068 - KING 1984 - QIBLAS AND ORIENTATIONS IN CAIRO: “Architecture and astronomy – The ventilators of medieval Cairo and their secrets“ (< Festschrift for FRANZ ROSENTHAL).pdf

Architecture and Astronomy: The Ventilators of Medieval Cairo and Their Secrets Author(s): David A. King Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 1, Studies in Islam and the Ancient Near East Dedicated to Franz Rosenthal (Jan. - Mar., 1984), pp. 97-133 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602646 Accessed: 26-08-2016 11:59 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Oriental Society This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ARCHITECTURE AND ASTRONOMY: THE VENTILATORS OF MEDIEVAL CAIRO AND THEIR SECRETS* DAVID A. KING NEW YORK UNIVERSITY I. INTRODUCTION: THE VENTILATORS OF MEDIEVAL CAIRO to each storey was a common feature of such houses.' IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD many houses in visited Cairo about the year 1200, described the ven- The Iraqi scholar 'Abd al-LatTf al-BaghdddT, who Fustat and Cairo had several storeys. A large wind- tilators as follows:2 catcher on the roof over a vertical shaft conveying air (The Egyptians) make the opening of their houses exposed to the agreeable winds from the north, and one sees hardly any houses without ventilators. These * Acknowledgements: My research on orientations of medi- ventilators are tall and wide, and open to every action eval Islamic religious architecture was supported by grants of the wind; they are erected carefully and with much SES 8007145 and 8204520 from the National Science Foun- dation (1980-83); this support is gratefully acknowledged. It is also a pleasure to express my gratitude to the Egyptian skill. One can pay between one hundred and five hundred dinars for a single ventilator, but small ones for ordinary houses cost no more than one dinar National Library in Cairo and the Chester Beatty Library in each. Dublin and the Bodleian Library in Oxford for unlimited access to their rich collections of medieval scientific manu- Ventilators were also a feature of the architecture of religious institutions in medieval Cairo. Several of the manuscripts used in this study. Thanks to the kind permis- buildings discussed by K. A. C. Creswell in his monu- scripts and for permission to publish the photographs of the sion of Prof. Muhsin Mahdi, Director of the Harvard Center mental survey of medieval Cairene architecture have for Middle Eastern Studies, the Arabic text was fed into the air-shafts from which the wind-catchers at the upper Center's computer by Ms. Carol Cross and extracted from ends have now disappeared.3 the same in its present form by Dr. Wheeler Thackston, Jr. A European traveller to Cairo in the sixteenth Publication of the photographs and Arabic text was made century, Prosper Alpin, also observed the ventilators possible by a generous grant from the Hagop Kevorkian there. He wrote as follows (de Fenoyl's translation of Foundation. the original Latin):4 All opinions expressed in this paper are my own respon- sibility, although I have profited greatly from discussions with colleagues in other fields. It is a pleasure to record my particular gratitude to various friends who have guided me 1 For an introduction to ventilation in the medieval Islamic world, see Ettinghausen, p. 71, and Petherbridge, pp. 201- to material related to my investigations, most especially 204. See also note 15 below. (For the bibliographical abbre- Felicitas Jaritz of the Swiss Institute in Cairo, and also viations used in the notes to this paper, see pp. 130-133 James Allen (the Egyptologist), Carol Bier, William Chittick, below.) Michael Dols, Horst Jaritz, and Michael and Victoria 2 al-BaghdddT, pp. 178-179, cited in King 1, p. 372 and Meinecke. For numerous suggestions of an editorial nature, Rosenthal, p. 1. I am indebted to Jeanne Monroe. 3 Creswell, I, pp. 45, 226, and 284-285, and II, pp. 244- My greatest debt is to my teacher Professor Franz Rosen- 245, and index, s.v. malqaf (II, p. 291). See also Fig. 5 thal, who adopted me when I knew only newspaper Arabic, below. and raised me to face the rigors of medieval manuscripts and 4 Alpin, pp. 35-36. According to de Fenoyl (ibid., p. 36, savor the delicacies of classical Arabic. For his friendship, note 21), there is an illustration of a ventilator in Alpin's guidance, and inspiration over the years, I am profoundly rerum aegyptiarum (vol. IV, pl. 1 on p. 35). I owe this refer- grateful. ence to the kindness of Prof. Michael Dols. 97 This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 98 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Plate 1. The skyline of Cairo in the mid-nineteenth (?) century viewed across the can illustrated in an unidentified work. Note that the ventilators are open to a direction par but if they are correctly displayed, then the view is across the Kharij away from the ol p. 179.) Cette ville est faite de tres hautes maisons dont les toits s'etendent si largement sure les rues qu'ils cachent presque entierement le ciel au-dessus d'elles et empe- plus, a la maniere d'une panse de cloche. Par cette ouverture, tourn6e vers le nord, ils reqoivent la brise fraiche, qu'ils conduisent dans les parties basses de la chent le soleil d'incommeder les passants (car, a toutes maison: ainsi se trouvent refroidis le sous-sol et le les heures du jour, l'ombre recouvre et protege les rez-de-chauss6e. rues). De plus, on utilise de vastes conduits, sem- Ventilators were still common in Cairo just a cen- blables a de grandes trompes, et places a l'int6rieur detury or two ago. In the early nineteenth century, toutes les maisons pour recevoir l'air froid. Ils s'6levent au milieu des maisons, avec une ouverture d'environ six coud6es; ils montent droit en l'air et atteignent le sommet, oit ils se terminent en s'6largissant beaucoup E. W. Lane stated in his celebrated work, The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians:5 Many houses (in Cairo) have, at the top, a sloping shed of boards, called a "malkaf," directed towards the north or northwest, to convey to a "fes-hah" or "fesahah" (an open apartment) below the cool breezes It is rather curious that sixteenth-century European draw- which generally blow from these quarters. ings of Cairo do not feature ventilators at all: see Meinecke- Berg on several such drawings. See also the discussion of the lack of representation of ventilators in Persian miniatures in Rosenthal, p. 5. L Lane 2, p. 29. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 99 the Rooftops. Notice the two wind-catchers on the left Plate 3. The ventilator on the roof of the Musafirkhine, the most impressive of the few ventilators of medieval Cairo which sur- of the painting. The men at prayer are standing a little vive to this day. Plate 2. Part of a painting by the nineteenth-century French artist Jean Leon G6rome entitled Prayer on to the left of the direction of the openings of the wind- catchers, that is, they are facing roughly due north rather than southeast! Clearly the artist superimposed two visual images, one of the Cairo rooftops and the Since none of the houses from Fatimid, Ayyubid or Mamluk Cairo has survived to this day, it is not surprising that no early ventilators survive either. In published by F. Frith in 1860,6 as well as a contem- Cairo, new houses have been built on the ruins of old ones; in Fustat, destroyed in the twelfth century, little remains of the houses besides the foundations and the drainage systems.8 Most of the ventilators which do survive in Cairo today are comparatively late Ottoman constructions, and a dozen or so of these have recently porary sketch (see Plate 1) and a painting by G~rome been discussed by A. Lzine (1971).9 Plates 3 and 4 (see Plate 2) show row upon row of air-shaft covers, show one of the Ottoman ventilators in Cairo, a splendid specimen on the roof of the two-storey eighteenth-century private house now known as the Musafirkhane.'0 Ventilators do not appear on twentieth-century Cairo buildings, and the only use of other of the men at prayer! (Reproduced courtesy of the Hamburger Kunsthalle.) A photograph of Cairo taken in the nineteenth century comparable with a forest of television antennas on the skyline of a modern city.7 6 Frith, pl. 11, already cited in Rosenthal, p. 1. I have not seen this photograph. ' Houses with ventilators are inadvertently omitted in the 8 See Casanova and especially Scanlon on the recent exca- illustrations in Ettinghausen, p. 92 of house-types in early vations in Fustat. See also Guest and Jomier on Fustat and nineteenth-century Egypt. The original illustrations of house- its early history. types in Cairo in the Description d'Egypte show ventilators 9 See LUzine. on each house. 10 The Musifirkh~ne (on which see Patricolo, pp. 187-190, This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 100 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Plate 4. The inside of the ventilator on the Musdfirkhdne. Notice that the western (left-hand) side of the wind-catcher is open to the wind, whereas the eastern side is blocked. them in modern Egypt known to me is in the out- ventilators'2 is probably to be abandoned because of standing work of the Egyptian architect, Hassan philological considerations. It is already well-estab- Fathy. " lished that the medieval Egyptian name for ventilators The early history of the ventilators of medieval was a Persian word bddahanj, and more than one Cairo is still a matter of some speculation. It is well scholar has suggested that the Egyptian ventilators known that ventilators were featured in domestic were inspired by those used in Abbasid Iraq."3 How- architecture in ancient Egypt. However, the notion ever, the Persian scholar Nasir-i-Khosraw, who visited that the ventilators of medieval Cairo represent a Egypt in the middle of the eleventh century and purely Egyptian development of the ancient Egyptian observed that most houses in Cairo had five or six storeys, did not mention the ventilators on these houses.'4 This is perhaps all the more surprising bepls. CCXXIV-CCXXX, and Pauty, pp. 59, 77, fig. 42, pls. cause ventilators were, and indeed still are, a promi- V/B, and VIII-XI) is distinguished from the majority of nent feature of Iranian architecture.'5 historical buildings in Cairo by the fact that it has been restored, and that until recently was used as a center for artists. However, during a visit to the building in May, 1979 12 Such a view is expressed in Badawy 1 and also Fathy 2, to take the photographs presented here as Plates 3 and 4, I pp. 143-144. On the ancient Egyptian connection see also was distressed to find the building no longer occupied and Section VII below. already displaying signs of neglect. On this problem of 13 Rosenthal and Bosworth. Cairo's architectural heritage see Bergne, and most recently 14 Ndsir-i-Khosraw, p. 132, cited in King 1, p. 372. See also the various articles listed under Meinecke. Jomier, especially p. 958, and further Abu-Lughod, p. 19. '" See, for example, Fathy 1, pp. 68-69. Fathy remarks 15 On ventilators in Iran, see Bosworth and the literature (p. 68) that such wind-catchers as he incorporated in his there cited, to which add, for example, Beazley, Rainer, architectural designs "may be set at precisely the right angle Siroux, Nasr, pp. 220-231; also Bahadori for a scientific to catch the wind, irrespective of the orientation of the investigation of their function. The film entitled "Man and house." Nature" prepared on the occasion of the "Festival of the This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 101 In a recent study, Professor Franz Rosenthal has (Section IV). Other astronomical sources contain infor- published a series of translations of references to mation on the shape of the medieval ventilators and ventilators in medieval Egyptian poetry, where their the names of the different varieties of Cairene venti- aesthetic and erotic features are extolled. This valu- lators (Section V). The direction adopted for the ven- able study provides a wealth of new material on the tilators was, in fact, perpendicular to one of the two ventilator and new insight into its origin. The refer- main directions that were accepted for the qibla or ences gathered by Professor Rosenthal are mainly local direction of Mecca in medieval Cairo (Section from Ayyubid and Mamluk times, but some occur VI). This ventilator orientation was also used for already in Fatimid sources, and they all illustrate that aesthetic reasons; the entire Fatimid city of al-Qdhira, the ventilator achieved a "modest measure of literary built alongside the Pharaonic Red Sea canal, was celebrity" in medieval Egypt.'6 fortuitously aligned in the astronomically-defined New information on the ventilators of medieval qibla direction. The ventilators were thus aligned on Cairo is available, and this constitutes the subject the roof tops in accordance with the more or less matter of the present study. This new material is orthogonal street plan (Section VII). However, the contained in what may at first sight seem a rather ventilators were not aligned in this fashion solely for unlikely source, namely, medieval Egyptian astronomi- aesthetic reasons: the direction of the winds in medi- cal treatises and tables. There was a vigorous tradition eval Egyptian folklore also played a role in the orien- of mathematical astronomy in Egypt in Fatimid, tation