Eckart, Andreas (2021). USE OF THE GALAXY AS A TOOL FOR SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORIENTATION DURING THE EARLY ISLAMIC PERIOD AND UP TO THE 15TH CENTURY. Arab. Sci. Philos., 31 (1). S. 1 - 45. NEW YORK: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS. ISSN 1474-0524

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Abstract

We study to what extent the Milky Way was used as an orientation tool at the beginning of the Islamic period covering the 8th to the 15th century, with a focus on the first half of that era. We compare the texts of three authors from three different periods and give detailed comments on their astronomical and traditional content. The text of al-Marzuqi summarises the information on the Milky Way put forward by the astronomer and geographer MODIFIER LETTER RIGHT HALF RINGAbu Hanifa al-Dinawari. The text makes it clear that in some areas the Milky Way could be used as a geographical guide to determine the approximate direction toward a region on Earth or the direction of prayer. In the 15th century, the famous navigator Ahmad b. Ma id describes the Milky Way in his nautical instructions. He frequently demonstrates that the Milky Way serves as a guidance aid to find constellations and stars that are useful for precise navigation on land and at sea. On the other hand, Ibn Qutayba quotes in his description of the Milky Way a saying from the famous Bedouin poet Du al-Rumma, which is also mentioned by al-Marzuqi. In this saying the Milky Way is used to indicate the hot summer times in which travelling the desert was particularly difficult. Hence, the Milky Way was useful for orientation in space and time and was used for agricultural and navigational purposes.

Item Type: Journal Article
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCIDORCID Put Code
Eckart, AndreasUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-570376
DOI: 10.1017/S0957423920000077
Journal or Publication Title: Arab. Sci. Philos.
Volume: 31
Number: 1
Page Range: S. 1 - 45
Date: 2021
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
Place of Publication: NEW YORK
ISSN: 1474-0524
Language: English
Faculty: Unspecified
Divisions: Unspecified
Subjects: no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:
KeywordsLanguage
History & Philosophy Of Science; PhilosophyMultiple languages
URI: http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/57037

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