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An elegant astrolabe mater and plates attributable to the prolific Hâjjî 'Alî, Isfahan, dated A.H. [120]3 / A.D. 1788-9
Description
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Close to 20 astrolabes, all virtually identical in appearance, are known from the hand of Hâjjî 'Alî, who seems to be identical with 'Alî ibn Sâdiq Qummî. They date from the period around 1780-1800, although he was surely active for more than twenty years. All are beautifully worked, and we can gain an insight into how prolific he must have been since three of his pieces have batch numbers on the back: "13", "15" and "20". It is by no means clear why he numbered only 20 at least of his productions, and others not at all. This piece has the batch-number "4" (written as 'amal râbi', "fourth production", at the bottom of the back). A signature 'amal Hâjjî 'Alî 1203 seems to have been gouged out of the cartouche below the shadow squares. The initial 'ayn and the final yâ' as well as a 3 are all that is still discernible. A cartouche with the words 'am(al) ('Abd al-A)imma has been added on the lower rim but is very worn. No doubt this was added in a milieu in which the astrolabes of 'Abd al-Aimma were more valuable than those of Hâjjî 'Alî. The new inscription is not in the style of 'Abd al-Aimma (who used sana'ahu rather than 'amal). There is no question that this is a work by Hâjjî 'Alî.
The throne is elegantly decorated à jour. Flowers decorate the scales and available space all over the front and back of the mater. The rete is missing; the modern replacement, not shown here, is unworthy of Hâjjî 'Alî's astrolabe. Likewise the alidade is not original. The mater is engraved with a gazetteer for 34 localities (bilâd), with their longitude (tûl), latitude ('ard) and local direction of Mecca called qibla (inhirâf). This information is a small subset of a large corpus of geographical data for some 250 localities that was in circulation amongst the astronomers in Iran from the 15th century onwards. There were two versions, one in which the qibla directions are very accurately computed, and another, the one used here, in which the qiblas do not always correspond to the geographical data. The information presented here contains numerous additional errors (it may be compared with the more sensible data on the splendid astrolabe of Shah Husayn - see Gunther, Astrolabes, introduction, pp. 24-26, and King, World-Maps, passim):
Locality Long. Lat. Qibla
Outer ring:
1 Mecca 77;10 21;40 -
2 Medina 75;20 22; 0 27;10
3 Baghdad 82; 0 33;25 12;15
4 Basra 84; 0 30; 0 37;39
5 Shiraz 88; 0 29;36 13;18
6 Shushtar 84;30 31;30 35;24
7 Jurbadaqan 84;30 34;15 38; 0
8 Isfahan 86;40 32;25 40;29
9 Kashan 86; 0 34; 0 34;31
10 Qum 85; 0 34;45 31;54
11 Rayy 86;20 35; 0 36;26
12 Qazwin 85; 0 36; 0 27;34
13 Sawa 85; 0 35; 0 39;36
14 Hamadan 83; 0 35;10 22;36
15 Simnan 88; 0 36; 0 36;17
16 Damghan 88;35 36;20 38;15
17 Bistam 89;30 36;10 39;33
18 Shirwan 89;30 36;10 39;13
19 Nishapur 92;30 36;21 46;25
20 Meshed 92;30 37; 0 45; 6
21 Herat 94;20 34;30 54; 8
22 Marw 90; 0 37;40 52;30
23 Qandahar 107;40 33; 0 75; 5
Inner ring:
24 Tabriz 82; 0 38; 0 15;40
25 Ardabil 87;30 38; 0 17;13
26 Erivan 89;15 38;30 16;20
27 Shirwan 84;30 40;50 20; 9
28 Maragha 82; 0 37;20 16;17
29 Kanja 83; 0 41;30 15;49
30 Bardaa 83; 0 40;30 36;27
31 Lahijan 84; 0 36;10 29;--
32 Astarabad 89;35 36;50 38;48
33 Amul 87;20 36;15 34; 0
34 Sari 88; 0 37; 0 32;14
There are four plates with markings for specific latitudes on seven sides. These include altitude circles for each 3° and azimuth circles for each 10° above the horizon, as well as seasonal hours and hours since sunset. The latitudes served, as well as the associated maximum lengths of daylight in hours and minutes, are: 29°: 13h52m / 30°: 13 56 / 32°: 14 7 / 34°: 14 16 / 36°: 14 28 / 37°: 14 33* (written erroneously as 38) / 38°: 14 39.
The value of the obliquity of the ecliptic underlying the lengths of maximum daylight is 23°30', as derived by the astronomer-prince Ulugh Beg in Samarqand in the early 15th century; the values are accurate except that the third should be 14h6m and the fifth 14h27m.
There is also a plate of horizons for each 3° from 15° to 66°, arranged in four quadrants, thus: 15 27 39 51 63 / 18 30 42 54 66 / 21 33 45 57 / 24 36 48 60.
