Islamicate Celestial Globes, Their History, Construction, and UseSmithsonian Institution Press, 1985 - 354 pages The globe presently in the national Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution, which is a fine example of a seventeenth-century Mughal Indian globe, was selected for detailed analysis and serves as the focus for this monograph. The first part of the study compares this particular globe with other known Islamicate globes and places the development of such globes within the historical perspective of the earlier Greco-Roman world from which it drew many of its tradition. An historical survey is given of all references and artifacts from the Greco-Roman and Islamic world that can have bearing on our knowledge of the design, construction, and use of such globes. The nature and general characteristics of three basic types of Islamicate celestial globes, and their probably uses as well as methods of construction are the subjects of the second chapter of the study. Photographs of selected Islamicate globes are the subjects of the second chapter of the study. Photographs of selected Islamicate globes from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, as well as line drawings based on written descriptions, accompany the historical an analytical discussion. The fourth chapter on iconography analyses the constellation figures on the Smithsosonian globe from the perspective of an art historian. This chapter was contributed by Andrea P.A. Belloli. The second major part of the study presents a discussion of the star names engraved on the Mughal globe, tracing the origins of the term sin Greek mythology or early Bedouin constellation outlines. The discussion of each constellation is accompanied by a photograph of the constellation as depicted on the Smithsonian globe. An account of lunar mansions is included as background to early Bedouin asterisms, which greatly affected later Islamicate star names and eventually "modern" western star names. The sixth section presents and extensive descriptive catalogue of the 126 Islamicate celestial globes know to scholars prior to 1982. The reference sin the other sections to particular globes are keyed to the entry numbers in this catalog. Following the catalog are tables comparing the features of the globes and transcriptions of the signature inscriptions. Six entries were added to the catalog while the study was in press. |
Contents
Historical Overview | 3 |
The Nature Use and Construction of Islamicate Celestial Globes | 61 |
Description and Attribution | 96 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
abjad numerals al-Bīrūnī al-Din Muḥammad al-Sufi Almagest Arabic Aratus astrolabe astronomer Bedouin Boötes Brieux called celestial equator celestial globe celestial poles century Citation constellation figures dated Diameter Diya Ecliptic and equator Ecliptic latitude circles ecliptic poles ecliptic repeats engraved along ecliptic equator graduated equatorial poles equatorial tropic equinoctial colure fifth labeled formed stars Gibbs CCA graduated by single Greek H/AD hemispheres holes horizon ring Hyginus indicated by inlaid inlaid silver points inscription intervals Islamicate globes Kunitzsch 1961 Lahore Lahore workshop Lāhūrī legs Location lunar mansion Maddison maker meridian ring Metal Muḥammad ibn Museum naskhi non-consecutive segments numbered numbered continuously Persian Photo photograph polar circles Ptolemy repeats every 30 ring is graduated seam observable segments of 90 set of constellation single degrees Smithsonian globe sphere Stand and rings star positions stars indicated stars labeled tail tion trns tropic and polar tropic circles Ulugh Beg vernal equinox Zodiacal names engraved ابن سنه محمد