and design of the ventilators (Section VIII). Ayyubid, and Mamluk times, as well as in Ottoman Finally, I shall show that the first Muslims in Egypt times, and most of the many available sources for the used an astronomical direction for the qibla because history of this tradition have been investigated only in they wanted to face one particular side of the Ka'ba recent years.'7 in Mecca, which is itself astronomically aligned (Sec- In the present study I propose to assemble all the tion IX). material on the ventilators of Cairo that has come to Within the broader context of medieval Islamic my attention, and to use it to establish some rather architecture and city-planning in general, the medieval astounding connections between this prominent archi- city of Cairo, with its qibla-oriented religious archi- tectural feature of medieval Cairo, the street plan of tecture and astronomically-aligned ventilators, is just the Fatimid-Mamluk city, and medieval traditions of one example, albeit probably the most interesting one, folk meteorology and astronomy. As we shall see, the of an Islamic city oriented about the Ka'ba."8 ventilators of medieval Cairo lead us to an exciting new perspective in Islamic urban and architectural II. THE TERMS MALQAF AND B&DA HA NJ planning. First I shall discuss the modern term malqaf for Modern historians of Islamic architecture, following ventilator and the medieval term badahanj (Section Lane, usually refer to the Cairo ventilators by their II). Then I shall show that the medieval ventilators modern Arabic name, malqaf,'9 from an uncommon were not aligned towards the north but were astro- root l-q-f meaning "to gather." However, the medi- nomically aligned, open to the direction perpendicular eval name was not malqaf at all, but an Arabicized to midwinter sunrise (Section II1). The astronomical Persian word badahanj, with variants bddhahanj, bidhdhanj, baddhanj, and bddhanj,20 and in one text sources which provide us with this information also lead us simultaneously to the first known quantitative measurement of the effect of refraction at the horizon, a topic of some interest to the history of science 8 See further King 9. '9 See, for example, Creswell and Rogers (see note 3 to Section I above) and L"zine, passim. Uzine mentions the World of Islam" (London, 1976) provides a useful visual term bzdhanj in passing on p. 13, note 1. account of these Iranian ventilators and their function. 20 On this term see Rosenthal, especially pp. 2-5. The poet al-Qirati (fl. ca. 1350) specifically implies the use of the On ventilators in Dubai see, for example, Azzi and Coles & Jackson. On ventilators in Sind see Bourgeois. (The last- Arabic letter dal rather than dhal when he renders the letters mentioned article mentions the orientation and shape of the of the word in numerical notation 2-1-4-5-50-3 (see Rosen- wind-catchers.) thal, p. 7). The new Dictionnaire Arabe-Franfais-Anglais 16 See Rosenthal, pp. 4-5. (listed in the bibliography as Blachere et al.) lists bddinj and 17 For an overview of this activity see King 6. bddinjdn, quoting Ibn Battifta and Dozy. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 102 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Plate 5. The table for the altitude of the sun in the direction of the ventilator foun timekeeping that was used in medieval Cairo throughout the medieval period. Noti solstice (the entry at the lower left-hand corner of the table) is 0?41'. This represe of 0? above the true astronomical horizon to take into consideration the effect of refraction at the horizon. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 103 (no. 6), a plural bawddahanj. The Persian word, most by Lane." The same term badahanj is also attested in correctly spelled baddhanj, was apparently less com- one medieval Egyptian source with the meaning of mon than bddgTr for ventilator, and is derived from a fashionable garment with wide openings in the bdd, wind, and the verb ahanj dan, to pull out or sleeves." The various references to maiqaf/mi/qaf an extract.2' The d or dh of the Arabicized form would bWdahanj in the medieval historical sources that have both be pronounced as a d in Middle Arabic and a come to my attention are collected in Arabic text no. 1 vowel is required after this letter. The fact that a long at the end of this paper. a vowel occurs in some of the sources indicates that the word was borrowed in its correct form bdddhanj. III. A MEDIEVAL ASTRONOMICAL TABLE RELATING TO For the purposes of this paper, however, I shall use VENTILATORS the more common form badahanj. Where malqaf occurs as an architectural feature in The professional astronomical timekeepers (muwaq- a medieval Arabic text, it apparently does not mean qits) who were associated with mosques and madrasas badahanj, although precisely what it does mean in this in Cairo from early Mamluk times onward used a particular context is not yet clear. It may refer only to corpus of astronomical tables for determining time by the sloping part of the cover at the top of the the sun and for regulating the astronomically-defined badahanj, and relate to the function of this particular times of the five daily prayers.27 Some of these tables feature in gathering the air, but even this association were compiled by the celebrated Fatimid astronomer is not certain.22 The term malqaf is not listed at all in Ibn Yfinus; others were added by various Mamluk Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon, although it should be astronomers.28 Among these tables, which were redis- remembered that in this work words whose roots covered only about ten years ago, was a table dis- begin with I are only sketchily treated, and the root playing the altitude of the sun in degrees and minutes l-q-f is not listed at all. In Dozy's Supplement to Lane's for each degree of solar longitude (corresponding Lexicon, malqaf is listed with the meaning "shield" roughly to each day of the solar year) when the sun with four references to the Thousand and One Nights was in the direction of the bddahanj (see Plate 5)29 (one would expect milqaf rather than malqaf for such The entries, which are expressed in standard Arabic a meaning), and milqaf as a kind of tool used by a alphanumerical abjad notation, are given for each burglar in the same source.23 The terms malqaf/milqaf degree (read vertically) of each zodiacal sign (read are not listed in the major medieval Arabic dictionaries horizontally),30 this format being standard in the entire such as the Lisdn al-'arab and the Tdj al-'aras. The term badahanj for ventilator is used by 'Abd al-Lat-f al-Baghdadd in the passage cited at the beginning of this paper, in all of the references gathered by Pro- down the shaft of the badahanj in the Thousand and One fessor Rosenthal, and also in several other medieval Nights see Rosenthal, p. 6. Egyptian sources, including the Thousand and One Nights.24 Again, however, it is listed by Dozy but not 25 Dozy 1, I, p. 47b. 26 al-QalqashandT, IV, p. 43. This term is not listed in Dozy 2. 27 The tables of the Cairo corpus are analyzed in King I and also in my forthcoming Studies in Astronomical Time- 21 I owe this information, which is based on the articles keeping in Medieval Islam (SA TMI), which contains an analysis of all known tables for timekeeping from the medibadgrr and badahanj in the Lughat-name, to the kindness of eval period. In particular, SA TMI, II, contains a detailed Dr. William Chittick. 22 The term malqaf occurs in the waqftya of the madrasa of investigation of the problems involved with the attribution of the Sultan BarqUq, now published in facsimile, and edited the various tables in the Cairo corpus, and SA TMI, V, deals and translated by F. Jaritz in Lamei. with the role of the muwaqqit in medieval Islamic society. 23 Dozy 1, II, p. 553b. 28 On Ibn Ydnus see my article in DSB. On the later 24 Some reference to badahanjs in the historical sources are Mamluk astronomers who contributed to the corpus, see the following (1) Ibn Taghri Bird-'s description of the Azhar mosque (IV, p. 102); (2) the waqftya of the madrasa of Qdytbay (Mayer, pp. 40 and 43); (3) the history of Ibn Habib (p. 345); (4) al-Maqrfzi's Khitat (2:1, p. 222) and Sulak (3:1, p. 281). On the story of the corpse being lowered King 6. 29 On this table see King 1, especially pp. 371-373, where, however, several errors of interpretation occur. 30 On the notation see Irani, and for more details on the format see King 1, pp. 351-353. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 104 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) corpus of tables. Analysis of the table reveals that the 37? S. of E. Most medieval mosques in Cairo are back of the badahanj was intended to be aligned with oriented in one direction or the other (or, as we shall the direction of the rising sun at midwinter, namely, see, in both!). Only one of the references to the ca. 27?30' S. of E. for Cairo. This is curious indeed. badahanj in the medieval Egyptian poetry cited by Why should one align a ventilator in an astronomically- Professor Rosenthal contains any mention of the direc- defined direction, which one would think has nothing tion in which they are aligned. Burhan al-D-n al- to do with wind directions? Now this direction of the Qfratl (fi. ca. 1350) wrote a line of poetry which winter sunrise was known to be the qibla of the first says :32 Muslims in Egypt (see Section V). But this raises I see that the love of air has turned (the another question, namely, why was an astronomically- bddahanj) away from the qibla of Islam. defined direction chosen for the qibla? One would I take this as confirmation that the bidahanj was also think that the direction of winter sunrise has intended to face the direction perpendicular to the nothing to do with the direction of Mecca. Further- qiblat al-sahdba. more, the value given in the table for the solar altitude at the winter solstice is not zero, as one might have IV. A DIGRESSION: ISLAMIC QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF expected, since the Muslims were not known to have THE EFFECT OF REFRACTION AT THE HORIZON been familiar with the quantitative effect of refraction at the horizon, but rather a fraction of a degree. These features of the table were of obvious interest, and it The table displaying the solar altitude in the azimuth of the badahanj, that is at 27 1/ 2? south of east, exists has taken several years for me to fully appreciate their in a corpus of tables attributed in most of the available significance. copies to the Fatimid astronomer Ibn Yfinus.33 How- Some of the surviving ventilators in Cairo, notably ever, as I have shown in a study more recent than my the one on the roof of the Musafirkhane, appeared to original analysis of these tables, not all of these 200 be aligned in the direction underlying the table."' If pages of tables were computed by Ibn Yfinus.34 That the orientation of ventilators was so important, why Ibn Yfinus himself actually computed this particular then is the west side (but not the east side) of the table for the bddahanj is not certain, and there are Musafirkhane wind-catcher also open to the winds? A actually two versions of the table in the various slightly more northerly orientation could perhaps have manuscripts of the corpus. achieved a more symmetrical and more durable struc- The first, which appears to be the original version ture. However, even this feature of the Cairo venti- and is the more common of the two, is distinguished lators can now be explained. by the fact that at the winter solstice (Capricorn 0?) The direction of the winter sunrise was used for the the solar altitude is 0?41' above the horizon, rather qibla of the mosque of 'Amr in Fustat, the first than 0? as one might expect, given that the azimuth of mosque to be built in Egypt (see Section VI). It was the badahanj is the azimuth of the rising sun. This the qibla of this mosque, built in the winter of the year value 0?41' represents an attempt to incorporate the 641-642, which was known as the qiblat al-sahiba, effect of atmospheric refraction at the horizon, since that is, the qibla of the Companions of the Prophet. the visible horizon is indeed 2/ 3? above the true This qibla was toward the winter sunrise, that is, ca. horizon.35 The value 0?41' is thus intended to be the 27? S. of E.; it was occasionally favored in later times altitude of the sun above the visible horizon and it over the qibla which was computed in the tenth accords with the theory of refraction at the horizon century according to a correct mathematical procedure attributed elsewhere in the medieval sources to Ibn Yfinus. In some copies (see Plate 6) this first table is and based on the available geographical data, viz. ca. attributed specifically to an early fourteenth-century Egyptian astronomer named Ibn al-RashdL.36 He is 3' According to Jezine, p. 14, the ventilators examined by him face north, north-east, north-west, east, and even southwest, and south (?). From these he reasonably concludes: "II 3 Rosenthal, p. 16, line I 1. n'y a pas de regle pour la place du malqaf." On the other 33 See note 28 above. hand, both Lane (1834) (see note 5 above) and also Prisse 34 See note 27 above. d'Avennes (1877) noted (p. 155) the northern and north- 3 See already King 1, pp. 373-376 on this. western orientation of the malqafs of Cairo (Rosenthal, p. 16. line 75). 