On the rim of the back there are two altitude scales above the horizontal diameter and shadow scales for bases 7 and 12 (zill aqdâm and zill asâbi') below it. In the upper left there is a quadrant for trigonometric calculations, the unit radius being divided into 60 parts, as was standard in medieval trigonometry. In the upper right there is a solar quadrant in which the solar longitude is to be fed in as argument. The upper family of curves displays the solar meridian altitude for solar longitudes on the vertical scale (the inscription reads dawâ'ir ansâf al-nahâr fi l-'ard al-marqûm 'alâ atrâfihâ, "the meridian circles for the latitude marked on the end (of the curve)"), for seven latitudes 28°, 30°, ... , 38°, 40°. The lower family displays the altitude of the sun when it is the azimuth of the qibla for various cities for solar longitudes on the horizontal scale (the inscription reads: khutût al-sumût li-qiblat al-bilâd al-marqûma 'alâ atrâfihâ bi-l-irtifâ' al-gharbî, "the curves for the azimuths of the qibla of the cities marked at the ends, by the altitude (of the sun) in the west"). The cities served by the latter are identified as: Shiraz, Baghdad, Isfahan and Tus (Meshed). The associated inscriptions describe the way the markings are to be used. The solar longitude could also have been inserted by using a scale on the alidade (now missing). The double shadow square below the horizontal diameter serves bases 7 and 12 as on the outer scales (see above). Inside is engraved astrological information: "the natures of the triplicities and their lords by day and by night" (al-tabâ'i' [sic: read taba'i'] al-muthallathât bi-arbâbihâ bi-l-nahâr wa-arbâbihâ bi-l-layl). For each trio of signs forming a triplicity, this information is given, as well as the companion (Hartner, p. 306). The semi-circular scales display the zodiacal signs (burûj) and associated lunar mansions (manâzil) and the planets (kawâkib) ruling the astrological limits (hudûd) (Hartner, pp. 304-306). The cartouche at the bottom of the back gives only the batch number: 'amal râbi', "fourth production".
All of the markings are standard on Persian astrolabes of the time. The quality of technical execution is excellent throughout, and even the geographical gazetteer looks professional - the numerous errors in it doubtless passed unnoticed at the time it was made.
We are grateful to Professor David King for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.
For a full list of all instruments signed with one or other of the two names, 'Ali ibn Sadiq Qummi and Hâjjî 'Alî, see the online version of this catalogue.
The following abbreviations are used for signatures: AS - 'Ali ibn Sadiq, ASQ - 'Ali ibn Sadiq Qummi and HASQ - Hajji 'Ali ibn Sadiq Qummi (Mayer, pp. 43-44), and HA - Hajji 'Ali (Mayer, p. 39). Roman numerals refer to Mayer's listings. Numbers preceded by # are those of the International Instrument Checklist initiated by D. Price.
Astrolabes signed by 'Ali ibn Sadiq Qummi
A1 ASQ I #1135 Undated (?), once in the Mercator collection. See ASQ IV
A2 ASQ II #1175 No information available; in the 1950s in the collection of O. V. Watney, Oxfordshire.
A3 ASQ III #1187 Whipple Museum of History of Science, Cambridge.
A4 ASQ IV # - No information available, auctioned in London in 1954 (see Mayer), present location unknown.
A5 ASQ V #1176 No information available - formerly in the Harari collection, Cairo.
A6 HASQ VI #3692 No information available - formerly in the Harari collection, Cairo.
A7 AS - #1084=#2506 Undated, diam. 12.5 cm, no other information available - Boerhaave Museum, Leiden.
Astrolabes signed by Hajji 'Ali
B1 HA I #27 Dated 1203 H (1788/89) - Deutsches Museum, Munich.
B2 HA II #1109 Dated 1203 H (1788/89) - Royal Academy of Science, Stockholm.
B3 HA III #1163 Dated 1205 H (1790/91) - present location unknown, formerly in the collection of H. Swainson Cowper, later with Alain Brieux, Paris.
B4 HA - #3704 Dated 1206 H (1791/92) - Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, D.C.
B5 HA IV #1164 Dated 1207 H (1792/93) - Benaki Museum, Athens.
B6 HA V #1038 Dated 1208 H (1793/94), numbered 13 - National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
B7 HA VI #42 Undated, numbered 15, with replacement rete and some plates - National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.
B8 HA VII #41=#3509 Undated - Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, later Linton Collection.
B9 HA - #3678 Undated, numbered 20 - Leonard Linton Collection
B10 HA - #3614 Undated - Heyden Planetarium, New York City.
B11 HA - #3676 Undated - Raymond Meyer Collection, Paris.
B12 signature erased Dated [120]3 H (1788/89), numbered 4 - this auction.