247 CATALOGUING MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS 248 HOOFDARTIKEL century — notably R. T. Gunther’s Astrolabes of the World (1932)2) — are available,3) including some recently-published catalogues.4) Very few 20th-century descriptions of Islamic CATALOGUING MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC ASTRO- instruments reach the standard of the studies of the 19th cen- NOMICAL INSTRUMENTS* tury.5) It is no longer necessary to record every single detail on every new instrument when it is of a kind adequately doc- These two beautifully-illustrated volumes are the latest in umented elsewhere,6) but one can at least compare the piece a series of over two dozen catalogues already published with others in Gunther and in the various available museum which document the largest private collection of Islamic arte- catalogues of widely-different quality and reliability. Here facts in the world. They are another tribute to the good taste the fun begins, particularly if one is dealing with an instru- and academic generosity of the owner, Dr. David Khalili. ment whose geographical provenance and date are not imme- They are proof, if any were needed, of his recognition of the diately evident. Numerous important instruments are importance of objects in their own right, and they constitute unsigned, and instruments with more than one layer of a contribution to Realienkunde, “the study of material inscriptions present a particular challenge.7) There are no objects”, in both Islamic Studies and the History of Science, guidelines that can be summarized here, but researchers are two disciplines overburdened by the preoccupation of schol- welcome in both Oxford and Frankfurt to inspect the two ars with the written word. Many of the objects featured in this catalogue are works of considerable and occasionally exceptional beauty, be they illuminated manuscripts or sci- Studien, 6 vols., Frankfurt am Main, 1990-91, also omitted from the bibli- entific works of art. ography. Three-quarters of the book is written by Emilie Savage- 2) R. T. Gunther, Astrolabes of the World …, 2 vols. (I: The Eastern Astrolabes, II: The Western Astrolabes), Oxford 1932, repr. in 1 vol., Lon- Smith. Part 1:1 (“Body and Spirit”) deals with the depiction don 1976. Gunther could not read Arabic and was often badly advised by of human anatomy in the Islamic world; medicine in those at Oxford who could; nevertheless, he had the good taste to reprint medieval Islam; medical and alchemical equipment; magic Morley's 1865 study as the introduction to his Pt. I. The organization of in Islam; magical equipment, amulets and talismanic objects; the work reflects a Victorian fad which lasted in Britain until the Islamic Revolution in Iran: “Persian” astrolabes are treated first, then “Indian”, divination; and astrologers’ equipment. Part 2 (“Mundane then “Arabian”, then “Moorish”. Amongst the “Arabian” astrolabes we Worlds”) deals with mortars and pestles; beekeeping; find the oldest pieces, of far greater historical importance than many a pretty sphero-conical vessels; stone press-moulds for leatherwork- Persian astrolabe. ing; locks, padlocks, and tools. I have nothing but praise for 3) L. A. Mayer’s Islamic Astrolabists and their Works, Geneva, 1956, or the forthcoming Brieux-Maddison Répertoire (see below) provide access these sections on medicine and especially magic and divina- to the makers and their available instruments. H. Michel’s Traité de l’as- tion, which mark a major step forward in our understanding trolabe, Paris, 1947, repr. Paris, 1976, and the Greenwich National Mar- of these subjects in medieval Islamic civilization. They set itime Museum astrolabe booklet are indispensable, and the various articles the standards for future research in the history of the pseudo- in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden, 1960 to present) dealing with instruments (astrolabes, universal plates, quadrants, sundials sciences, a subject until now unhappily based mainly on tex- and compasses) are not without merit. My two overviews of Islamic instru- tual sources. Part 1:2 “Mapping the Universe” deals on mentation and the state of the field, the only works of their kind, — “Stru- astronomical instruments. Again, Emilie Savage-Smith is the mentazione astronomica nel mondo medievale islamico”, in G. L’E. Turner, leading authority on Islamic globes, and what she has writ- ed., Gli strumenti, 2nd edn., Turin, 1991, pp. 154-189 and pp. 581-585 (bib- liography), and “Astronomical Instruments between East and West”, in H. ten here on that subject conveniently supplements what she Kühnel, ed., Kommunikation zwischen Orient und Okzident, Vienna, 1994, has published already (Islamicate Celestial Globes, 1985, pp. 143-198 — are omitted from the bibliography. etc.). 