Inventory no. 52473 - Former Display Label
14
Maghribî (Hispano-Moorish) ASTROLABE
474 A.H. = 1081/2 A.D.
Signed on the back (in the upper two and the lower left quadrants, within the zodiac/calendar scale), 'Among the objects skilfully made by Muhammad b. Sa{ain}îd as-Sabbân in Madînat al-Faraj [i.e. Guadalajara, Spain], God protect her, in the year 474 of the Hijra'.
{ain}Ankabût for twenty-five stars. Six plates: (a) 'Mecca, al-Yamâna, at-oâ{ain}if, Jidda; for latitude 21°40''; 'Cairo (or Egypt), Kirmân ... ? ... Medina: for latitude 30°'; (b) Alexandria, al-Kûfa, Basra, Damietta ... ? ... for latitude 31°30'', Baghdad, Fez, Damascus ... ? ... Ifrîqiya, Tunis: for latitude 33°10''; (c) 'Almería, Samarqand, Râs al-{ain}Ain, Harrân, Tarsus, ar-Raqqa, Hamadhân: for latitude 36°30'', 'Granada, Málaga, Sardinia, Azerbaijan, Nîshâpûr, al-Anbâr, Bukhara, Edessa: for latitude 37°30''; (d) 'Cordova ... ? ... Seville, Murcia, Iviza, Homs: for latitude 38°30'', 'Valencia, Badajóz ... ? ..., Malatya: for latitude 39°30''; (e) Toledo, Santarém: for latitude 40°', 'Saragossa, Tortosa, Rome the Great: latitude 41°30''; (f) a plate engraved, on one side '... for the latitude of Valencia' and on the other '... for the latitude of Saragossa', with the twelve astrological houses, each house subdivided into three divisions of 10° each. Some of the plates have lines showing the times of Muslim prayer. In the umm is engraved a circular astrological table.
The shape and certain features of the design of the kursî should be compared with the brackets on the earliest extant Islamic astrolabes, which are probably Syro-Egyptian in origin. A similar kursî appears on a maghribî astrolabe by Ahmad b. Muhammad of 472 A.H., now in the Germanisches Museum, Nuremberg. The typical kursî of maghribî astrolabes appears to derive from this stylistic tradition; it is, except on the later instruments, low, usually undecorated, and sometimes retains the two small perforations.
The maker of this astrolabe, Muhammad b. Sa{ain}îd, was a native of Saragossa, who studied mathematics in Egypt and was influenced by Jâbir b. Hayyân's book on the construction of astrolabes. His two known instruments together with those of Muhammad b. as-Saffâr, Ibrâhîm b. Sa{ain}îd and Ahmad b. Muhammad, belong to the earliest group of maghribî astrolabes which are inspired by the work of the first school of astronomers in Muslim Spain, that of Toledo (and later, at the time of the reconquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI, Cordova) in the eleventh century. This group of astronomers produced the Toledan Tables, and included {ain}Alî b. Khalaf, the inventor of the 'Universal Lamina', and Ibn az-Zarqellu who further developed {ain}Alî b. Khalaf's invention (see the labels 'The Universal Lamina' and 'The az-Zarqellu Projection').
On the back are a zodiac/calendar scale (0° Aries = 15 March; concentric type) which includes the twenty-eight astrological mansions of the moon; a half shadow-square; a perpetual calendar; and the usual scales of degrees.
[57-84/157; Mayer, Muhammad b. Sa{ain}îd II]
Billmeir Collection
Other narratives:
- Accession Record : Extract from Annual Report for 1957-58
- Instruments from Muslim Spain and North Africa