36 On Ibn al-Rashid! see Cairo Survey, no. C39; King 6, Appendix, no. 26. His various works are discussed in SA TMI. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 105 Plate 6. Most copies of the Cairo corpus of tables for timek But this copy for orienting ventilators in the corpus is att Ibn al-Rash-idi. It bears a marginal note of some interest, w ventilators in Alexandria, Cairo, and Upper Egypt. (Taken from MS Cairo DM 758, copied ca. 1650, fol. 4r.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 106 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) known to have corrected certain tables of Ibn Yanus V. MORE ON THE BJDAHANJ IN THE MEDIEVAL EGYPTIAN where they had become corrupt after much copying. ASTRONOMICAL LITERATURE However, it is precisely this first version of the table that occurs in certain copies of Ibn Yiinus's tables as they were before Ibn al-RashidT modified them. The table for the badahanj illustrated in Plate 6 is of particular interest. It is found in a seventeenth- In the second version of the table, the solar altitude century Egyptian copy of the auxiliary tables for decreases to zero at the winter solstice. In the sixteenth solving problems of spherical astronomy for all lati- century the Cairo corpus of tables was modified to tudes by the fourteenth-century Syrian astronomer include the effect of refraction at the horizon, but Shams al-Din al-KhalTlL.4' On the left-hand side of Muhammad al-MinifY, the muwaqqit at the Ghawri the table there is a note (Arabic text no. 2) which madrasa who was responsible for this, attributes the reads: underlying theory to Ibn Yilnus.37 Furthermore, al- Miniffi did not adjust any of the tables involving solar To find the azimuth of the bddahanj for every altitudes; rather he adjusted only those tables of func- latitude, you determine the rising amplitude (of the tions involving times of horizon phenomena. He did, sun) at the first point of Capricorn, and the result is however, present a table of the solar altitude in the the azimuth of the bddahanj, (but) God knows better. azimuth of the bMdahanj, but it is simply a table with the solar altitude zero at the winter solstice (see By this remark it is implied that the orientation of Plate 7). Al-Minifi claims to have recomputed his ventilators with winter sunrise was not practised in tables for the new obliquity found by Ulugh Beg in Cairo alone. For different latitudes the direction of the Samarqand observations ca. 1430, but, in fact, for winter sunrise is different; from this text we might the badahanj table he merely "fixed up" the last anticipate that the azimuth of the bldahanj is ca. column of entries, which serves solar longitudes up to 27 3/4? south of east for Alexandria, 27 1/4? for 30? on either side of the winter solstice. Facing the Cairo, and ca. 25? for Aswan. See further Sections VII badahanj table in Plate 7 is another table which is and VIII. standard in the various copies of the Cairo corpus, Another reference of the same kind is found in a and which displays the altitude of the sun in the treatise on the use of the sine quadrant by an uniden- azimuth of the qibla at Cairo, namely, 37? S. of E.38 tified author named Muhammad Hattata al-FariskirL. Before the rediscovery of the Cairo corpus it was The unique copy of this treatise, preserved in Cairo, not known that the Muslims concerned themselves at was copied ca. 1700, and the section relating to our all with quantitative estimates of refraction at the subject (Arabic text no. 3) is as follows:42 horizon. More recent investigations of other collections of tables for timekeeping that were used in other The twelfth chapter: on finding the azimuth of the Muslim cities have revealed that some of these also bddahan]. Find the rising amplitude of the day-circle incorporate such modifications for refraction.39 I have of Capricorn for the azimuth of Mecca, and then been able to trace quantitative estimates of the effect move south by this amount (from the east point) and of refraction to the celebrated eleventh-century scholar this will be the bddahanj. God knows better. Ibn al-Haytham and the less well known twelfth- century scholar Samaw'al al-Maghribi.40 This feature Unless the text is garbled, the author either was no of the table for the badahanj, while of considerable astronomer or was simply careless. The expression interest to the history of science, is, however, of little "for the azimuth of Mecca" makes no sense what- relevance to the present study. soever in this context. In a collection of short treatises attributed to Ibn Yfinus and copied ca. 1300, which is preserved in the 3 See King 1, p. 373 (somewhat confused). The various Cairo manuscripts mentioned there are now analyzed in SA TMI, II. On al-MinUff see now Cairo Survey, no. C120, and on his tables see SA TMI, II. 4' On al-Khalili see the article in DSB, Supplement vol. 1 and also King 6. 38 On this and related tables see King 1, p. 368. 42 On al-Fariskiiri see Cairo Survey, no. D181. His treatise 39 For details of this tradition see SA TMI, II. is contained in MS Cairo DM 639,5, fol. 46v-51r, copied 40 A detailed study is in preparation. ca. 1700, and the remarks on the qibla are found on fol. 50r. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 107 Plate 7. Tables for determini ng the directions of the ventilator an tables for timekeeping as modified by the sixteenth-century astrono Note that in the table, for the ventilator, the value for the altitud solstice is 00O', so that no correction for refraction at the horizon ha table. The value for the qibla underlying the other table is 37' S. o value. (Taken from ms Cairo DM 470 (unfoliated), copied ca. 1575.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 108 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Plate 8. A diagram for laying out the badahanj in Cairo drawn by the fourteenth-century Aleppo astronomer Ibn al-Sarraj in his own copy of his treatise on astronomical instruments. The reader may well imagine my surprise at finding such a diagram in a Syrian compendium on instruments. (Taken from MS Dublin Chester Beatty 102, fol. 52v.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 109 Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, we find instructions is known to have visited Cairo. Ibn al-Sarraj is known for finding the direction of the badahanj (Arabic text in the history of science as the inventor of several no. 4):43 varieties of astrolabes and quadrants, which I have investigated in a recent study.46 His major treatise on To mark the direction of the badahanj, first establish instruments was discovered only in 1982 in the Chester the four cardinal directions, and then count from the Beatty Library in Dublin. The manuscript, numbered east-point southwards by the amount of the rising 102 in the Library collection, is copied in the author's amplitude of (the sun at the first point of) Capricorn. own distinctive hand, and the discussion of the Next extend a line (from the center) in this direction, badahanl (Arabic text no. 5) occurs on fol. 52v (see and this will be the direction for the ventilator. Form Plate 8). The text is as follows: a rectangle with another line, and set up the mahilla on this rectangle (rabbichu bi-khatt dkhar wa-aqimi The 91st chapter on knowing how to set up the l-mahilla 'ala dhalika l-tarbTl). A good procedure (for mahilla of the bddahanj and the names of the (various laying out the direction of the badahanj) is to divide kinds) and the amounts (measured) on the horizon the front in ten parts and make the side five and one- circle for that latitude which are (open) to favorable half, according to the technical convention of the winds and (closed) to unfavorable winds. The names craftsmen. God Almighty grants success. of the four (kinds of badahanj) are furdtf, mujan- na/h, kiliT, and cadilT. The furat! is the one which From this text we might conclude that the term stands on the flat surface (al-qd'im 'alj sath mus- mahilla, not attested in any medieval or modern taqTm). The mujannah (literally, winged) is the one Arabic dictionary known to me," refers to the entire which stands on a surface "winged" like the wings of a wind-catching device corresponding to the modern bird (qd'im 'ala sath mujannah (sic, read mujan- word malqaf. Other sources, however, do not confirm na/han) ka-ajniiat al-tayr). The kilT (that is, like a this (see below and also Plate 8). The ratio for the veil) is (read: has?) the sloping surface (al-sath al- md'il). The 'cdilT is the one which is by the side of a lengths of the front and side of the bddahanj, namely, 10: 5 1/2, ensures that the diagonal is precisely east- wall (yakfin bi-janb hWbit). west. Observe also that the western side of this If you want to set up (the bddahanj), draw a full badahanj is open to the winds; it appears that this circle and divide it into four parts (by marking the design was in accordance with a wind-scheme (see cardinal directions). Then draw a line from (the point further Section VIII). The plan and orientation of the corresponding to) the rising amplitude of Capricorn bddahanj as outlined in this text is displayed in to (the point corresponding to) the setting amplitude Fig. 2.45 Notice that the bddahanj on the Musafirkhrne of Cancer (that is, from winter sunrise to summer is about twice as wide as it is deep, as one can see by sunset) in that locality. This will be the mahilla of the counting the wooden arches around the base. How- bddahanj [in] localities which are far from the sea. ever, two other sources point to a different arrange- [For localities which are on the sea] such as Alexan- ment for the base of the bddahanj. Another method of constructing the base of the dria, Damietta, cAydhdb, Jedda and similar places [the mahilla of the bddahanj is to be facing the sea]. bddahanj is provided by the early fourteenth century [n.b. The text is corrupt here.] astronomer Ibn al-Sarraj, who worked in Aleppo but When you have made the mahilla of the badahanj as I have described, draw a line from the east point to twice the rising amplitude of Capricorn and this will be the closed part (al-mawdic al-masdad); then draw a 43 On this manuscript, numbered 281e, see King 1, p. 372. The passage on the bddahanj occurs on fol. 1 Oyv. line from the west point to twice the setting amplitude of Cancer and this will be the open part (al-mawdic 44 The form is mafila for the geminated root h-l-l, signi- al-maftuh). The total number of degrees on the (hori- fying a nomen loci (see Wright, I, pp. 124-125 and 128-129), zon) circle corresponding to the favorable winds is but the precise meaning is obscure to me. 45 This procedure is misinterpreted in King 1, p. 372, note 66. It is reminiscent of various architects' rules for determining the qibla (surveyed in King 9, Section 2.1 1); see 46 See my forthcoming monograph The Astronomical Kennedy, pp. 213-214 and Lorch, pp. 314-317 on some Instruments of Ibn al-Sarraj, to be published by the Benaki rules for laying out the qibla at Ghazna and Marw. Museum, Athens. On Ibn al-Sarraj, see already King 6. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 110 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) N 27;42] at latitude 30?, which we keep in mind. Then (axis of city) we add the rising amplitude which is 27' 30' to 90? to obtain 1 17? 30' and subtract from that twice the rising amplitude which is 55? and the remainder is 62?30'. We take the Sine of this, namely, 53;13 [the text has 53;53, a scribal error], double it and obtain 106;26. We divide this by the quantity which we kept in mind and obtain 0;15,38, which is a quarter of the length _0 ____ 27 east 0 and, when rounded (to 0;15), equals a quarter of a qirt if the length is taken as one qrat (?). Then we divide the mahilla of the badahanj in 24 equal parts and take from this division six and a quarter qlrts which will be the width of the bddahanj. I have not seen this method in (the writings of) any Fig. 1. The rule for constructing ventilators outlined in the Ambrosiana text. of the virtuous scholars who preceded me and I know of no-one who mentioned it. Whoever wants to do N 1530 this properly let him do it as I have explained. Under(axis of city) stand this and you will get it right. Ibn al-Sarraj does not deserve top marks for his mathematical presentation. The essence of his calcu..ope n lation is to determine the breadth b in terms of the length / using b = 1/ 2 / tan A, where W is the solstitial rising amplitude, correctly stated as being equal to W-E closed 27?30' for the latitude of Cairo.47 In accordance with medieval convention he uses Sines to base 60 (indicated by capital notation) rather than to base 1 as we use nowadays, and also he does not avail himself of the tangent function. Values of the Sines are expressed in the same way as values of angles, that is, sexa- gesionally (to base 60) in the standard alpha-numerical abjad notation. 2070 S Fig. 2. The rule for constructing ventilators outlined by Ibn al-Sarraj and Ibn al-Qasih. 