THE ART OF SCIENCE

A RARE PERSIAN QIBLA FINDER FITTED WITH A EUROPEAN STYLE “UNIVERSAL” SUNDIAL, 18TH CENTURY

Brass Qibla.

Diameter: 8.2 cm.

Height: 8 cm.

This portable qibla finder is of the rare kind that is fitted with a “European style” sundial. The sundial on the instrument is generally known as the “universal inclining sundial” and was very common in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to David King, some of these sundials might be imported from Europe but engraved in Persia. It is universal since the hour-dial can be elevated to match any terrestrial latitude.

The numbers on the hour-dial are highly stylized forms of Arabic numerals and are often found on clocks and watches made by Europeans for Persian and Turkish markets in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Similar Instruments:

There are three other instruments known, which have a similar European sundial. The first is in the collection of the Museum for the History of Science in Oxford, while the second one is found in the collection of the National Maritime Museum. A third instrument can be seen on p.27 of the 1931 exhibition catalogue “An Illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Persian Art”, however only one image of the instrument (from above) is given.

Besides the above mentioned three instruments which are qibla finders of the regular type using gazetteers for indicating Qibla information, two 17th century Safavid “universal qibla finders” containing a world map grid were also fitted with a similar sundial. At least one of the surviving instruments is still fitted with a European style universal inclining sundial, similar to our instrument.

Literature:

David A. King, Two Iranian World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca. Imago Mundi, Vol. 49 (1997), pp. 62-82 (22 pages)

David A. King, World Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca, Brill, Leiden, 1999 ( See p. 284, section 8.2.1 for information on the type of numerals and p. 292, section 8.2.3, for information on the inclining sundial)

Estimate € 20.000 - € 30.000

Lot 167

A BRASS ASTROLABE, MOROCCO,18TH CENTURY

In cast brass, hammered and engraved, entirely inscribed in Maghribi Kufic Arabic, unsigned.

Diameter: 10 cm.

Height (including ring): 16.5 cm.

The limb of the instrument, fused in one piece with the kursi (throne), is riveted at four points on the back to form the mother. A 360° scale is engraved on the limb, divided by groups of two degrees and numbered by groups of ten degrees. The kursi is composed of three lobes decorated with four circles. The spandrels are three in number, they are engraved on both sides, there must have been a fourth. It is a representation of the globe, they are circular and provided with a small appendix of square form which allows their maintenance in the mother.

They serve the following precise latitudes: 31°30 Marrakech, 33°30 Fez, 35° Tangier, 30° Cairo, 34° For all cities of such latitude, 36° For all the cities of such latitude

Each tympanum has arrowed lines indicating the prayers and the horizon. The back is engraved with six concentric scales, including a zodiacal calendar and a Christian calendar. In the center, a shadow square is used to determine the meridian height of the sun, knowing the latitude of the place. The alidade, screw and nut are original.

Estimate € 80.000 - € 120.000

Provenance

Private collection, Germany

Catalogue Note

The astrolabe is a scientific instrument intended to read the solar or stellar time in a given point, to make astronomical or astrological observations.It was used by the “Time Calculators” to calculate the time of prayers, lunations (for Ramadan), the orientation of Mecca and the establishment of horoscopes. For navigation, it has a set of disks called tympanums, allowing to adjust the representation of the sky according to the latitude of the place. The spider representing the ecliptic circle, and pointing the position of the main stars of the sky turns around the axis. A ruler allows to measure the height of a star or to point a mark on the limb of the astrolabe.

The spider marks the position of 24 stars with their names (twelve northern stars inside the ecliptic and twelve southern stars outside), by indexes in the form of hooks. There are three brass mudir (small nail to turn the spider)

Lot 168

AN OTTOMAN DAIRAT AL-MUADDIL (COMBINED SUNDIAL AND QIBLA FINDER), 17TH CENTURY

Diameter: approx. 24 cm.

The dairat al-mu’addil (Eng. equatorial circle) is an instrument with combines a sundial with a qibla indicator. It was invented by the 15th century astronomer and timekeeper at the al-Mu’ayyad mosque in Cairo, ‘Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad al-Wafa’i al-Miqati. It was later also described by other scholars, including the Turkish admiral Seydi Ali Reis, making the instrument very popular in Ottoman circles. [Maddison & Savage-Smith, p. 277].

Al-Wafa’i’s instrument seems to be inspired by another instrument, namely the “Sanduq al-Yawakit” or the “Jewel Box”, invented by an earlier, well-known, fourteenth century Syrian astronomer and timekeeper Ibn al-Shatir. [King, p.53]

Estimate € 10.000 - € 14.000

Technical Description

The main disk of the instrument consists of a circular brass plate. The center of a disk features a magnetic compass. Around the magnetic compass is a wind-rose with the typical four quarters of the compass: shimal (north), junub (south), sharq (west), garb (east)], and in between alternatingly in Ottoman Turkish “orta” (intermediary winds) and “kerte” (rhumb lines).

Around the circumference are marked the names and Qiblas of various localities. When the compass is used to align the instrument along the cardinal points, the Qibla can be read off simply by locating the name of the locality and reading of the direction of the Qibla.

The instrument also features a small sundial below the south point of the instrument equipped with a small gnomon.

The various holes on the instrument are due to the missing parts such as four leveling screws and a graduated semi-circular arc which is hinged along the east-west line of the instrument. This arc can be inclined at any desired angle to the horizontal plane by means of the graduated scale in the plane of the meridian.

In this case this semi-circular arc and the graduated scale are missing along with other smaller parts.

DATE AND MAKER

The instrument is signed by the maker above the north point of the instrument in a cartouche as “ ’Amal Hasan Baba al-Duyuwi 1171” [1757/1758 AD], who seems to be unknown to literature.

Literature

W. Brice, C. Imber and R. Lorch, The Dāi’re-yī Mu’addel of Seydī ‘Alī Re’īs. Seminar of Early Islamic Science, Monograph no. 1, University of Manchester, July 1976

David A. King, “An Islamic Astronomical Instrument”, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 10 (1979), Issue 1, p 51-53

Francis Maddison & Emilie Savage-Smith, Science, Tools and Magic. Part One. Body and Spirit, Mapping the Universe. Nour Foundation, Oxford, 1997, p. 277-279

Lot 169

AN ILLUSTRATED