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Islamic Astronomical Instruments

Article · January 1987

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 David A. King

Islamic Astronomical Instruments

VARIORUM REPRINTS
London 1987
British Library CIP data
Copyright © 1987 by
Published in Great Britain by
Printed in Great Britain by
King, David A.
Islamic astronomical instruments. -
(Collected studies series; CS253)
1. Astronomical instruments -
Islamic countries - History
2. Astronomy, Medieval
1. Title
522' .2'0917671 QB85
ISBN 0-86078-201-8
Variorum Reprints
Variorum Reprints
20 Pembridge Mews London Wll 3EQ
Galliard (Printers) Ltd
Great Yarmouth Norfolk
VARIORUM REPRINT CS253
 CONTENTS

Preface XI-XIV

Acknowledgements XV

GENERAL

1 Astronomical Instrumentation
in the Medieval Near East 1-21
Revised from a paper de/ivered at
the XVIth International Congress for
the History of Science (Bucharest, 1981) .
London: Variorum Reprints, 1987

THE ASTROLABE

II The Medieval Yemeni Astrolabe

in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York 99-122
Z eitschrift für Geschichte der
A rabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften 2.
Frankfurt-am-Main, 1985

III The Origin of the Astrolabe according

to the Medieval Islamic Sources 43-83
Journal for the History of Arabic Science 5.
A leppo 1981

IV A Note on the Astrolabist

Nas!ülus/Bas!ülus 117-120
Archives Internationales d' Histoire
des Sciences 28.
Wiesbaden, 1978
 VI

v Nastülus the Astrolabist Onee Again 342-343

With P. Kunitzsch
Archives Internationales d'Histoire
des Sciences 33.
Wiesbaden, 1983

VI The 'Abd al-A'imma Astrolabe Forgeries 188-198

With O. Gingerich and G. Saliba
Journal for the History of Astronomy 3.
Cambridge, 1972

THE UNIVERSAL ASTROLABE AND QUADRANT

VII On the Early History of the U niversal

Astrolabe in Islamie Astronomy and
the Origin of the Term "Shakkaziya"
in Medieval Seientifie Arabie 244--257
Journal for the History of Arabie Science 3.
Aleppo, 1979

VIII The Astrolabe of' Ail al-Wada 'i 1-3

Modified fro /1/ a p(Jper prepared Jar the Annual
MeetlIIg ofihe Société IlIlernatioTwle
de /'Astroltlbe (Rock/ord, Illinois, 1984).
LOI/don, Va riorum Reprints, 1987

IX The Astronomieal Instruments of

Ibn al-Sarraj : A Brief Survey 1-3
Revised /ro/1/ {I paper de/ivered at tire Second
II/ternatio/lal Symposium fo r the Hi tory
of Arabie cience (A leppo, 1979) .
LOI/don: Variorum Repril/ts, 1987

X An Analog Computer for Solving Problems

of Spherical Astronomy: The Shakkazïya
Quadrant of lamaI al-Din al-Maridini 219-242
Archives Internationales d' Histoire
des Sciences 24.
Wiesbaden, 1974

AN UNUSUAL ASTROLABE

XI New Light on the Zij al-Safa'i/:!

of Abü la'far al-Khazin 105-117
Centaurus 23.
Copenhagen, 1980
 vii

COMPENDIA AND COMPASSES

XII Ibn al-Shâ!ir's $andüq al- Yawiiqït:

An Astronomical "Compendium" 187-256
With L. Janin
Journa/ for Ihe History of Arabic Science 1.
A/eppo, 1977

XIII An Islamic Astronomical Instrument:

A Review ofW. Brice, C. Imber & R. Lorch,
The Dii'ire-yï Mu 'addel of Seydf 'AU Rè'ïs 51-53
Journal for the History of Astronomy 10.
Cambridge, 1979