48 The base advocated by Ibn al-Sarraj is only half the width of that described in the Amrosiana text. The two angles to which he ascribes values of 153? (= 180? - 27?) and 207? ( = 180? + 27?) relate to the open and closed parts of the badahanj, and imply that the western side of the erection be open to the winds, 183? [sic, read 153?] and the number of degrees on which is also indicated on his diagram. His directions the circle corresponding to the unfavorable winds is appear to accord with a different wind scheme from 207?. that underlying the Ambrosiana text (see Section Then we divide one of these two lines [which are VIII). In view of the fact that the part of his text perpendicular to] (text has: min) the length of the dealing with the different kinds of ventilators is garmahilla of the bddahanj [into two parts] and it will be bled, I assume that for this he was merely quoting an one quarter of the mahilla of the bddahanj. You earlier source. The same source is quoted by a later should know that the mahilla is the length (of the writer (see below). The information provided by Ibn bddahanj) and the open part is its width on the western side and the closed (part) is its width on the eastern side. If you want to do this by calculation, take the ratio 4' See King 1, pp. 359 and 371-372. (This value is based on of its width to its length. (Then) find the Sine of the Ibn Yunus's (accurate) value for the latitude of Cairo-Fustat rising/setting amplitude at either of the solstices at [30?0'] and his value for the obliquity of the ecliptic [23?35'].) that latitude, which is 27;44 [sic, the correct value is 48 See note 30 above. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 111 al-Sarraj on the four different varieties of bddahanj is mahilla [vowelled thus in the text]. There are (dif- not known to me from other sources besides the ferent) kinds of badahanjs: (1) furatl, which stands related one mentioned below,49 and will be of interest on a straight surface (qd'im 'ala sath mustaqlm); to scholars concerned with vernacular architecture (2) mu/annah, which stands on a surface like the and its transmission. The term furdit applied to one wings of a bird (qa'im 'ala sath ka-ajnihat al-tayr); variety suggests a connection with the Euphrates. (3) 'ddili, which is by the side of a wall (yakiin bi- Another source relating to the badahanj is a treatise janb Wbit); and (4) kiliT, which has a sloping surface on the use of the almucantar quadrant by a scholar (wa-huwa md'il al-sath). If the place where you put named Ibn al-Qasih (1316-1399), otherwise known the bddahanj is on the shores of the sea, like Alexan- for his writings on the Qur'anic sciences.5 This trea- dria or Damietta or somewhere similar, the mahilla of tise exists in a unique manuscript copied about the the badahanj is to be facing the sea. If you have made time of the death of the author and now preserved in the mahilla or the bddahanj, extend a line from the the Egyptian National Library in Cairo. Chapter 63 rising point of the equinoxes to twice the rising ampli- deals with the setting up of mihrabs and badahanjs (in tude of Capricorn which is in the direction of the the manuscript the singular is given as both badahanj closed part (of the bddahanj) and then extend a line and baddhanj and the plural as al-bawddahan/), and from the west point to twice the setting amplitude of gives information on the different kinds of badahanjs Cancer, which is (the direction of) the open part. The that were used, as well as their shape. Part of the text total required angle on the horizon circle is 153 bears marked resemblance to that of Ibn al-Sarraj, degrees, and the blocked air is 207 degrees. If we and it seems that both were quoting a common source. divide one of the sides by the length of the mahilla, it The relevant section of Ibn Qasih's treatise (Arabic will be one-quarter of it. You know that the mahilla text no. 6) reads as follows: of the bddahanj is its length, and its width is a quarter of its length. Know also that the azimuth of the The way to set up the bddahanj is to draw the four bddahanj in Cairo is 27 degrees and 45 minutes. The cardinal directions on a flat slab (baldta) as described azimuth of the qibla at Cairo is 37? and it is also said above, and move from the east point towards the to be 37?30' because there is a difference of opinion south by the amount of the azimuth of the bddahanj concerning the latitude of Mecca; some say it is 21? in that locality by (using) the degrees of the altitude and others say 20?30' or yet other values. There is arc. You make a mark on the altitude arc (of the also a difference of opinion concerning the latitude of quadrant), then you place the ruler on the center of Cairo, some say it is 30? and others 29?55'. The the quadrant and on the mark and draw a line on the longitude of Cairo is 55? and the longitude of Mecca slab through the end of the ruler: the line will be the is 67?, but some say other values. Cairo is in the azimuth of the bddahanj, which is the position of the north-west quarter and Mecca is in the south-east quarter. The inhabitants of Cairo and Alexandria up to Kairawan and Tahert and al-Sius al-Aqsa and the Atlantic Ocean, and all places in that azimuth, all face in their prayers the section of the Ka'ba from the 4 No such information is contained in the other literary sources; see Rosenthal, p. 6. 50 On this author, whose full name was Abu l-Baqd' 'All western corner to the waterpipe (at the middle of the top of the north-west wall of the Kacba). I have mentioned in a short compilation the ways to find the ibn 'Uthmdn ibn Muhammad ibn al-Qdsih, see Suter, direction of the Ka'ba by the blowing of the four no. 419, and Brockelmann, I, p. 521, and SI, pp. 725-726, winds. and, more especially II, p. 214, and SII, p. 212, and the biographical sources there cited. His treatise on the almucantar quadrant is preserved in MS Cairo DM 26, copied Unfortunately, Ibn Qasih's treatise on the qibla is not ca. 1400-see Cairo Survey, no. C51-and the passage on preserved in the known manuscript sources, although the bddahanj occurs on fols. 22v-23r. Brockelmann (II, various other treatises dealing with the qibla from a p. 214) lists another manuscript in Princeton which bears a non-scientific point of view do survive. Such treatises, similar title, but this is in fact not a copy of Ibn al-Qasih's which belong to a category called kutub dald'il al- treatise. He also (SII, p. 212) lists another astronomical qibla, date from the ninth century onwards. In some treatise by Ibn al-Qdsih which I have not consulted, namely, ot these treatises, and others relating to geography a treatise on the use of the sine quadrant extant in the and cosmography, different geographical areas are Vatican Library. associated with specific sections of the perimeter of This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 112 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) the Ka'ba (see further Section IX) and Ibn al-Qdsih extent the new tables of al-Miniffl, were used in Cairo follows this tradition.5' None of the treatises on the until the nineteenth century. dalidil al-qibla currently known to me makes mention of the orientation of the badahanj. VI. ON THE QIBLA IN EARLY MUSLIM EGYPT Ibn al-Qdsih states that the azimuth of the badahanj There were several directions accepted for the qibla is 27?45' south of east. This value is either based on in medieval Cairo-Fustat. The most popular directions the solar rising amplitude at the solstice, namely, were the qibla of the sahdba, facing winter sunrise at 27?30', with 0 15' added to take care of the apparent 27? S. of E., and the qibla of the astronomers, facing solar radius and thus to represent the azimuth of the 37? S. of E. Both of these are mentioned by a right-hand (southern) edge of the solar disc as it rises sixteenth-century Egyptian (?) astronomer Ghars al- at midwinter, un vrai exces de delicatesse, or it is an Din al-HalabT (Arabic text no. 9), in the following error for the 27;44 given as the Sine of the solar rising rather simplistic terms:55 amplitude by Ibn al-Sarraj. Allahu a'lam. Ibn al- Qasih's remarks about setting up the badahanj on the Know that in the year eighteen of the Hijra [ mahilla are as obscure as those of Ibn al-Sarraj. 639 A.D.], in the time of the Caliphate of 'Umar ibn Another source for us to consider is the short al-Khattdb-may God be pleased with him-'Amr ibn treatise entitled Tuhfat al-ahbdb ft nasb al-bdddhanj al-'As conquered Fustat (Misr), and then he built wa-l-mihrdb ("The gift of the loved ones on setting up his mosque (which was then) known as the New bddahanjs and mihrdbs") by the fifteenth-century Mosque. The Companions of the Prophet-may God Egyptian astronomer Ibn al-MajdL.52 However, this is bless him and grant him salvation-who were in devoted only to methods for marking the azimuth of Egypt when he built (the mosque) were more than the badahanj at 27 1/2? south of east and the qibla at thirty (in number), and there were about sixteen 37? south of east on a plane horizontal surface (Arabic thousand Muslim fighters of the holy war with them. text no. 7). The only astronomical source currently The azimuth of the mihrab of this mosque was about known to me which actually identifies the qibla of the 27? (south of east), and no one amongst those men- sahaba with the orientation of the badahanj, both at tioned contested this, rather (the mihrdb was placed 27 south of east, is a treatise on the use of the in this direction) with their unanimous agreement. almucantar quadrant by Zakariyad ibn Yahya al- The astronomers, when they determined the azimuth Bilbaysi, an Egyptian astronomer of the fourteenth or (of the qibla) by proven mathematical means, decided fifteenth century (Arabic text no. 8).5 The fifteenth century Egyptian historian al-MaqrfzT that the azimuth in Fustat is 37? (south of east). They discussed the problems of mosque orientation in Cairo tioned was wrong. Now there is great danger in this, (see Section VI below), but as far as I know, did not since it (amounts to) saying that the Companions (further) decided that the mihrdb (which we) men- mention the orientation of bddahanj. After his time, a have erred. (The Prophet)-may God bless him and new corpus of tables for timekeeping was compiled by grant him salvation-said of them: "My companions al-Min fTI,4 which still contained a table for orienting are like stars; whichever of them you follow, you will the bddahanj in the direction of winter sunrise (see be (rightly) guided." Section IV). The original corpus of tables for time- This story has many parallels in respect to the keeping attributed to Ibn Yunus, and to a lesser shrines and graves and mosques of the Companions. Those who hold the opinion that one should face directly towards the Ka'ba (isdbat al- 'ayn) think that Kufa, Baghdad, Hamadhan, Qazwin, and Rayy have 51 For a discussion of his remarks in the context of other Islamic notions of sacred geography, see King 8. one and the same azimuth. The (real) situation is that there is a difference of about 4? (sic, read 14'??) 52 On Ibn al-MajdT see Suter, no. 432, and King 6, Appen- between them. As a result of this and similar (prob- dix, no. 44; on this treatise see King 1, p. 372. The treatise lems), many people have become confused and mixed survives in several copies, of which I have used MS Cairo DM 183,2, fols. 7r-l lr, copied ca. 1450 5 See, for example. MS Cairo ?1 377,3, fols. 20v-21v, copied 1586-87. On al-dilbaysi see SWter, no. 522, and Cairo Survey, no. C64. " On al-HalabT see Suter, no. 465 and Cairo Survey. no. C88. His treatise is contained in MS Cairo MM 114, 5 On al-Miniifr see note 37 above. copied ca. 1600, in which this passage occurs on fols. 5r--5v This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 113 up (?). As a result of what we have presented (in this notion of lissabat al-'ayn referred to by al-Halabi. bird! and also al-QalqashandT, but not al-MaqrnzT (although the published text seems to be defective), report that when the mosque was enlarged by Qurra ibn Shank in 673 it was actually pulled down and rebuilt on a larger scale in a different direction, more to the south.58 Ibn TaghrtibirdT's remarks (Arabic text The story of the foundation of the mosque of 'Amr no. 10) are as follows: treatise), we hope by the grace of God that this obscure problem may be solved. We shall have occasion to return in Section IX to the and its orientation is more complicated than al-Halabi knew. The historical sources have already been inves- The qibla was much too far to the east. When Qurra tigated by K. A. C. Creswell, who failed to understand ibn Shartk pulled down his mosque and (re)built it in them.56 The Mosque was built in Fustat by the military commander 'Amr ibn al-'As in the winter of 641-642. The fifteenth-century historian al-MaqrizT to the south. the time of al-Walid ... he turned (the qibla) a little relates two stories about the way in which 'Amr had Now al-MaqrizT seems to be saying that the mosque the qibla laid out." The first story reads (Arabic text of 'Amr was built facing due east. Ibn TaghrnhirdT no. 10): and al-QalqashandT (and probably al-Maqrtzl too, if indeed the published text is defective) seem to be cAmr sent the two men (named in the text) to set up saying that Qurra rebuilt the mosque in a more the qibla and said to them: 'Stand when the sun is southerly direction, but they do not mention that this beginning to decline-or, in another version, when new direction was towards winter sunrise. A change of qibla from due east to the direction of winter sunrise can hardly be described as a change "a little to the sun is on the meridian-and have (the sun) at your two eyebrows,' and they did (this). the south." The text as published and here translated makes no sense at all unless we assume that hadibaykumd, "eye- brows," is a corruption of jdnibaykumd, "sides." If this is the case then the men were to be facing due east, perpendicular to the direction of the sun when it was on the meridian. The second story says: 'Amr was laying out ropes so that the qibla of the mosque could be set up, and he said: "Make the qibla towards the east and you will face the Kacba.''