TURKEY, 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

A slightly earlier but related Qibla indicator, dated AH 1151/1738 AD, is in the Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo (MIA3348; illustrated Venetia Porter (ed.), Hajj. Journey to the Heart of Islam, exhibition catalogue, London, 2012, fig.36, pp.66-67). Another is in the British Museum, dated AH 990/1582 AD (Porter, op.cit., fig.35, p.66). Like ours, on the British Museum example there are the names of cities and regions across the Islamic world skirting the edge, but only Constantinople is picked out in red (on ours it is in fact Edirne, Constantinople and Bursa that are highlighted). This indicates that this was the latitude for which the instruments were created.