Astrolabe
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Astrolabe
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Brass astrolabe, inlaid with silver and copper, made Abd al-Karim al-Misri, probably in Mayyafariqin (Turkey), AH633/1235-36 AD.
This Astrolabe, heavily inlaid with silver and copper, features striking figural imagery on its front and back. It is signed Abd al-Karim al-Asturlabi (the Astrolabist) and the titles of three possible royal patrons – al-Malik, al-Mu‘izz and Shihab al-Din – have also been engraved on the back. This elite patronage, its large size and extensive decoration suggest that it was a presentation piece meant to be admired rather than used.
This extremely important example has figural designs representing the constellations on the front and back. It gives the name of the artist who made it ,‘Abd al-Karim, who is known through other signed astrolabes.
The astrolabe is an object probably invented by the Greeks in the 2nd century BC. Knowledge of it was transmitted to the Muslims through the translation of Hellenistic and Byzantine texts into Arabic. The translation of scientific texts was done in Baghdad in the early Abbasid era, and the earliest astrolabes and astrolabe treatises date to the 9th century. The astrolabe provides a two-dimensional map of the heavens.
An astrolabe is made up of four key elements – rete, plates, mater, and alidade. The rete sits at the front of the device, acting as a map of the heavens with each pointer picking out a particular star. This can be rotated to reflect what the user sees in the sky – a particular star, or the sun, for example. An astrolabe will normally have several plates held within it, which can be swapped depending on how far north or south the user is. The rete and plates sit inside the mater, the back of which is engraved to verify times, dates, signs of the zodiac and other information. This is done using the alidade, a kind of ruler on the back of the astrolabe which is used to work out information.
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Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
October 28th, 2022
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