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IV. A Fifteenth Century Planispheric Astrolabe, made at Granada
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
In 1903 I purchased from a dealer in the Khan al-Khalil, in Cairo, a brass Astrolabe inscribed with the Kufy character, which I had examined, haggled for, and reluctantly left three years before. The fact is, that at the present day this old bazaar of Cairo is the last place to find anything of interest. The European visitors are tourists who are personally conducted, and who purchase wildly and at any cost the gaudy modern stuff which the dragoman recommends. The dealers are Armenians and Jews solely catering for this trade; and it was, I presume, only from sheer dilatoriness that the dealer had not sent it down to one of his brethren near the Ezbekieh, where it would have been quickly disposed of. At any rate, it was out of place among the forgeries and rubbish which form the feature of the once romantic Khan al-Khalil.
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1904
References
page 54 note 1 “Thanne haslow a brod Rewle, þat hath on either ende a square plate perced with a certein holes, some more & some lesse, to resseyuen the stremes of the sonne by day, and ek by mediacioun of thyn eye, to knowe the altitude of sterres by nyhte.”—Chaucer's Treatise, pt. i, 13.
page 56 note 1 It will be observed that the three signs which with us are called by names signifying human beings are replaced in Arabic by words denoting inanimate objects. Thus, instead of Virgo we have sunbalah, the ear of corn, al-qaus, the bow, not the bowman, and al-dalu, the bucket, not the bucket-carrier.
page 57 note 1 In a Persian astrolabe in my possession the first is marked 
mustawi, which, I think, was the usual term. By the extended shadow the height of an accessible object may be taken by a single observation ; of an inaccessible object by two observations. By the inverted shadow scale also, the height of an inaccessible object can be taken by two observations. See Chaucer's Treatise, i, 12; ii, 41, etc.Google Scholar
page 57 note 2 In order to avoid the increasing size of the groups of letters necessary to denote the numerals to 360, a method of abbreviation is adopted, so that the actual numbers run as follows:—From the S. point from 5 by fives to 115, then 20 to 80 = 180 at N. Then 85 by fives to 95, then 200, then 5 to 70 = 270 at E. Then 75 by fives to 95, then 300, then 5 to 60 = 360 at S.
page 58 note 1 Only on one projection is the numeration completed down to 90. In the others it stops about 60, since the space for engraving is very crowded.
page 58 note 2 There were also sexpartite and quinquepartite instruments.
page 59 note 1 As usual these latitudes are rough. Fas (Fez) is 34° ; Granada 37° 8′ ; Medina and Mecca are a little more correct.
page 61 note 1 Without some clue it is impossible to read numbers 8 and 28. Possibly a reference to Ideler, “Über die Sternamen,” which I have not been able to see, would help.
page 64 note 1 The difference, however, “vibrates,” as Mr. Skeat has pointed out. In 1871 it entered on March 21st, which was 9 days. Early English Text Society, Extra Series, No. xvi, p. xlvii.
page 65 note 1 Mohammed X, in 1463, paid 12,000 gold ducats as a condition of peace.