The Qibla
The qibla is the direction of the Kaaba in the sacred mosque in Mecca. For Muslims the qibla defines the direction of prayer. In the past, Muslims used various methods to determine the direction of the qibla. Besides astrolabes and sundials, a different instrument is recently found for this purpose. In 1989 an unknown Islamic instrument was offered for sale at the action of Sotheby. After an in-depth investigation by several researchers of different universities, it turned out to be a qibla compass brass. The instrument tells the direction to Mecca and the distance to Mecca for a large number of cities around the world.
Theory of the instrument
Together with a version of the instrument found in 1995 and a version found in 2001, only three of these instruments are currently known. Below you can see one of these instruments.
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- Qibla compass
The Persian inscriptions show that all the three instruments are made in the seventeenth or eighteenth century in Isfahan (Iran). The mathematics of the instrument is called Retro-Azimuthal projection. This mathematical technic is known in the modern professional literature since 1968. However, it is plausible that the technic was known by the mathematician al-Biruni as early as 1017 AD during the Islamic golden age.
A modern version of the instrument
MSc Hendrik Hollander has developed a modern version of this qibla compass. The mathematical background of the modern version and the original instrument is the same. Also, the look and feel is very similar. The modern version is in English however. The front of the modern Qibla compass is shown below.
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- Qibla compass – Modern design
The cities on the qibla compass brass
More than 70 cities are present on the modern qibla compass brass. These are based on the original version. The abbreviation of the name of a city is present in the list if used in the design on front of the instrument. On the back of the qibla compass brass all these cities are engraved.
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- Back of the qibla finder
The ruler indicates the distance to Mecca and the direction to Mecca.
Instructions for use
The qibla compass will indicate the direction to Mecca in degrees east or west from north. Also the direction is presented in degrees east or west from south.
The distance is presented in kilometer.
Step 1: Choose a city of your interest on the front of the qibla compass. For example Bengaluru.
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- City Bengaluru
Step 2: Place the ruler over the city and find the distance to Mecca. In this example about 4100km for Bengaluru.
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- Distance to Mecca
Make sure to use the edge of the ruler which is marked blue in the picture below.
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- Use the blue edge of the ruler
Step 3: Look at the other side of the ruler. Here you find the direction to Mecca for the city of your chose.
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- Direction to Mecca
For Bengaluru in this example you find 71,5 degrees west from the north.
This is the same as 288.5 degrees from north, over east.
The full package
The size of the qibla compass is 18cm diameter. It is very detailed engraved in 4mm brass. It is placed in a dedicated box.
The price of the qibla compass is listed here
You can contact MSc Hendrik Hollander who made this instrument here.
MSc Hendrik Hollander also makes astrolabes per piece, click here.