Details
AN PERSIAN ASTROLABE BY 'ABD AL-'ALI, WITH ENGRAVING BY MUHAMMAD BAQIR, ISFAHAN
Undated, circa 1680-1700
This astrolabe is typical of the first-rate productions of the celebrated 'Abd al-'Ali of Isfahan in the late Safavid period, c. 1680-c. 1715. It is signed on the back but, as on some of his other works, the engraving is by his colleague Muhammad Baqir. This is one of the smaller astrolabes made by the pair, who are best known for the monumental astrolabe which they made for Shah Husayn and which is now in the British Museum. At least five other works bearing at least the name of 'Abd al-'Ali are known.
The rete is a particularly fine piece, with approximately 40 star-pointers. There is a gazetteer for 73 localities on the mater with the longitudes and latitudes, and also the directions and distances to Mecca. The data was compiled near Samarqand in the fifteenth Century and was incorporated on Safavid astrolabes in different arrangements (see those sold in these Rooms, 15 April 1999, lots 49-51). there are five plates serving latitudes 22, 27, 30, 32, 34, 36, 37, 39 and 40, and on the back of the plate for 30 there is a plate of horizons. The plates for 30, 32, 34 and 41 are decorated, giving prominence to the fact that they serve Shiraz, Isfahan, Kashan and Shirwan/Baku (?). the back bears standard markings: a trigonometric quadrant; a solar quadrant showing solar meridian altitudes for latitudes 28-40 and solar altitudes in the direction of Mecca for Baghdad, Tabriz, Qazwin, Isfahan, Astarabad, yazd, Meshed, Shiraz and Herat; a double shadow square and tables listing the twenty-eight solar mansions and giving basic astrological information. The cartouche below the shadow squares contains an inscription 'Constructed by the least of students 'Abd al-'Ali', and that at the bottom of the outer rim reads 'Engraved by the least of students Muhammad Baqir'.
7 in. (18.4 cm.) diam.
Literature
1903 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 89, no. 206.
1905 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 39, no. 160.
Mayer, Islamic Astrolabists, Geneva, 1956, pp. 27-28, listing seven astrolabes of 'Abd al-'Ali, of which the present piece is no. IV.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
W. Morley, 1865, reproduced in the introduction to Gunther, Astrolabes of the World, 2 vols., Oxford, 1932, repr. in 1 vol., London, 1976, pp. 147-8, no. 33, for the astrolabe by 'Abd al-'Ali in the British Museum.
D.A. King, World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca, Leiden, 1999, pp. 255-274, for the Isfahan school and the geographical data used on their instruments.
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