ABSTRACT
This paper discusses for the first time structural and rhetorical elements of patronage relationships in the mathematical sciences in Islamicate societies. It pursues this topic for two different time periods, the eighth to the twelfth and the late twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. Its third part summarizes major outcomes of patronage in the mathematical sciences. The paper argues against the then common wisdom of the day that patronage for these disciplines did not wither away after the twelfth century, but continued to be a major factor in the productions of mathematical texts and instruments and the flourishing of mathematical activities in a multitude of contexts in a good number of Islamicate societies. Furthermore, it reveals that patronage relationships were not an exclusive phenomenon of courts, but occurred also among scholars.
