THE EARLIEST KNOWN SCHEMES OF ISLAMIC SACRED GEOGRAPHY Mónica Herrera-Casais and Petra G. Schmidl1 ﻓﺎﻟﻜﻌﺒﺔ ﻗﺒةل ﻷﻫﻞ اﻟﻤﺴﺠﺪ واﳌﺴﺠﺪ ﻗﺒةل ﻷﻫﻞ اﻟﺤﺮم واﻟﺤﺮم ﻗﺒةل ﻷﻫﻞ اﻵﻓﺎق The Kaba is the qibla for people in the Sacred Mosque. The Sacred Mosque is the qibla for people in the sacred area around it. The sacred area is the qibla for people in all regions of the world. Ibn Raīq (Yemen, eleventh century)2 1. Introduction Following injunctions in the Qurān and much discussed in the sunna, the qibla, or sacred direction of Islam, is highly significant in daily Muslim life.3 Not only the five daily ritual prayers have to be per- formed towards the Kaba in Mecca, but also other religious duties such as the recitation of the Qurān, announcing the call to prayer, ritual slaughter of animals, and the burial of the dead. Islamic sacred geography is the notion of the world being centred on the Kaba, and those who followed it proposed facing the qibla by means of simple 1 This paper arose out of a seminar on Arabic scientific manuscripts at the Insti- tute for the History of Science at Frankfurt University. We thank David King for his patience, encouragement and critical suggestions. We are also grateful to Doris Nicholson at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, and Hars Kurio at the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin for sending free copies of manuscript folios. The authors are responsible for all inaccuracies and mistakes. [Abbreviations: KHU = Ibn Khurradādhbih; MUQ = al-Muqaddasī]. 2 In his treatise on folk astronomy studied by P.G. Schmidl, Volkstümliche astronomi- sche Abhandlungen aus dem mittelalterlichen arabisch-islamischen Kulturraum. Zur Bestimmung der Gebetszeiten und der Qibla bei al-Abaī, Ibn Raīq und al-Fārisī, doctoral thesis (University of Frankfurt, 2005, published under the title Volkstümliche Astronomie im islamischen Mit- telalter. Zur Bestimmung der Gebetszeiten und der Qibla bei al-Abaī, Ibn Raīq und al-Fārisī [Leiden, 2007]), B, 22a, 10f. 3 For a general introduction to the qibla, see A.J. Wensinck, ‘ibla i. Ritual and Legal Aspects,’ in EI 2. AKASOY_f18_275-300.indd 275 5/26/2008 8:38:31 PM 276 mónica herrera-casais and petra g. schmidl folk astronomical methods, independent of mathematical geography.4 Islamic sacred geography involves three main principles: • The axes of the rectangular base of the Kaba are astronomically oriented while the four corners of the building point roughly to the four cardinal directions. The major axis is oriented towards the ris- ing point of Canopus and the setting points of the Handle of the Plough; the minor axis is aligned to the rising point of the sun at the summer solstice and its setting point at the winter solstice.5 In early Islamic folklore, the walls are also associated with the winds, their limits being defined by similar astronomical phenomena.6 • The world around the Kaba is divided into sectors, each one being associated with a segment of the perimeter of the building.7 • Qibla directions are intended to face the segment of the perimeter of the Kaba that is associated with one’s locality, as if one where standing directly in front of that part of the building and facing at the same astronomical indicators8 or qibla stars.9 4 On determining the qibla in folk astronomy, see D.A. King, ‘Makka 4. As the Centre of the World,’ in EI 2; Schmidl, Volkstümliche Astronomie, esp. pp. 99ff and 3f, n. 1 for the term ‘folk astronomy’. Both folk and mathematical aspects are mentioned in D.A. King, In Synchrony with the Heavens. Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping and Instru- mentation in Medieval Islamic Civilization (= SATMI ), i The Call of the Muezzin (Studies i–ix) (Leiden, 2004), viia. Mathematical aspects of the qibla are covered by idem, ‘ibla ii. Astronomical Aspects,’ in EI 2; and idem, World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca. Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science (Leiden, 1999). 5 On the astronomical orientation of the Kaba, see G.S. Hawkins and D.A. King, ‘On the Orientation of the Kaba,’ Journal for the History of Astronomy 13 (1982), p. 102ff [repr. in King, Astronomy in the Service of Islam (London 1993), xii]; and Schmidl, Volks- tümliche Astronomie, M, 29b,14–30a,15. 6 P.G. Schmidl, ‘Zur Bestimmung der Qibla mittels der Winde,’ in P. Eisenhardt, F. Linhard and K. Petanides (eds.), Der Weg der Wahrheit. Aufsätze zur Einheit der Wis- senschaftsgeschichte. Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Walter G. Saltzer (Hildesheim, 1999), p. 135ff; A. Heinen, Islamic Cosmology. A Study of as-Suyūī’s al-Haya as-sanīya fī al-haya al-sunnīya with Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary (Beirut, 1982), p. 157f; D.A. King, ‘Mala,’ in EI 2. 7 King, ‘Makka,’ p. 180f; Schmidl, Volkstümliche Astronomie, O, 43a, 20f. 8 An example of this general practice is described by al-Dimyāī (Egypt, fl. twelfth century): cf. D.A. King, ‘Architecture and Astronomy. The Ventilators of Medieval Cairo and Their Secrets,’ JAOS 104 (1984), p. 115 [revised in idem, SATMI, viib, p. 806f ]. 9 The term ‘qibla star’ is attested in the work of Ibn al-Qā (Tabaristan, tenth century): Arabic text in D.A. King, A Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library (in Arabic), ii (Cairo, 1986), p. 52 (4.4.1); see also J.-C. Ducène, ‘Le Kitāb Dalāil al-qibla d’Ibn al-Qā: Analyse des trois manuscrits et des emprunts d’Abū āmid al-Gharnāī,’ ZGAIW 14 (2001), p. 169ff, esp. p. 182. 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