Early History— As early as the fourth century authors began composing manuals on the astrolabe. It became a model both in form and content for later literature on the astrolabe. After Theon, treatises on the astrolabes became increasingly common.
Synesius of Cyrene ca. The Byzantine scholar Ammonius died post CE reportedly wrote a treatise on the construction and use of the astrolabe. More importantly, Ammonius incorporated the astrolabe into his teaching, thereby introducing a number of people to the instrument. The oldest surviving treatise on the astrolabe comes from his most famous pupil, the mathematician and philosopher John Philoponus ca.
In the middle of the seventh century, Severus Sebokht of Nisibis, Bishop of Kennesrin in Syria, wrote a description of the astrolabe in Syriac. Like his predecessors, he eschewed theoretical discussions, concentrating instead on practical description and application.
He greatly expanded the standard list of uses. Increasingly he relied on court astrologers: on their advice he selected 30 July CE as the day to lay the foundations of Baghdad; he consulted with them when his relatives revolted; and they accompanied him on his pilgrimages to Mecca. In this context the astrolabe was a useful tool. In addition to their political uses, astrolabes had immediate religious applications.
The close connection between astronomy and Islam provided an obvious incentive for developing the astrolabe. Finding the times of the five daily prayers as well as the direction of Mecca are both complicated astronomical and geodetic operations. Makers quickly perfected techniques that made it possible to determine through direct observation both the time of prayer and the direction of Mecca. Over the next few centuries Arab, Persian and Jewish scholars produced numerous systematic treatises on the astrolabe.
The earliest of these was written by Messahalla, a Jew from Basra, whose work dates from before CE. The original Arabic treatise has been lost, but numerous Latin translations of it survive. The oldest surviving Arabic treatises date from the early ninth century. During this same period, making astrolabes developed into a well respected profession.
Arab craftsmen developed their skills and tacit knowledge, creating family workshops that continued for a number of generations. The oldest surviving astrolabes date from this period of intellectual efflorescence supported by the early Islamic caliphs.
Mughal India adopted the instrument with great enthusiasm in the mid-sixteenth century. The new rulers relied heavily on astrology to regulate their affairs and considered the astrolabe a valuable astrological and political tool.
One family came to dominate the manufacture of astrolabes in Lahore, producing more than astrolabes over the next century. Much later, Jaipur, in northern India, developed into an important city for the production of Indian astrolabes. Jai Singh had also written a book on the construction of the astrolabe and founded a centre for their manufacture. By the thirteenth century knowledge of the astrolabe had reached China.
In Jamal al-Din brought Kublai Khan models of various astronomical instruments that were in use at the observatory in Maraghah. Despite these reports, which are themselves problematic, the astrolabe does not seem to have been as popular in Chinese culture as it was elsewhere.
Numerous treatises testify to the importance of the astrolabe in the Byzantine Empire. Greek scholars profited from having uninterrupted access to the earliest treatises on astrolabes and composed numerous manuals on the astrolabe. Surprisingly, only one complete Byzantine astrolabe, dated , has been identified. By the tenth century, astrolabe production spread west across North Africa and into Muslim Spain. In direct contrast to the history of the astrolabe in Byzantium, its history in North Africa is characterized by a wealth of instruments and dearth of texts.
North African, or Maghribi, astrolabes share conservative stylistic features that set them apart from the eastern Islamic instruments. They also reveal a closer connection to Christian Europe, most notably in the presence of the Christian calendar frequently found on the back of these instruments.
Although astrolabes were produced and used across North Africa, the tradition was strongest in Morocco, where they were manufactured and used for more than years. By the early fourteenth century, sophisticated universal astrolabes were being produced in the Moroccan city of Taza.
Along with Taza, cities like Marrakesh, Fez and Meknes became associated with both the manufacture and use of astrolabes. See the nice if brief on-line exhibition: Astrolabes of Africa. Arabs introduced the astrolabe to the European continent through Andalusia in the 11th century.
The tool carried the knowledge of Muslim scientists and greatly affected astronomy studies in Medieval Europe, contributing to modern scientific progress. It is hard not to acknowledge the role of this instrument in our life. Even if it is not widely used nowadays, it played a major role in the past and its influence continues to date. Modern techniques as GPS, space science, and navigation equipment are based on astrolabe theories.
This is to remind ourselves while travelling or using our modern devices that our Arab ancestors played a major role to make this happen. With this reasoning, Jones places the invention of the astrolabe either during the time of Ptolemy or during the 4th or 5th century, after the hard times that the Roman Empire faced during the 3rd century.
From the invention of the astrolabe came new methods of mathematics, along with the early development of astronomy, says John Huth, a physicist at Harvard University. In fact, Huth says that astronomy and astrology developed hand-in-hand during this time. The astrolabe also made its ways into other ancillary fields of science, including meteorology.
An astrolabe would have been amongst the suite of tools that Christopher Columbus would have used when exploring the New World, for example, along with a quadrant and various tables and almanacs with pertinent information. Portuguese explorers who were accustomed to using the North Star, or Polaris, to find their way also used this tool when they dipped close enough to the equator that Polaris was no longer visible. In fact, many of the astrolabes recovered today are found in shipwrecks from Spanish and Portuguese mariners, often found off the west coast of Ireland, says Louise Devoy, curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich in England, which includes a collection of astrolabes.
But by the 17th and 18th centuries, mechanical clocks were becoming more reliable and affordable. And so by the 17th and 18th centuries, the astrolabe began to fall out of fashion. Other devices, like modern clocks, sextants for precise navigation, and much later modern computers, took their place. But in the past 20 years, we seem to have revived the concept of the astrolabe in the form of the smartphone, says Devoy.
A quick Google search during our interview brings up a whole slew of Qibla app options on his screen. Laura is a freelance writer based in Portland, Maine and a regular contributor to the Science section. Think Big A Smithsonian magazine special report.
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