Professor David A. king was born in 1941 in England. From 1984 to 1987 he was professor in the Department of the Language and Literature of the Near East, and from 1972-79 the head of the Center of German Research in Egypt, and one year before that he was chairman of the Department of Education at the University of Toronto. Since 1985 Professor king has been the head of the Institute of the History of Science at Frankfurt University, and in this capacity specializes in the field of research on astronomy in Islam, its tools and instruments. He received his doctorate in the Language and Literature of the Near East from Yale University (1972), and a master's degree in education from Oxford University. His most important work is on the history and philosophy of science. He is a member of the International Academy of the History of Science and a member of the American Association of Orientalism, member of the German Society of the History of Experimental and Technical Science.