World-maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca: Examples of Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science (Islamic Philosophy, Theology & Science: Texts & Studies)

Presents an overview of the ways in which Muslims over the centuries have determined the sacred direction towards Mecca (qibla) and then describes, in detail, two 17th-century brass Iranian maps discovered in 1989 and 1995. The author shows that the geographical data derives from a 15th-century Central Asian source and that the mathematics underlying the grid was developed in 9th-century Baghdad.