Volkstumliche Astronomie im islamischen Mittelalter: Zur Bestimmung der Gebetszeiten und der Qibla bei al-Asbahi, Ibn Rahiq and al-Farisi.

• Author: Van Dalen, Benno
• Position: Book review

Volkstumliche Astronomie im islamischen Mittelalter: Zur Bestimmung der Gebetszeiten und der Qibla bei al-Asbahl, Ibn Rahiq and al-Farisi. By PETRA G. SCHMIDL. 2 vols. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, vol. 68. Leiden: BRLL 2007. Vol. 1: Pp. xxii + 362; Vol. 2: Pp. iv + 504.

[euro] 325, $482.

Our knowledge of the astronomical traditions in the Islamic world "has enormously increased since approximately 1950, with studies and publications of important sources of mathematical astronomy being produced by Edward S. Kennedy (1912-2009) and a number of scholars strongly influenced by him, especially David A. King, George A. Saliba, and Julio Samso and his colleagues of the Arabic department of Barcelona University. David King has not only outlined the different characteristics of the mathematical-astronomical traditions in the various parts of the Islamic realm, such as Yemen, the Maghrib, and during the Mamluk sultanate, but he was also the first to pay closer attention to the Islamic tradition of folk astronomy, which depends on simple arithmetical methods and rules of thumb rather than on accurate and systematic observations, computations, and tables. The literature on folk astronomy includes a wide range of specialized sources, such as anwa' books, almanacs, prayer time books, and qibla books, but folk-astronomical material can also be found in encyclopedias and lexica and, due to the relevance of astronomy for religious purposes, in treatises on Islamic law. In addition to the determination of the times of prayer, the direction of Mecca, and the first sighting of the lunar crescent, topics discussed in such works include the lunar mansions and heliacal risings and acronychal settings of stars in relation to the seasons.

Important sources on folk astronomy were published by H. P. J. Renaud (the Book on Anwa' by Ibn al Banna', published in 1948), Charles Pellat (the anwa' book by Ibn Qutayba, 1956, and a new edition of the Calendar of Cordoba. 1961), and, more recently, by Miquel Forcada (the ctnwa' books by Ibn 'Asim and Ahmad ibn Faris) and Daniel M. Varisco (an almanac of the Yemeni sultan al-Ashraf and a facsimile of the anthology of one of his successors, al-Afdal). In two important articles, (1) David King provided overviews of a range of methods used in folk astronomy to determine the qibla and the times of the five daily prayers. Further aspects of folk astronomy were treated by Varisco in various articles brought together in his Medieval Folk Astronomy and Agriculture in Arabia and the Yemen (Aldershot...