealthy Australian Businessman and amateur astronomer in the development of astronomy. The image on the front cover is taken from the paper “Ulugh Beg’s Patronage and Astronomical Book-making” by Shuhrat Ehgamberdiev et al. on pages 337–342 in this issue of JAHH.

The image is an illustration of the Constellation Kai-Kaus (Cepheus) from a manuscript copy of al-Sufi’s Kitāb suwar al-kawākib in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Arabe 5036). From the central position of the big circular inscriptions indicating that the book “belongs to the library of … Miraz Ulugh Beg” and Ulugh Beg’s autograph right above the inscriptions on the cover page of the book, Shuhrat Ehgamberdiev et al. argue that the copy was indeed commissioned directly by Ulugh Beg for his own library. As another piece of evidence, they point out that the figure in this illustration shows a very strong resemblance to Ulugh Beg in a miniature painted in his lifetime. Therefore, the illustration is likely a lifetime portrait of Sultan Ulugh Beg represented in the form of the royal constellation.