XIV Osmanische astronomische

Handschriften und Instrumente 373-378
Türkische Kunsl und Kultur der osmanischer
Zeit (Ausstel/wlgskaralog, Mllseulllflïr
KIU/srlrafldwerk, Frallk!url-am-Maill, & Villa
Hüge/ e V" Essen-Bredelley) , Band 2.
Recklinghallsen: Verlag Aurel BOl/gers, 1985

SUNDIALS

XV Three Sundials from Islamic Andalusia 358-392

Journal for the History of Arabic Science 2.
Aleppo, 1978

XVI Le cadran solaire de la mosquée

d'Ibn Tiilün au Caire 331-357
With L. Janin
Journal for the History of Arabic Science 2.
A lepp 0, 1978

XVII The Sundial on the West Wall ofthe

Madrasa of Sultan Qaytbay in Jerusalem 16-21
With A. G. Walls
art and architecture research papers 15.
London, 1979

XVIII A Fourteenth-Century Tunisian Sundial for

Regulating the Times of Muslim Prayer 187-202
Prismata: Naturwissenschaftsgeschichtliche
SfLldien. Festschrift far Willy Hartner,
hSfIb. VO I t Y. Ma eyama und W. G. Saltzer.
WIesbaden: Frallz Sleiller Verlag, 1977
 Vlll

OTHER INSTRUMENTS AND DEVIeES

XIX Ibn Yünus and the Pendulum: 35

A History of Errors 48-50
Abridged f rom Archives Il/ ternatiOl/nles
d' Histoire des Sciences 29, pp. 35- 52.
Wiesbaden, 1979

XX Medieval Meehanieal Deviees: A Review

of D. R. Hill, The Book of Knowledge
of lngenious Mechanical Deviees 284-289
History of Science 13.
Cambridge, 1975

XXI On Arabie Water-Cloeks: A Review

of D. R. Hill, On the Construction
of Water- Clocks 295-297
History of Science 15.
Cambridge, 1977

XXII Islamie Geomaney: A Review

of E. Savage-Smith & M. B . Smith,
lslamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-
Century Divinatory Deviee 42-43
Archaeoastronomy 5.
College Park, Md., 1982

Addenda and Corrigenda 1-2

Indexes:
Subjeets 1-3
Names 3-6
Titles 7-8
Loealities 8
Teehnical terms 9-10
Modern authors 10--12

This volume eontains xvi + 350 pages.

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The articles in this volume, as in ail others in the

Collected Studies Series, have not been given a new,
continuous pagination. In arder ta avoid confusion , and to
facilitate their use where these same studies have been
referred ta elsewhere, the original pagination has been
maintained wherever possible.
Each article has been given a Roman number in order
of appearance, as listed in the Contents. This number is
repeated on each page and quoted in the index entries.
 Ta Margaret and Sandy,

David, Frances and Catherine

 PREFACE

My fir t contact with astronomical instruments was as a child and

it nearly caused me considerable in jury. My father had an
observa tory in the garden with a 9/1 reflector and there were mirror
in various stages of grinding and poli hing alongside the apples in the
boxroom. 1 remember joining my father in the observatory on
occa ional crisp and cloudles nights. 1 shaH also never forget
showing the telescope te a choolfriend one day: as we were closing
the sliding roof it caught the end of the telescope and brought the
whole thing crashing to the ground. My father' reaction was simply
to say that he had been meaJling to dismantle the tele cope in order
t realign it ; to thi5 day 1 regard that as a singularly generous and
noble paternal reaction.
In the preface to lslamic Mathematical Astronomy (Variorum
Reprints, 1986) 1 recounted my j urney from that scene in England
to Yale University and my fir t contacts with the hi tory of Islamic
cience. At Yale, lwo people aroused my interest in cientific
instrument: Derek J. de Solla Priee , the renowned authority and
Sharon Gibbs, a fellow graduate tudent preparing a thesi , now
published on Greek and Roman sundials. But it was during the
academic year 1969-1970 at the American University of Beirut that J
had my first per onal encounter with Islamic astronomical
instruments.
Prof. Frans Bruin of the Physics Department at A. U.B. gave me
the benefit of hi unique knowledge of ancient and medieval
ob ervational technique, coupled with bis own experience in
making ob ervations with and without a telescope. We read lhrough
my tran lation of Ibn Yünus observation accounts and spent time
together in his wn 'ancienl observa tory' in the mountain above
Beirut. At A .U.B. in the pring of 1970 Prof. Owen Gingerich of
the Harvard-Smith onian Astrophysical Observatory in ambridge
Ma . gave a course on tb astrolabe: George Saliba and 1 were hi
only student with Ted Kennedy a distingui hed occa ional auditor.
The course bore fruit: a peach , reprinted as Paper n . VI.
By the winter of 1972-73 1 was immer. ed in the sCÎentific
manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. 'Am ngst these, 1
 XII