... (The qibla) was too far to the east. Of course, sharriqu 1-qibla can also mean "make the qibla towards sunrise." Al-MaqrizT relates that when 'Amr prayed in the mosque, he prayed almost towards the east (nlhiyat al-sharq illa l-shay' al-yaszr), and In a recent publication I have suggested that the qibla of the polytheist Arabs of the Hejaz in the time before the introduction of the qibla towards Jerusalem, which occurred some time before the advent of Islam, was towards the east.9 Also, W. Barthold has argued that the qibla of the earliest mosques of the Hejaz (Medina and Qubd') was originally towards the 60 east. Was the earliest qibla used in Egypt also due east? The direction of due west was used for the qibla in early Islamic Iraq, Iran, and Transoxania, but the direction of winter sunset was also favored."' I have not yet been able to check the precise orientation of the present mosque of 'Amr, and none of the modern plans of the mosque, all of which go back to Corbet and Creswell,62 is to be trusted. The present mosque is not rectangular in shape, which that when he prayed in a church he would pray almost in the qibla of the Christians, i.e., due east (lam yansarif 'an qiblatihim illa qarilan). Ibn Taghra58 Ibn Taghrrbirdt, I, p. 67, 11. 1-6 and al-Qalqashand. The earlier historian Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam states that Qurra pulled the mosque down (hadama) but does not mention its orien- tation either before this event or after his reconstruction; see 56 Creswell 2, 1: 1, pp. 149-15 1. See also Butler, p. 343. Ibn 'Abd al- Hakam, p. 131, 1. 16. 17 Al-MaqrTzJ, II, p. 247. The same stories are recorded by59 See King 5, pp. 308-309. the contemporary (?) Egyptian writer MurtadA ibn Khafff, * See Barthold. whose treatise is available only in an unreliable French 61 See King 3 for details. translation prepared in 1666: see Murtada, pp. 252ff. of Vattier's translation. 62 See Creswell 2, 1:1, p. 150 (Corbet); and II, opp. p. 188 and p. 192 (Creswell?). This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 114 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) (N) Mecca,65 and possibly he was the compiler of the due east 9O0 similar table for the bidahan/ which we discussed in Sections III, IV, and V. The qibla direction found by Ibn YUnus is advocated by most later Egyptian astronomers who wrote on the subject. 66 The religious scholars, on the other hand, appear to have favored the qiblat al-sahiba. When the Fatimid Caliph al-Mucizz tried to change the qibla of the mosque of 'Amr in 956-957 he encountered con- ..\ o,) 4, g 9 1170 0 1410 2040 1560 1800 Fig. 3. The various qibla directions used in Egypt according to al-MaqrfzT. adds to the difficulty of identifying the precise qibla used in its orientation. From the map of Cairo published by the "Survey of Egypt 1950" I measure the north-east wall to be at ca. 33? South of East.63 However, I have not investigated the altitude of the hills to the south east. The mosque should be surveyed afresh, together with the appropriate horizon condi- tions; for the time being I shall assume that it is, as the medieval authors say, aligned toward winter sunrise. No Egyptian treatises on the qibla are known from the ninth or early tenth century. In the late tenth century, the astronomer Ibn Yiinus, who worked for siderable opposition, and was made to see the error of his ways by various miraculous happenings.67 The fourteenth-century Egyptian legal scholar al-Zarkashi, in his book on mosques, states that it is permissible to pray to the right or left of a mihrdb in a mosque, except in the main mosques in Medina, Kufa, Basra, Damascus, and also Fustat, because the Prophet or his Companions prayed in these.68 Now there were in fact more than two qibla directions used in medieval Egypt. Al-MaqrfzT discussed the divergences of the mihrabs in Egyptian mosques and identified four different mihrab orientations (see Fig. 3).69 The first was the qibla of the sahaba, namely, the direction of the rising sun of midwinter, which he stated was used for the mosque of CAmr in Fustat, and the jami' mosques in Giza, Bilbays, Alexandria, Qus and Aswan. The second (al-Maqrfzi's third) was the mathematically-computed qibla, which he stated was used for the Azhar mosque. The third mihrab orientation (al-MaqrTzT's second) was that of the mosque of Ibn Tiiliin, which al-MaqrizT points out is 14? south of the mathematically-computed qibla, namely, 127? + 14? = 141?. Two somewhat fanciful explanations of this are given by al-MaqrfzT. One involves a man sent by Ibn T5l5n to Medina to measure the orientation of the Prophet's Mosque in both Caliphs al-cAzlz and al-Hakim, wrote on the determination of the qibla by purely scientific means.64 He made no mention of the qiblat al-sahaba. Rather, using a series of correct trigonometric formulae and the geographical coordinates of Cairo and Mecca, he derived a value of about 37? south of east for the qibla at Cairo. (This differs from the modern qibla in Cairo, which is about 45? south of east, because the medieval value for the longitude difference between Cairo and Mecca was inaccurate.) Ibn Yiinus also compiled tables displaying for each day of the year the altitude of the sun when it was in the direction of 65 See note 38 above. 66 There is evidence that some astronomers preferred 34? S. of E., a value derived from different geographical coordinates for Cairo and Mecca. The value 34?2' occurs on MS Paris B.N. ar. 2558, fol. 51r of al-KhalTiT's list of qibla values (see note 41 above concerning the author) and underlies the qibla indicator on an early fourteenth-century Egyptian sundial preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 67 Creswell, I, p. 213, quoting the historian al-Bakri. 68 Al-Zarkash7, p. 363. 69 See al-MaqrTzi, IV, pp. 21-23, summarized in the article "Masdjid" by J. Pedersen in E/l. More information is given 63 This map is included inside the cover of Creswell 2. in King 9, Section 4.3, which also contains an analysis of 64 On Ibn Yunus see note 28 above. For details of this orientations of individual medieval buildings in Egypt (based calculation, see King 7, Part III, Section 28. on modern plans). This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 115 Medina, who found that the mosque was "about ten less useful details than the discussion of al-Maqrizli." degrees to the south" of the qibla "which can be Al-DimyatT confessed that he knew that the qibla of determined by technical means"; as a result Ibn Tilin the Companions was wrong when compared with the made a similar adjustment for his mosque in Cairo. qibla that could be derived by computation. However, The other story is that the Prophet Muhammad traced he had been to Mecca and had conferred with scholars out the mihrdb for Ibn Tilin whilst the latter was there on the part of the Ka'ba which was facing Egypt. They told him that it was the part between the asleep. The fourth mihrab orientation observed by al- western corner and the water-pipe, and so he stayed Maqrfzl was due south or even a few degrees west of up with some other Egyptians at the Ka'ba by night south. This orientation, he says, was attested in Qardfa and stood facing that section of the Ka'ba, noting and in "the villages." The modern maps of Cairo various features of the night sky. They found that the confirm this southerly orientation of religious edifices Pole was at the side of the left shoulder and the in the Qardfa area. The reasons which al-Maqrfzl Pleiades set behind the back, and that Vega set at the gives for such orientations are, first, that various right side and that Scorpio (that is, the star a Scor- mosques were converted from churches which faced pionis) rose in front of the face (see Section IX). east and a mihrab was installed on the south wall; When they returned to Egypt they found that the and, second, that the Egyptians were using the same same phenomena were observable when they faced the qibla as their Syrian neighbors, namely due south. He qibla in the mosque of 'Amr at Fustat. So, al-Dimydti also mentions that mosques were built "toward Cano- concludes, the Companions were right after all. pus," stating that this star rises "a little to the south of His astronomical knowledge was such that he appar- the rising point of the sun at mid-winter," culminates ently did not realize that the night sky at Mecca looks due south, and sets "at a small inclination to due somewhat different from the night sky at Cairo, and south." He adds that "the rising point of Canopus is that the directions of risings and settings of the sun approximately in the azimuth of the qibla for Egypt." and stars vary with latitude. Elsewhere in his treatise, Here al-Maqrfzl combines several errors: first, Cano- he advocated a qibla for Egypt which is inclined a pus rises in Cairo some 40? south of the rising point little away from the rising point of the sun at mid- of the sun at mid-winter; second, it rises and sets at winter toward the rising point of Canopus. This is ca. 23? east and west of due south; third, its rising indeed a happy compromise, being halfway between point is some 30? south of the mathematically-com- the qibla of the sahaba and the qibla used in early puted qibla for Cairo. However, as we shall see in mosques in Qardfa, and also being closer to the qibla Section IX, the Egyptians had good reason to use of the astronomers. There is a lot more that could be either the winter sunrise or the rising point of Canopus said about the qibla in Egypt, but we should return to for orienting their mosques. At the end of his dis- the problem of the ventilators. cussion al-MaqrfzT displays at once both his piety and his lack of understanding of the qibla problem by VII. ON THE ORIENTATION OF MEDIEVAL CAIRO referring to "the correct mihrabs of Egypt which were laid out by the Companions." Although the ventilators of medieval Cairo cannot Another Egyptian, the twelfth-century legal scholar represent a purely Egyptian development of the venti- Zayn (?) al-DTn al-DimydtT, wrote a short treatise on lators of ancient Egypt, not least because they had a the qibla in Egypt.70 In this work, which is essentially Persian name, the connection between ancient Egypt an open letter to his colleagues in Damietta, alDimyatT also discussed the different mihrab orientations in the mosques of Egypt, but his treatise contains 7' Note added after the completion of this paper: In the summer of 1982 I came across a copy of al-Dimyat-i's longer treatise on the qibla, extant in MS Oxford Bodleian Marsh 70 Al-Dimyat-T is not mentioned in the modern bio-biblio592. This is the most important single source on the qibla graphical sources known to me. His shorter treatise on the ever compiled by a Muslim legal scholar. A preliminary qibla is extant in the unique copy MS Damascus Zahiriya 5579 translation of the entire manuscript was prepared by my (17 fols., copied ca. 1350), and has been translated by my students Gregory Grant, Margaret Nito, Nadia Rawjee, and student Bill Smyth. For a discussion of the qibla by a Christopher Noey in the spring of 1983 and is currently thirteenth-century Egyptian legal scholar see al-Qardft, being revised for publication. It is now clear that al-MaqrizT's pp. 489-508. account is to some extent based on al-Dimydti. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 116 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Egyptian architectural orientations that the ventilators of Cairo have a connection. The site selected for the new city of al-Qdhira in the latter half of the tenth century was alongside the ancient Egyptian canal joining the Nile to the Red Sea. This canal, reopened once already by the Romans, was reactivated for a second time by 'Amr after the Muslim conquest. The section of the canal alongside which al-Qdhira was built was straight, and its direction was of course necessitated by the local topog- ~~~~~~~~~~~- t /' AL -QAHA raphy.73 However, its direction is roughly 27? east of north. The Canal was thus fortuitously perpendicular to the qiblat al-sahaba (see Fig. 4). Since the Fatimid city was built with a roughly orthogonal street-plan, it is aligned with the qiblat al-sahaba, the main axis, now roughly defined by the thoroughfare known as al-Qasaba, being perpendicular to the qiblat al-sahaba (see Plate 9). The Fatimids, however, apparently pre= ?5//AL -QAH I PEIODICALL ferred the qibla computed by the astronomers: the Azhar mosque (970) and the mosque of al-Hakim (1003) face the qibla derived by Ibn Yanus, and are some 10? skew to the city plan (see Plate 9). Some Fatimid relgious architecture, on the other hand, faces the qibla of the sahaba.74 Here it should be pointed out that because of the hills to the south-east of Cairo, the direction of actual sunrise over the horizon will vary from one part of the city to another. This fact is never referred to in the medieval texts, and the expressions mashriq al-shitd' or mashriq al-jady (winter sunrise or the rising point of the constellation of Capricorn) were taken by the Fig. 4. The site of Cairo and its development at the time of the Fatimid invasion and the founding of al- astronomers to be the rising point of the sun at midwinter over the true horizon rather than the actual Qdhira (after Abu Lughod, p. 7). Notice the orienta- horizon. In other words, it is the computed value of tion of the Red Sea Canal at ca. 27 E. of N. 27? S. of E. which was used for the qiblat al-sahdba. In some of the Mamluk architecture flanking the main thoroughfare of the Fatimid city, such as the and the ventilators of medieval Cairo is, I believe, early fourteenth-century madrasa of al-SultAn al-Ndsir stronger than one might suspect. Orientation of religious architecture in ancient Egypt was generally toward the River Nile, although there do exist temples of debate. According to a survey of temple orientations aligned toward the rising sun on a particular day of conducted by Badawy (2, pp. 184-185), the general impresthe year. There are also examples where, as a result of the local river orientation, the temples facing the river also roughly face in the direction of winter sunrise; such is the case for the temple complexes at Thebes, Karnak and Luxor. 