4) Reliable catalogues are available for Islamic instruments in Spanish I shall limit most of my attention here to the substantial collections (by S. García Franco), Washington, D.C. (by G. Saliba with S. Gibbs), Rockford, Ill. (by A. J. Turner), Nuremberg and Kuwait (by the pre- section of Part 1:2 dealing with astrolabes, quadrants and sent writer). Brief descriptions (by J. Mouliérac) are available for the instru- other instruments, written by Francis Maddison (pp. 186- ments in the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Catalogues for the Islamic 287), which comprises some one-quarter of the whole. The astrolabes in Chicago (by D. Pingree) and Munich (by B. Stautz) are in guidelines for describing such instruments were laid down in press. Several exhibition catalogues could be mentioned. No catalogues are 1 available for the major collections in Oxford, Florence or Greenwich, the 19th century, ) and various works compiled in the 20th although for the last-mentioned cataloguing is in progress. The best, and in fact, the only real catalogue of a private collection with Islamic instruments is that for the Leonard Linton Collection (Paris: Alain Brieux, 1980). * Essay review of Francis Maddison and Emilie Savage-Smith, Science, 5) Two which do are J. Frank and M. Meyerhof, “Ein Astrolab aus dem Tools and Magic, vol. XII (in 2 parts) of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection indischen Mogulreiche”, Heidelberger Akten der von-Portheim-Stiftung 13 of Islamic Art, general editor Julian Raby, The Nour Foundation, London, (1925), reprinted in Arabische Instrumente … (see n. 1), IV, pp. 307-356, in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1997, and G. Helmecke, “Das Berliner Astrolab des MuÌammad Zaman al- 152 pp. and 287 pp. (numbered consecutively). Mashadi”, Forschungen und Berichte der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, 1) See F. Sarrus’ detailed account of the early-13th-century Morrocan Hauptstadt der DDR (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag) 25 (1985), pp. 129-142 astrolabe in Strasbourg (1853); F. Woepcke’s description of an 11th-cen- and pls. 31-32. tury Andalusi astrolabe in Berlin (1858); W. H. Morley’s descriptions of 6) Ideally for an astrolabe one should describe the throne, the mater, the two instruments in the British Museum: an impressive 14th-century Syrian back, the rete, the plates, record all inscriptions (all star-names, all geo- quadrant (1860) and the splendid 17th-century Safavid astrolabe dedicated graphical data, and all the rest), as well as construction marks. to Shah Îusayn (1865); and B. Dorn’s descriptions of three instruments in 7) See three studies published in A. von Gotstedter, ed., Ad radices…, St. Petersburg (1865): a 14th-century Syrian quadrant, a late Maghribi astro- Stuttgart, 1994: one by B. Stautz on an astrolabe bearing the name of an labe, and an early-18th-century Egyptian celestial globe. These descriptions Ottoman craftsman but reworked from an 8th-century original, in fact, the are distinguished by their excellence and their accuracy. Particularly wor- oldest surviving astrolabe; another by S. Ackermann on an astrolabe signed thy of note is the fact that Sarrus taught himself Arabic in order to publish by a renowned Safavid craftsman but in fact reworked from a 12th-century the Strasbourg astrolabe. Only Morley’s description of the London astro- instrument, on which the original maker’s name and date can still be deci- labe is mentioned in the bibliography of the Khalili catalogue, but all of phered; and the third by P. Schmidl on a 17th-century Indo-Persian astro- these studies and many more are available in the voluminous (over 2,500 labe bearing a “signature” by the renowned 13th-century polymath NaÒir pages!!) F. Sezgin et al., eds., Arabische Instrumente in orientalistischen al-Din al-™usi. 249 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LVII N° 3/4, Mei-Augustus 2000 250 most extensive photographic archives, which may one day no. 126: a splendid astrolabe from early-17th-century be published. Only the most enlightened museums welcome Lahore, perhaps the most elegant so far known; scholars who wish to look at instruments outside the exhibi- no. 127: an unusual (first known of its kind) astrolabe from tion cases. Most museums are incapable of producing decent 17th-century Lahore with special markings for the qibla; photos, and photos of what are often the most important no. 133: a spectacular, monumental astrolabe from 16th- details have to be made by the researcher, which some muse- century Lahore, the oldest known astrolabe from Muslim ums do not allow. With the Khalili Collection we finally India, here dismissed as “17th century”; have a set of historically-important instruments, competent no. 144: yet another elegant astrolabe from 17th-century photographers, and a generous publisher: a golden opportu- Isfahan; nity to produce a catalogue that will be a model for the no. 158: a highly sophisticated Ottoman quadrant from ca. future. 1800 (?) with markings as yet unexplained; and That opportunity has, alas, been missed. It is indeed with nos. 168-169: two 18th-century Ottoman Turkish exam- remorse that I pen the following criticisms of the most recent ples of an unusual compendium invented in 15th-century work of a senior colleague with whom I have collaborated Egypt.