Inventory no. 37940 - Former Display Label
Persian ASTROLABE
?Early 18th century
Signed, on the back in a cartouche below the shadow-square, 'Made by `Abd al-`Ali'; undated. The attribution to`Abd al-`Aliî is dubious; the astrolabe is probably a later fake.
Ankabût for fourteen stars; 'the falling vulture' (alpha Lyræ), a star within the ecliptic circle, is represented in the tracery of the ankabût by a cut-out and engraved figure of a bird. Most of the star names are engraved on the unusually wide Capricorn band. Three plates for latitudes 32°, 34° (twice); 36° and 38°. One of the plates for 32° and 34° is slightly different in style from the other two plates and is, presumably, not original. This instrument has no provision for preventing the plates from rotating in the umm. In the umm is engraved a table of various combinations of longitude, latitude, inhirâf, jiha and masâfa, but no place-names are given.
On the back are a sine and cosine graph, a graph of the arcs of the signs of the zodiac with graphs of the meridian altitude of the sun throughout the years in latitudes 28°, 30°, 32°, 34° and 36°, and of the azimuths of the Qibla for Shîrâz, Tûs, Isfahân and Qazwîn, cotangent scales, astrological tables (limits and faces of the planets, and lunar mansions), a shadow-square (within which is an astrological table of triplicities) and the usual scale of degrees.
The kursî is large in proportion to the size of the astrolabe, and its six-lobed sides extend far down on each side of the umm; on the front of it is engraved part of the 'throne' verse from the Qurân (Sûra 2, v. 256). The horse and the ilâqa are missing.
[57-84/168; Mayer, Abd al-Alî VI]
Billmeir Collection