- Title
- Astrolabe
- Culture
- Spanish
- Date Made
- 1226-1227/624 A.H.
- Medium
- Gilt copper alloy
- Dimensions
- Overall: 8 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (21.28 x 13.97 x 2.86 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2003.116a-k
- Collecting Area
- Art of the Middle East: Islamic
- Curatorial Notes
The astrolabe is an astronomical device that Muslims inherited from the Hellenistic world and then passed on to medieval Europe. According to its inscriptions, this handsome gilt brass astrolabe was made in Seville, in southern Spain; exceptionally, it seems to have been altered nearly seventy years after it was made, possibly in Egypt or Syria. Like all such instruments, it was designed to measure the altitude of the stars, sun, or moon and to establish different astronomical and topographic associations without resorting to calculations or formulas; it was especially valuable in a religious context, as the Muslim times of prayer are astronomically determined.