12 Yet it is not with ancient sion of predominantly south-eastern orientations in the examples chosen is superficial since most of the temples studied are in eastern Thebes (which face roughly S.E., the River Nile flowing roughly N.E.). See, more recently, Haw- kins and Krupp and also the article "Orientierung" by G. Vitmann in LA, vol. IV, cols. 607-609. 7 On the topography of the area, see Abu-Lughod, p. 9, 72 The astronomical orientation of ancient Egyptian tem- fig. ples and the significance of such orientations is still a matter II. 74 See, for example, Kessler 2, p. 258, fig. 1. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 117 Plate 9. A plan of the Fatimid city of Cairo, showing clearly t axis roughly parallel to the canal and the minor axis in the qiblat al-sahaba. Notice how the Azhar and al-Hakim mosques face the qibla of the astronomers, rather than in accord with the street pattern. (Reproduced from Pauty.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 118 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) z 0 0 0 A ~~B N cc : i. _:~:~ ~T~~~~~~ U.nh ven iao 0~~~~~~~~ M ~rnihrb T trench V ventilator shaft W window C Fig. 5. Sketch of part of the madrasa of al-Salih Muhammad on the main thoroughfare of medieval Cairo (based on Creswell). Notice that the outside wall of the madrasa is aligned with the main street plan, and is perpendicular to the qiblat al-sahaba. Notice that the facade is not aligned with the street Fig. 6. Sketch map of Mamluk Cairo showing the per se, but rather with the axis of the city. The basic orientations of three major areas. The Fatimid internal orientation of the various parts of the complex city (A) is aligned in the qiblat al-sahiba, the Mamluk is in the mathematically-determined qibla. Thus, for "City of the Dead" (B) is aligned in the qibla of the example, the outside and the inside of the wall of the astronomers, and the district of al-Qarafa (C) is aligned facade are inclined to each other at 1O', which is towards the south. the difference between the two qiblas. Notice also the ventilator shaft next to one of the mihrabs; the shaft is oriented in the qibla of the astronomers, and pre- notice also that the street-pattern of the Mamluk sumably the wind-catcher which once adorned the top "City of the Dead" is aligned with the qibla of the of the shaft would have been skew to the shaft and astronomers (see Fig. 6), so that the mausolea flanking aligned with the outside wall of the madrasa. the streets are oriented, both internally and externally, in this qibla. From the astronomical sources one would expect Muhammad (see Fig. 5), the facade of the building is that badahanjs erected on buildings on either side of aligned according to the street, and the inside of the building is skew to this orientation, being in the would have had their openings parallel to the street, streets parallel to the major axis of the Fatimid city astronomically-defined qibla. The thoroughfare known perpendicular to the qiblat al-sahaba, and that, like- as al-Qasaba is of course not exactly parallel to the wise, badahanjs erected on buildings on streets per- canal. However, some of the kinks in the thoroughfare pendicular to the main axis of the city would have result from a deliberate attempt to align the outsides had their openings facing the direction perpendicular of the buildings on it with the qiblat al-sahaba.75 We to the street and hence also perpendicular to the 7 See Sayyad for a penetrating study of the main thoroughfare of medieval Cairo, in which the qibla is not completely overlooked as it is in most modern writings on Islamic city-planning. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 119 qiblat al-sahdba. Plate I shows how ventilators were I am not aware of the existence of any medieval aligned parallel to the Canal. However, as we shall see treatise in which the limits of the winds in Egypt are in Section VIII, it was not only aesthetic considera- discussed in detail. The tenth-century Iraqi scholar al- tions which inspired this practice. These features of the orientations of medieval Cairo Mascildi discusses the winds in Egypt, and implies that they blow from the cardinal directions when he and its architecture have not been noted before. Al- observes that each one corresponds to a side (rukn, MaqrizT's remarks on orientations were completely actually, "corner") of the pyramids.8' Likewise, al- ignored by K. A. C. Creswell in his monumental sur- MaQrizT implies that the four winds blow from the vey of early Egyptian architecture, but Creswell cardinal directions.82 However, the late fourteenth- generally ignored orientations anyway. More recently, century scholar al-QalqashandT in his encyclopaedic C. Kessler has written on Mecca-oriented architecture work Subh al-A'shd presents a different scheme for in Cairo, but without reference to what the medieval the limits of the winds.83 In this scheme the winds Egyptians thought was the direction of Mecca.76 I blow from the quadrants defined by the cardinal have not seen Dr. Kessler's latest article on this sub- directions. The relevant passage (Arabic text no. 11) is ject, currently in press." as follows: V1I. ON THE FOLKLORE OF THE WINDS IN MEDIEVAL The main winds are four. The first is the sabi which is the one that comes from the east [sic, read EGYPT from between the east and the north]. The author of We have seen that the ventilators of medieval Cairo the book Sind'at al-kuttdb said that the Egyptians were aligned in accordance with the street-pattern, call it the sharqiya because it comes from the rising which was fortuitously aligned with the qiblat al- point (mashriq) of the sun.... The second is the sahaba, that is, with winter sunrise. But we have also dabiir and it blows from between the setting point of seen a medieval text which implies that bddahanjs should be aligned with winter sunrise anywhere in the sun and the direction of the south celestial Egypt (see Section IV). This we can now explain. from between the direction of the north celestial pole In a substantial number of medieval Arabic texts pole.... The third is the shamdl ... and it blows and the setting point of the sun.... The fourth is the relating to folk astronomy rather than to mathematical janilbTya and it blows from between the direction of astronomy, we find statements about the winds: their the south celestial pole and the rising point of the sun. number, their names, and the directions from which It is called qiblTya in Egypt because it comes from the they blow.78 Similar details are recorded by the medi- qibla there . .. and it is the worst of the winds accord- eval Arab lexicographers.79 The limits for the winds, ing to the Egyptians. that is, the boundaries of the sectors of the horizon from which they are thought to blow, are always Fig. 7 shows al-QalqashandT's wind-scheme and its astronomically defined in terms of the cardinal direc- relation to the kind of bddahanj described in the tions, or sunrise and sunset, or the rising and settings Ambrosiana manuscript. Notice that both the open of particular stars. The schemes are not generally and the closed parts correspond to 180? on the hori- associated with any particular locality, but most of zontal scale. It appears that some bddahanjs in Cairo them seem to be of Hijazi provenance. These Arab such as that on the Musafirkhane, having the width wind schemes constitute a meteorological tradition equal to one half of the length, were constructed to quite independent from the classical traditions repre- catch both the shamdl and the saba, in conformity sented in the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastos, with this tradition of popular local folklore. which were translated into Arabic in the eighth and tenth centuries, respectively.80 As we have seen, Ibn al-Sarraj and Ibn al-Qasih describe a different kind of ventilator, with the width equal to one quarter of the length. In this variety, angles of 153? and 207? for the open and closed parts 76 See Kessler I and 2. 77 See Kessler 3. 78 These are surveyed in King 9, Section 3.3. 81 See al-Mas'Odf, text, pp. 16-21, translation, pp. 25-36. 79 See, for example, Lane 1, s.v. shamdl, sabd, qabal, janub, 82 See al-Maqr~zT, II, p. 263. 83 al-Qalqashandt, II, pp. 175-177. I have not identified the and dabiir. 80 On Arab meteorology see Sezgin, VII, pp. 203-370. author of the work entitled Sind'at al-kuttdb. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 120 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) N (axis of city) N J [axis of city] '7, ,,, / favorable winds S ~~~~~~(al-t iy~b) Z / east W _ E unfavorable winds (al-marTs) S Fig. 7. The limits of the winds in medieval Egyptian Fig. 8. The limits of the favorable and unfavorable winds in Egyptian folklore as described by Ibn alSarraj (see Plate 8). folklore as reported by al-QalqashandT and their rela- tion to the orientation and shape of ventilators. minor axis is roughly solstitially aligned towards the summer sunrise in the east and the winter sunset in of the badahanj are mentioned. Ibn al-Sarraj's text the west, and the major axis points roughly toward reveals that the western side of the wind-catcher is the local rising point of the star Canopus. (The minor open to the wind as well as the northern side, as in the axis is actually aligned exactly to the farthest southerly case of the bddahanj in the Musafirkhane described setting point of the new moon at the winter solstice above. His diagram indicates the reason: the favorable and, for the latitude of Mecca, these lunar and northerly winds were thought to blow from points Canopic alignments are roughly perpendicular.) Also, between due east and summer sunset, and the un- one diagonal of the base of the Ka'ba is almost favorable southerly marls winds from points between north-south. summer sunset and due east. Fig. 8 shows this second The reason for these approximate solar and Canopic alignments appears to be, as far as my researches to wind scheme and its relation to the kind of bddahanj date indicate, that the underlying directions were the described by Ibn al-Sarraj and Ibn al-Qasih. We now see why the medieval sources cited in limits for the winds in a prevailing pagan Arab tradi- Section V state that the ventilators in Egypt as a whole, rather than just Cairo, were to be erected in line with winter sunrise. Only in Cairo did the street tion. Hints of this association are contained in various texts relating to the winds and their names.85 My own plan also lie in this direction. findings on the Ka'ba reinforce those of J. Chelhod medieval Arabic folk astronomical and lexicographical IX. CONCLUSION: CAIRO, A CITY FACING THE KACBA The first Muslims in Egypt used winter sunrise for the qibla because they wanted to be facing one particular side of the Kacba, which is itself astronomically aligned.84 The base of the Kacba is rectangular; its see already A. J. Wensinck's articles "Ka'ba" in El, and E12. The actual alignment of the Ka'ba is discussed in Hawkins & King. 85 See, for example, the definitions of the winds given in Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (see note 79 above), which is based on the medieval Arab lexicographers. For the specific 84 The evidence for the assertions made in this section is association of the winds with the Kacba, see, for example, presented in greater detail in King 9, Part 3. On the Ka'ba al-StranT, p. 19. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 121 Plate 10. Two diagrams in a treatise of uncertain origin preserved in a seventeenthcentury Egyptian manuscript. The diagram on the right shows the Kacba at the center of two diagonally-superimposed squares usually associated with the representation of the four elements and their qualities. The seasons and their weather conditions, the winds, and the qiblas of four main geographical areas feature on this diagram. The diagram on the right shows in an exaggerated fashion the rectangular base of the Kacba, with the Black Stone set in its southeast corner. (Reproduced from ms Cairo Dar al Kutub TJ 81 1) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 122 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) who, albeit from different premises, also observed displayed) and the qiblas of four localities to the that it was "a microcosm of the universe."86 directions of the winds and the weather of the four The Ka'ba, originally just a walled enclosure, was a seasons, using an Aristotelian-type configuration of pagan Arab shrine, perhaps associated with worship two diagonally-superimposed squares which usually of the sun and moon, which was built in a valley represent the elements and their qualities.88 This illu- surrounded by sacred mountains near the site of a stration is found in an anonymous Sufi treatise on the sacred spring, with sacred stones embedded in its Ka'ba and the qibla preserved in a late eighteenth- walls. It was oriented astronomically to face the four century Egyptian manuscript, and is clearly of earlier winds whose direction is defined according to a popu- origin.89 The treatise, which is in Arabic, appears lar local tradition. The east wind was favored by the to be of Ottoman provenance; but although the Arabs, and the south wind yet more so, because it was thirteenth-century Andalusian mystic Ibn al-'ArabT is the wind which brought rain. One of the sacred mentioned in the preceding treatise, I have not yet stones, a black stone probably of meteoric origin, was found any earlier references to this kind of represen- at some time set in the most sacred corner of the tation of the Ka'ba. enclosure, namely, the south-east corner, enjoying The first Muslims in Egypt wanted their mosques to exposure to both the east and the south wind. These face the north-west wall of the Ka'ba, and to do this, pre-Islamic meteorological associations of the Ka'ba they thought they should face winter sunrise. Some were not mentioned in the Qur'dn and were perhaps later Egyptians thought it more reasonable to face the deemed of little consequence to the new Muslim com- rising point of Canopus. When one stands in front of munity, for they are barely mentioned in the oldest the north-east wall of the Ka'ba in Mecca one is Muslim traditions. facing the rising point of Canopus, and al-MaqrfzI The earliest recorded statement about the limits of informs us that this latter direction was also adopted the four main winds (shamal, sabd, janiib and dabiir) for the qibla in Egypt. Indeed, as we have seen in corresponding to the astronomically-defined directions Section VI, al-Maqrfzi himself actually confuses the which are elsewhere associated with the axes of the midwinter sunrise and the rising point of Canopus. It Ka'ba is attributed to Ibn 'Abbas (619-687/8), the is also worth mentioning that the fourteenth-century celebrated companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Moroccan astronomer Ibn al-Banna' stated that the Likewise, the earliest mention of an association be- mosque of 'Amr was erected towards the rising point tween the four winds and the four sides of the Kacba of the star a Scorpionis,90 which is roughly the same is in a statement attributed to the celebrated religious direction as winter sunrise, and recalling that the personality, Hasan al-BasrT (642-728).87 I see no ninth-century Andalusian jurist Ibn Hablb stated that reason to suspect that these traditions were deliberately the qibla in Cordova was towards the rising point of fabricated; rather, I see them as reflecting pre-Islamic this star "because it rises at the corner of the Black Arab meteorological beliefs. Certainly, there are no Stone."9' The precise meaning of this remark is not indications that such traditions were deliberately clear to me, because if one stands with one's back to supressed in later times. They appear in the genre of this corner one faces ca. 15? south of east, whereas books called kutub al-'azama, dealing with the great- the star rises ca. 25? south of east in Mecca (epoch ness of God as revealed by his creation, as well as 900 A.D.). However, al-Dimydti (see Section VI) states lexicographical works and treatises dealing with folk astronomy. In a different guise these astro-meteorological associations of the Ka'ba also reappear in certain Sufi 88 On this symbolism see Price, pp. 76-78. 89 The diagrams illustrated in Plate 11 are found in MS texts. Consider, for example, Plate 10, which shows a Cairo Talcat madamTc 811,7, fols. 59v-60r, copied 1783-84. diagram relating the orientation of the Ka'ba (falsely They, and others in this valuable new source, are discussed in King 9, Part 3. 90 On Ibn al-Bannd' see the article by J. Vernet in DSB 86 See Chelhod, especially pp. 248-253. and the references there cited. This quotation from his lost 87 These remarks are recorded in a treatise by the fifteenth/ Kitab Dalddil al-qibla is contained in MS Cairo TR 132, sixteenth-century Egyptian polymath Jalal al-DIn al-Suyftit copied ca. 1850, p. 132, on which see Cairo Survey, nos. F23 recently studied by A. Heinen (see especially Heinen, pp. 157 and F62. and 158). Al-SuyiitT was quoting the Kitdb al-'Azama by the tenth century scholar AbO l-Shaykh. 9' On Ibn Hab-b see the article in E?2 by A. Huici Miranda. This quotation of his is recorded in Renaud, p. 58. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 123 Plate 11. A diagram in the shorter treatise on the determination of the qibla by nonscientific means by the twelfth-century legal scholar al-Dimyatl. Eight regions are shown about the Kacba, each one associated with a wind. The qiblas in each region are defined in terms of the cardinal directions and the directions of sunrise and sunset at the solstices, as well as in terms of the way in which one should stand with respect to the Pole Star. Underlying this scheme is the notion that all of the sides of the Kacba are solstitially aligned. See further Hawkins & King, pp. 104-105. (Reproduced from MS Damascus Zahirlya 5579, fol. 14r.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 124 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) hi i Plate 12. A diagram relating the qiblas of twelve areas of the world about the Kacba to astronomically defined directions, occurring in the published text of the cosmography of the early fifteenth-century Egyptian Ibn al-WardT. The diagram is extremely corrupt: for example, the twelve sectors need to be rotated two positions clockwise with respect to the Ka'ba. Such a diagram is not found in all manuscripts of this treatise; in some, different eight- and thirty-four-sector schemes are presented instead. (Taken from Ibn al- Wardt, p. 70.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 125 MAJ Plate 13. A diagram in al-Dimyat-i's longer treatise on the qibla showing the relative positions of various localities in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria with respect to the Ka'ba. (Reproduced from MS Oxford Bodleian Marsh 592, fol. 88v.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 126 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Plate 14. A diagram in al-DimyatT's longer treatise showing the way in which a p order to face the Ka'ba directly (cayn al-Kacba) and the way in which he might s within the quadrant of his field of vision in order to face the general direction Kacba). (Reproduced from MS Oxford Bodleian Marsh 592, fols. 23v-24r.) This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 127 that if one faces the section of the north-west wall of methods, referred to as isibat al-'ayn and isdbat al- the Ka'ba between the western corner and the water- jiha, or simply as 'ayn and jiha.95 The essence of the pipe then the star a Scorpionis rises directly in front first method is that one should stand in such a way of one. that, if one could see the Ka'ba, one would be looking On the other hand, the first Muslims in Iran, Iraq, along a side of the Ka'ba. The essence of the second and Transoxania faced the direction of winter sunset is that when one is standing in that direction, then the in order to face the north-east wall of the Ka'ba, and sector of the horizon which one can see, that is, when standing in front of that wall, one is indeed roughly a quadrant, serves as the qibla. The qibla facing the winter sunset. The first Muslims in Egypt directions prescribed for the first method are always and Andalusia thus assumed a symmetry in the orien- in terms of astronomical risings and settings, equated tation of the Ka'ba which in fact does not exist. Such with those that one would be facing if one were a symmetry is, however, explicitly described by the standing directly in front of the appropriate section of thirteenth century scholar, Ibn al-AjdabT of Tripoli the perimeter of the Ka'ba. However the 'ayn might (Libya)92 who, in his treatise on folk astronomy, pre- be determined, thefliha would be the entire quadrant sents a description of eight regions of the world about which was most appropriate. Thus in Egypt, as well as the Ka'ba, and writes of their qiblas as if the corners the Maghrib and Andalusia,96 the limits of the jiha of the Ka'ba were cardinally aligned and the sides were east and south, so that any qibla in the south- were all solstitially aligned.93 A cruder scheme based eastern quadrant would be legally acceptable according on the same underlying notion is actually illustrated to those who favored thefjiha over the 'ayn. These in the shorter treatise of al-DimyatT (see Plate 11). notions are clearly illustrated in Plates 13 and 14. This arrangement of the world in eight sectors about a To sum up, we have shown first that the various cardinally/solstitially-aligned Ka'ba is less common orientations of mosques in medieval Cairo were all in the medieval sources currently known to me than expressions of a desire to have the mosques facing the the arrangement with twelve sectors about a Ka'ba Ka'ba. Secondly, we have shown that the orientation with minor axis aligned towards the summer sunrise, of the Fatimid city of al-Qahira, determined by the as shown in Plate 12. Such schemes for what I call orientation of the Pharonic Red Sea canal, which in "the sacred geography of Islam" are attested in more turn was determined by topography, was fortuitously than thirty different medieval sources, and I have perpendicular to the astronomically-determined qiblat recently surveyed them elsewhere.94 al-sahdba, which deliberately faced the north-western As we have seen, different directions were used for wall of the Ka'ba. It was the orientation of the lost the qibla in Egypt between the seventh and fifteenth badahanjs of medieval Cairo as described in the medi- centuries. Al-MaqrfzT was upset by their divergence, eval astronomical sources which provided the clue to but the legal scholars were in general less concerned. these discoveries. The badahanjs, veritable status Several medieval legal treatises, as well as al-MaqrlzT symbols of medieval Cairo, were set up, as the poet in his discussion of the qiblas in Egypt, deal with the said, "turned away from the qibla," but not only "for determination of the qibla by two non-mathematical the love of air." pp. 92 On Ibn al-AjdabT see the article by Ch. Pellat in E?2 149-155. (under "Ibn al-AdjdabTi"). For his discussion of the sectors of 95 See, for example, the discussions in al-GhazdlT, section the world around the Ka'ba, see Ibn al-A jddb7, pp. 119-125, on the qibla, al-Qardf-, pp. 489-508, and al-MaqrTz7, II, and further King 8. pp. 256-264. Each of these is discussed in King 9. 93 See also Hawkins & King, Section 2. 94 See King 8 for texts, translations and analysis. Several 96 See King 2, pp. 370-387 for a discussion of this situation in Andalusia, as recorded by a twelfth-century astronomer. such schemes, mostly corrupt, were presented in Miller, This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 128 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) > t-> r - ;v.ihiL"J f ,) 1 e . ; ,Le 6 ;lj al 1; rJI JI Lip CJ J> AI e jp 1vS oY1 A~~~j ,> I .4 W *tu L.F )I t j 7d AJiail 11 J~~I YI ZSA) Ay l i d~~~~~ AJUIJ .N 44>1 4l T1 L+J 4.. J L; s> La -1 Iy J6 io^I1 (.. A - vV,2-.@ 64 y4. 4J~AD 4.4.1 1A,/ ?iL1 1?JI J2 Jk 4 e I, I S 1 I? U. IC. 19 p I I U L6 i 41 Z,, LWI ; ,j I j W UI JI U... gp L i.yZ,D1Xj l j Ir[ ]A La U 6tJlyI I:^~~~~~~t C iJI I A i:L I %LA.I I ..S IJLI -~z 4.s Jo J 1 I6 I Z) I1 A La s A Li p1 LS .+ " I aW i-.of If i d+ .6Y l tar Ls 4' 9 69 j (?). .-Po io L tr ,, ,o jp 4L ..1,6 L a... 1w1 laL. 6~ Z JA ; Hi Lo. WX I La I9 j LYLIc. I La Ij jp 1j < , WI LOU4.. .H j531 L'I ,1l ..L1 .T Ls AuId -u L+, 52 zA WH ...Ri 41 6L- Z)1 6 L ? LSLyl l tSZ~~oYY~~y~tLot- I YM Le 8:rtsi S X o1 I~~j , I ?,6 &L.1J, 6.. .Y . a ., U t, This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 129 .-4 L4S ,WI I~u a A l LA ;A ,;J 'j 1 16z ,, x: kiI ;2,OJ J LA A 3~LI (!) I 6 , - j.J Il A J5 eI; WIi l Z J1 c)yi J.#I ZA Loi UI ZA J I.Llo l li4- 1X> JA LA U?> s I il4 I1S 1 I )l1 4,)12 j ?y <? :W1 i. pP j J !vi ,, JA J L~ sA q2 uxj i l J J 5 'JId AAP-N 44 We __ I > lcw 4 1 ;;,,s~jp ,;oJ)9 , , 91 * a ~~~~~LJ1 @ : J "-4t C- j jj jj) go J.-"-? j I "l.- WIj A..-a .41 J.li AA) _. I a j ,A JP l.I U J1l -d :I 91 XJ- LI U L Is * LS a a Y.j 3tul zuwssa; J) Le (Y) 1 ,1,~6 2;S e ;j i; s a Yw ;S1~ ~ rL- I J >czl ,v Li Y 6 Ar C. U,-s ;c1. ZL ;J L. 1S) el. 1 I )o6l *o .G , r I6 ,r s u L so lj-t w6)U I j UaP Ja e~ J I5 11A ,1u L>jw u Ij I ~s . o I SLIP U) 1v; o4LI .. j IA u 3w 6- L; jJ I ~ y t2. H J e11 s s~~~ffi) >> SWO v J ( UL ~J-li jo I.1 U> tI 4 ? ,YI. AA1 JUaI ;1 ;+.- Z-I, I U 1 91 I ) S- 1 1,U1~~~~~~j UT~ I jrJ1;yl,8,S This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Y 6z 130 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) JJ Wf ; J- - 4,Al~~U Z6 ,1 ;? ~~~~J L? I-- Z) T W I Xjow S A!