The Islamic Astrolabe
The Islamic Astrolabe
As a result of their conquests, Muslims came into contact with Greek science and philosophy, and Persian history and literature. The Arabs became learned in these fields, and developed a new science and literature of their own in Arabic. Muslim geographers explored many new areas.
The astrolabe was introduced to the Islamic world in the eighth and ninth centuries through translations of Greek texts. The astrolabe was fully developed during the early centuries of Islam. Arab treatises on the astrolabe were published in the ninth century and indicate a long familiarity with the instrument (the oldest existing instruments are Arabic from the tenth century, and there are nearly 40 instruments from the 11th and 12th centuries). The astrolabe was inherently valuable in Islam because of its ability to determine the time of day and, therefore, prayer times and as an aid in finding the direction to Mecca. It must also be noted that astrology was a deeply imbedded element of early Islamic culture and that astrology was one of the principle uses of the astrolabe. The picture is from a larger painting of the observatory at Istanbul in the 16th century.
Persian astrolabes became quite complex, and some were genuine works of art. There are a number of interesting stylistic differences between astrolabes from the eastern Islamic areas (the Mashriq), Northern Africa (the Maghrib) and Moorish Spain (Andalusia). The astrolabe was also used in Moslem India in a simplified and less artistic form.
The picture on the right shows workers at the observatory of Taqf ad-Din at Istanbul in 1577. Two observers are working with an astrolabe. A universal astrolabe of the saphea form is on the table in front of the man with the dividers and paper.