came across numerous manuscripts dealing with in truments on

which l knew there was no published material. My interest was truly
aroused!
ln the autumn of 1972, my wife and l were taying with the
K nnedy in Beirut and were on the point of leaving on a trip ta
Dama cu. Amid t Ted Kenn dy's offprint [found a reeent
publication y Loui Janin of Sèvre presenting the first de cription
of the magnificent undial trom the Umayyad Mosque in Dama eus.
The next day w aw the undial in Dama cu . A few months later 1
met Janin in Pari : we agreed t collaborate on a eries of article on
Is]amic sundial and compendia. He had alTeady worked on certain
in trument , and 1 had acces t medieval text de cribing their u e.
ln particular we tarted to w rk on the .~anclüq al-yawiiqit of Ibn
al-Shâ~ir. Janin' death in 197 eut hort our plan but we did
publi h two studie t getber - ee Papers XIJ and XVI.
During that ·a01e trip to Dama ·cu 1 came across two
manu cri pts of a treati e by al-Mâridïnï describing a univer al
quadrant and it u ·e . Nowhere in th publi hed literature was there a
c1ear account of the operation which can be performed witb a
univer al a trolabe or quadrant. he text was bviously worth
iove tigating - ·ee Pap r X. he quadrant wa la elled shnkkiiziya
a term which had already puzzled my di. tingui hed colleague Willy
Hartner and which led him to question it meaning in his ma ·t rful
overview of the a tJ·olabe in 1 lamie astronomy. The re ults of my
own inquirie into th meaning of the term and into the developm nt
of the univer al a Ir labe ar presented in Paper VlI.
In 1974, l came acr 5S a treati e by ibn al- arràj on a univer al
a tr labe. 1 knew that Gunther had listed ueh an instrument made
by Ibn al-Sarraj in bis Astrolabes of the World and 0 1 wrote to the
Benaki Mu eum in Athen. for phorograph of the front and back of
this in tfument. Using the treati e and the photo · l pr pared a ·tudy
of both. But in 1976 whilst w rking in the photographie achives of
the Mu eum of the Hi ·tory of cienee in Oxford, l came across a set
of photo which rev aled ix plate in ide lhe Benaki astrolabe. Why
would a universal a tr labe b fitted wilh plates? l revised the paper
eompletely to provide an un ati factoryan wer. But during a casual
peru al of the catal gue of Arabie manu cri pts in the he ter Beatty
Library in Dublin , 1 came acr a treatise by al-Wafà'j on the very
in trument pre erved in Athen which bear. a mark of ownership by
al -Wafâ'j on it rim. He explained that Ibn al-Sarrâj had not
compiled a treati e on the use of thi in. trument and announc d that
 XllI