-4-o L- Jot w J-o Ls L'? I JUyl u>1S ( <bI s4 J I jl A&La I I w Z U.; EL a u9i~j La -L- Ia -L ..Jiw>1 > I --. 16JAI Z;U T$ j Li I Jt Lo. U r ;jwo W >ill 1S1 Z)U o ZAWl; U. LO Is X jl j sd >1 1; U; ;. j w 1 9J S 1 2al-LIC uk1W JI11 J 16 U Zw-+)1 Jl6LI 1( e51 J3Y 1 J. I 1 e.1 J9 L t A > JI WI .~. . I -t; 'JiY Li -J; I LsA L: I~~ Jv S<1 Jol. JA J 6 jU J> 91 lJcL.0 JU ... ..............d2 ...~~~~~L4 .,4 JI ~ J1- U- i I , jr jy_ iy ol :, .v, oWI A-AL a,)1I; a, JU BIBLIOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ABBREVIATIONS Abu-Lughod: J. L. Abu-Lughod, Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious, Princeton, 1971. AIW: G. Michell, ed., Architecture of the Islamic World: Its History and Social Meaning, New York, 1978. Alf Layla wa-Layla: W. H. Macnaghten, ed., The A/if Laila or Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, 4 vols., Calcutta and London, 1839. Alpin: Prosper Alpin, La MWdecine des Egyptiens, trans. by R. de Fenoyl, Cairo, 1980, vol. 1. Badawy 1: A. Badawy, "Architectural Provision Against Heat in the Orient," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 17 (1958), pp. 122-128. Badawy 2: _, A History of Egyptian Architecture, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1968. Al-Baghdadd: K. H. et al., The Eastern Key: Kitdb alIfadah wa 1- I'tibdr of 'A bd al- Lafif al- BaghdaNd, London, 1965. Bahadori: M. N. Bahadori, "Passive Cooling Systems in Iranian Architecture," Scientific American, 238:2 (February 1978), pp. 144-154. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 131 Barthold: W. Barthold, "Die Orientierung der ersten muhammedanischen Moscheen," Der Islam, 18 (1929), pp. 245- El: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Ist ed., 4 vols. Leiden, 19131934. El2: Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., 4 vols. to date, 250. Beazley: E. Beazley, "Some Vernacular Buildings of the Iranian Plateau," Iran, 15 (1977), pp. 89-102. Becker: C. Becker, Article "Cairo" in El1. Bergne: P. Bergne, "Cairo: can the medieval city be saved?," The Architectural Review, 114, no. 978, August 1978. Al-BrrCInr R. R. Wright, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology by . .. al-Brini, photooffset ed. and trans., London, 1934. Blachere et al.: R. Blachdre, M. Chouemi, C1. Denizeau, Dictionnaire Arabe-Fran ais-Anglais, Paris, 1967. Bosworth: C. E. Bosworth, Article "BBadgr'r" in E12, Supplement 1. Leiden, 1960 to present. Ettinghausen: R. Ettinghausen, "The Man-made Setting," in B. Lewis, ed., Islam and the Arab World, New York, 1976, pp. 57-116. Fathy 1: Hassan Fathy, Gourna: A Tale of Two Villages, Cairo, 1969. Fathy 2: , "The Qa'a of the Cairene Arab House ...," Colloque International sur l'Histoire du Caire, Cairo, 1969, pp. 135-152. Frith: F. Frith, Egypt, Sinai, and Jerusalem, London, 1860. Al-Ghazali: Al-Ghazl-I, IhyWd' 'culm al-din, Cairo, 1967. Guest: A. R. Guest, "The Foundation of Fustat and the Bourgeois: J.-L. Bourgeois, "Welcoming the Wind," Natu- ral History, vol. 89, no. 11 (Nov. 1980). Butler: A. J. Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt .. ., 2nd ed., Oxford, reprinted 1978. Caetani: L. Caetani, Annali dell'Islam, 10 vols., Rome, Khittahs of That Town," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January 1907, pp. 49-83. Haswell: C. J. R. Haswell, "Cairo, Origin and Development: Some Notes on the Influence of the River Nile and its Changes," Bulletin de la Soci&et Royale de Geographie d'Egypte, 11: 3&4 (December 1922), pp. 17 1-176. 1905-1926. Cairo Catalogue & Survey: D. A. King, A Catalogue of the Hawkins: G. S. Hawkins, "Astronomical Alinements in Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library Britain, Egypt and Peru," in F. R. Hodson, ed., The Place (in Arabic), 2 vols., Cairo: General Egyptian Book Orga- of Astronomy in the Ancient World, London, 1974, nization, 1981-84; and A Survey of the Scientific Manu- pp. 157-167. scripts in the Egyptian National Library (in English), to be Hawkins & King: G. S. Hawkins and D. A. King, "On the published by the American Research Center in Egypt with Orientation of the Ka'ba," Journal for the History of Undena Press. Astronomy, 13 (1982), pp. 102-109. Casanova: P. Casanova, Essai de Reconstruction topo- Heinen: A. Heinen, Islamic Cosmology: A Study of as- graphique de la vile d'al-Foustat ou Misr, 2 vols., Cairo, Suyf4t's al-Hay 'a al-sanlya ft al-hay'a as-sunnTya, Beirut 1913 and 1919. (in commission for Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden), Chelhod: J. Chelhod, "A Contribution to the Problem of 1982. the Pre-eminence of the Right, Based upon Arabic Evi- Ibn 'Abd al-Hakam: C. C. Torrey, ed., The History of the dence," in R. Needham, ed., Right & Left, Chicago and Conquest of Egypt, North Africa and Spain known as the Futih Misr of Ibn CAbd al-Hakam, New Haven, 1922. London, pp. 239-262. Coles & Jackson: A. Coles and P. Jackson, "A Wind Tower House in Dubai," aarp ( = art and architecture research papers) (June 1975), pp. 1-28. Creswell 1: K. A. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture, Vol. 1: Umayyads, 2nd ed. in 2 pts., Oxford, 1969, and Vol. II: Oxford, 1940. by Izzat Hassan, Damascus, 1964. Ibn Habrb: Al-Hasan ibn 'Umar ibn Hablb, Tadhkirat al- nabTh ft ayydm al-Mansuir wa-banTh, ed. Muhammad A. Amin, Cairo, 1976. Ibn TaghrTbirdi: Jamal al-Din Abu I-Mahasin ... ibn Creswell 2: , Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols., Oxford, 1952 and 1959. Description de lEgypte: Description de lEgypte, Paris, 1809-1826. Taghribirdi, Al-Nujium al-zdhira ft mulak Misr wa-lQdhira, 12 vols., Cairo, n.d. Ibn al- WardT: Ibn al-Wardi, Kharldat al- 'ajd'ib wa-farrdat al-ghard'ib, Cairo, 1863 ed. Dozy 1: R. Dozy, Supplement aux Dictionnaires Arabes, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Leiden and Paris, 1927. Dozy 2: , Dictionnaire detailhe des noms des vetements chez les arabes, Amsterdam, 1845; reprinted Beirut, n.d. Ibrahim: Abdel-Latif Ibrahim, Wathlqat al-A mr ... Qardquid al-HasanT, Cairo, 1959. Irani: R. A. K. Irani, "Arabic Numerical Forms," Centaurus, 4 (1955), pp. 1-12. Jomier: J. Jomier, Article "Fustat" in El2, 11, pp. 957-959. DSB: Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 15 vols., New York, 1970-78. Ibn al-Ajddbi: Ibn al-AjdabT, al-Azmina wa-l-anwd', ed. Kennedy: E. S. Kennedy, A Commentary upon Bf-ranT's Kitdb Tahdi-d (Nihdydt) al-A mdkin, Beirut, 1973. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 132 Journal of the American Oriental Society 104.1 (1984) Kessler 1: C. Kessler, "Mecca-oriented Architecture and Urban Growth of Cairo," Atti del terzo Congresso di Studi Arabi e Islamici (Ravello, 1966), Naples, 1967, Egyptians, repr. of the 1895 edition, The Hague and London, 1978. Lezine: A. Lezine, "La Protection contre la chaleur dans l'architecture musulmane d'Egypte," Bulletin dEtudes Orien- p. 425. Kessler 2: , "Funerary Architecture within the City," Colloque International sur iHistoire du Caire, Cairo, tales (Damas), 24 (1971), pp. 122-128. Lorch: R. Lorch, "Al-KhazinT's 'Sphere That Rotates by Itself'," Journal for the History of Arabic Science, 4 1969, pp. 257-267. Kessler 3: , "Mecca-oriented Architecture within the City: Reflections on a Singular Building Practice of Medieval Cairo," to appear in a memorial volume for Prof. M. Nuwayhi, American University in Cairo, Center for (1980), pp. 287-329. Lughdt-name: Dehkhoda, Lughdt-ndme, Tehran, 1946 onwards. Al-Maqrrzr 1: Al-MaqrTA7., Kitdb al-Khitat al-Maqrlzlya, 2 vols., Cairo, 1853. Also available in 4 vols. (1 896-98), Arabic Studies. King 1: D. A. King, "Ibn Ydnus' Very Useful Tables for Reckoning Time by the Sun," Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 10 (1973), pp. 342-394. King 2: _, "Some Medieval Values of the Qibla at 3 vols. (1959), and 2 vols. (reprint of 1853 ed., 1970). Al-MaqrTzT 2: _, Kitdb al-Suluik li-ma'rifat duwal almuluik, 4 vols., Cairo, 1970-73. Al-Mas'adr- Al-Mas'idi, Al-TanbTh wa-l-ishraf ed. A. al- Cordova," an appendix to "Three Sundials from Islamic SawT; reprinted Baghdad, 1938. Translated by B. Carra de Andalusia," Journal for the History of Arabic Science, 2 Vaux as Mafoudi: Le Livre de l'avertissement et de la revision, Paris, 1896. (1978), pp. 370-387. King 3: __, "al-BazdawT on the Qibla in Early Islamic Transoxania," Journalfor the History of Arabic Science (in press). Mayer: L. A. Mayer, The Building of Qaytbay as described in his Endowment Deed, London, 1938. Meinecke: M. Meinecke, ed., "Islamic Cairo: Architectural King 4: __, Article "Kibla (astronomical aspects)" in Conservation and Urban Development of the Historic Center," aarp ( art and archaeology research papers), El2, V, pp. 83-88. King 5: , "Astronomical Alignments in Medieval Islamic Religious Architecture," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 385 (1982), pp. 303-312. King 6: __, "The Astronomy of the Mamluks," to appear in ISIS, 74 (1983), pp. 531-555. King 7: , Spherical Astronomy in Medieval Islam: the Hdkimf ZA of Ibn Yanus, to be published by the State University of New York Press. King 8: , "The Sacred Geography of Islam," to appear (June 1980). Meinecke-Berg: M. Meinecke-Berg, "Eine Stadtansicht des mamlukischen Kairo aus dem 16. Jahrhundert," Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, Band 32 (1976), pp. 113-132 and pls. 33-39. Miller: K. Miller, Mappae Arabicae; Arabische Welt- und Landerkarten, V. Band: Weltkarten, Stuttgart, 1931. Murtadd: G. Wiet, ed., L'Egypte de Murtadifils du Gaphiphe, Paris, 1953. Ndsir-7 Khusraw: C. Schefer, ed. and trans., Sefer Nameh: in Islamic Art. King 9: , The World about the Ka'ba: A Study of the Sacred Direction in Islam (in preparation), to be published by Islamic Art Publications, S. p. A. (Summaries are to Relation du Voyage de Nassiri Khosrau, Paris, 1881. Nasr: S. H. Nasr, Islamic Science: an Illustrated Study, London, 1976. appear in Proceedings of the Second International Qur'an Patricolo: A. Patricolo, "Service de conservation des monu- Conference, New Delhi, 1982 and Interdisciplinary Science ments: exposee des travaux executes, avec 67 notices his- Reviews, 1984.) toriques," (Bulletin du) Comite de Conservation des Krupp: E. C. Krupp, "Astronomers, Pyramids, and Priests," in E. C. Krupp, ed., In Search of Ancient Astronomies, New York, etc., 1979 ed. LA: Lexikon der Agyptologie, 4 vols. to date, Wiesbaden, 1972 to present. Monuments de lArt Arabe, XXXII, Cairo, 1915-19 (1922). Pauty: E. Pauty, "Les palais et les maisons d'epoque musulmane au Caire," Cairo, 1932 (MAmoires publies par les membres de lInstitut Franfais d'Archeologie Orientale du Lamei: S. Lamei Mustafa, Madrasa, Hanqah und Mausoleum des Sultans Barqaq in Kairo, Abhandlungen des Archdologischen Instituts Kairo, Islamische Reihe (in press). Caire, LXII). Petherbridge: G. T. Petherbridge, "Vernacular Architecture: The House and Society," in AIW, pp. 193-208. Price: D. J. de Solla Price, Science Since Babylon, New Lane 1: E. W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 pts., London, 1863; reprinted Beirut, 1968. Lane 2: , Manners and Customs of the Modern Haven and London, 1976 ed. Prisse d'Avennes: Prisse d'Avennes, L'Art arabe d'apres les monuments du Kaire, Paris, 1877. This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms KING: Architecture and Astronomy 133 al-Qalqashandi: al-Qalqashandi, Subh al-acshd fi sindcat al-insha', 13 vols., Cairo, 1963. al-Qardfi: Shihab al-Din Abui 'l-cAbbas Ahmad ibn Idris al-Qarafi, al-Dhakhlra, vol. I, Cairo, 1961. Rainer: R. Rainer, Traditional Building in Iran, Graz, 1977. Renaud: H. P. J. Renaud, "Astronomie et Astrologie Marocaines," Hesperis, 29 (1942), pp. 41-63. Rogers: J. M. Rogers, Article "al-Kahira" in El2, IV, same journal. Sezgin: F. Sezgin, Geschichte des arabisehen Schrifttums, 8 vols. to date, Leiden, 1967 to present. Siroux: M. Siroux, "Caravanserails d'Iran et petites con- structions routieres," Cairo, 1949 (Memoires publies par les membres de l'institut Franfais d'Archeologie Orientale du Caire, LXXXI.) Suter: H. Suter, "Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werkp," Abhandlungen zur Geschichte pp. 424-441. Rosenthal: F. Rosenthal, "Poetry and Architecture: the der mathematisehen Wissenschaften, 10 (1900). Bddhanj," Journal of Arabic Literature, 8 (1978),Tolmacheva: pp. I-19. M. Tolmacheva, "An Historical Analysis of SA TM!: D. A. King, Studies in Astronomical Timekeeping in Medieval Islam, to appear. Sayyad: N. al-Sayyad, Streets of Islamic Cairo: a Configuration of Urban Themes and Patterns, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Studies in Islamic Archi- the Arab System of Nautical Orientation," to appear in the Bulletin of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Wensinck: A. J. Wensinck, Article "Kibla (ritual and legal aspects)" in El, and El2, V, pp. 82-83. Wright: W. Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1967 reprint. tecture, no. 2, 1981. Scanlon: G. T. Scanlon, "Preliminary Report: Excavations at Fustat," Journal of the American Research Center in Al-ZarkashP Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-ZarkashT, I'lam al-sajid bi-ahkdm al-masajid, Cairo, 1384 A.H. Egypt, 4 (1965), pp. 7-30, continued in later issues of the This content downloaded from 194.95.59.195 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 11:59:21 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms