A PERSIAN QIBLA FINDER MADE FOR THE PILGRIMAGE ROAD TO MECCA, LATE 19TH CENTURY A PERSIAN QIBLA FINDER MADE FOR THE PILGRIMAGE ROAD TO MECCA, LATE 19TH CENTURY A PERSIAN QIBLA FINDER MADE FOR THE PILGRIMAGE ROAD TO MECCA, LATE 19TH CENTURY

A PERSIAN QIBLA FINDER MADE FOR THE PILGRIMAGE ROAD TO MECCA, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Reference: ART4001346

The instrument is a square brass plate (8.1 by 8.1 cm.) mounted on another square larger wooden plate (8.4 by 8.4 cm). On the brass plate several concentric circles are engraved and two diagonal lines starting from the corners. The middle of the plate is perforated and represents Mecca.

The circle on the instruments features four graduated degree scales running from 0 to 90 degrees in 5 degree increments, where a second smaller circle band shows 1 degree increments. The 0 points of all four quadrants start at both the north and south points and end at 90 at the east and west points. The increments in 10 degrees [ 10, 20, 30..] are written in Arabic numerals and the intermediate 5 degree positions all feature a circle.

Between the south point and the center there is hole featuring a magnetic compass. The four corners of the square represent the four cardinal points being North, South, East, West.

All four corners of the instrument bear an inscription with information about the instrument. The corner aligned with south (junub) bears the inscription “fi tariq al-hajj”, which translates as “for the pilgrimage road”.
The west corner (maghrib) bears the inscription “be sefarish Haji ‘Abd ‘Allah”, which translates as “By order of Pilgrim ‘Abd ‘Allah” The north corner bears the inscription “sana١٣١١ “ , thus the instrument is dated 1311 AH ( 1892/)1893 The east corner bears the inscription “ ‘Amal Isma’il” or “The work of Isma’il” The instrument also features lines with the Qibla directions from various localities including Hijaz, Bayt al-Makdis, ‘Iraq ‘Arab, etc.