he would: in his treatise, al-Wafâ'ï outlined the use of every single

part of this splendid instrument. Clearly the text needed to be
edited, translated and a nalyzed. The result was a book-Iength
monograph still to appear in print. A brief account of Ibn al-Sarrâj's
work i presented in P aper IX.
Routine in vestiga ti n of Arabie scientific manuscripts led me to
the di eovery of ta bles of coordinates for marking sundials and
a tro labe pl ates by al-Khwârizmï and al-Fa rghanï. and to num erous
later exa mple of ueh ta bles . Here was ano the r exciting new aspect
of 1 lamie in trume ntatio n . l have ince prepared a survey of fsla mic
astrolabe tables, now being submitted for publication, and the
survey of Islamic sundial tables is still in progress . For examples of
such tables, see Papers III and XVI.
Louis Janin had converted me to the study of sundials, and l
found that the few Islamic sundials which had been described in the
modern literature had not received the treatment they deserved: see
Papers XV and XVIII . My friend Archie Walls was visiting us in
Cairo once and showed me sorne photos of a vertical sundial in
Jerusalem : our study of this sundial and its curious location is Paper
XVII.
Not infrequently in the modern popular literature on Islamic
science does one encounter the daim that the tenth-century
Egyptian astro nomer lbn Yünu di covered the principle of the
pendulum . 1 have been working n Ibn Yünus fo r the p~ts t fifteen
yea r ' and ean vouch that the re i no evide nce whatsoever fo r this
claim . E . Wi edemann made two attempts to kill this myth in the
1910's but he was not successful. Using Wiedemann's studies and
more recent elaborations and distortions of the myth , 1 have
documented aIl of the available literature on this subject. For
rea o n of pace my article (Paper XIX) could no t be reprin ted in its
entirety in this volume . (The articl e has howcver, bee n Lndexed .)
One c uld argue that every hi to ri an of medi eva l cience ho uld
ta ke al lea l ne planispheric astrolabe and publish il. My dut Y in'
this Te peel i ful filled in Paper 11 . A mo re interesting in lrume nt is
deseribed in Paper VlU. wo h rt contributio ns to the in vest iga ti on
of the my teri u Nas!ülu ' are Papers IV a nd V. One bi tte rly cold
winte r day in the Egyptian National Library my fri end Dimitri Guta
regaled my fa iling pi rits by howing me a pa sage in an A ra bi
philo ophical m anu cript on the deri atio n of tbe wo rd as(urliib .
Once alerted to this kind of folk etymology, l came across many
similar references : these are collected in Paper III.
 XIV

My friend Alain Brieux of Paris would occasionally send me

photos of unusual instrument for identification. One sucb the Zïj al-
$afa'i/:l of al-Khazin, obviou Iy merited immediate investiga-
tion - see Paper XI.
Sorne reviews of the writings of Dr. Donald Hill on Islamic
technology and of Dr . Emilie Savage- mi th and Marion B. Smith
on 1 lamie geomancy are included as Papers XX XXI and XXII to
draw attention to the excellence of tbese new studies on the history
of Islamic science and to the rewards which await scholars working
on other kinds of Arabie scientific and pseudo-scientific
manuscripts. The reader may weil imagine my surprise upon
di covering in Florence a treatise attest ing to a bitherto unknown
tradition of tecbnology in medieval Andalusia , and Dr. Hill' dismay
at having to redraw ninety diagrams for hi book on the mechanical
devices of the Banû Mûsa after a superior copy had been located in
the Topkapl Library.
Thu each of the papers reprinted here has a story of its own. My
debt to Alain Brieux, Louis Janin, and Derek de Solla Priee will be
obvious to any reader familiar with them and their writings. Each of
these men is alas now deeeased. There is much more to be written
about Islamic instrumentation, and 1 hope that the present volume
will inspire sorne younger scholars (preferably with a private
income) in this direction.
It i my plea ure to thank the Smithsonian Institution, the
American Research Center in Egypt, and the National Science
Foundation, Washington, D. c., for support of much of the research
represented in the papers reprinted here. Likewise my thanks go to
the numerous museums and libraries where the instruments and
manuscripts which constituted my source material are located.
DA VlD A. KING
Frankfurt-am-Main,
July 1986

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