SCIENCE, TOOLS AND MAGIC: Part One: Body and Spirit, Mapping the Universe. Part Two: Mundane Worlds (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, VOL XII): Pt. 1 & 2

446 Pages·1997·93.47 MB·English

by  Tim Stanley Francis Maddison, Emilie Savage-Smith, Ralph H. Pinder-Wilson

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Editorial Board
Dr Nasser D. Khalili
Professor J. M. Rogers
B.W. Robinson
Robert Skelton
Ralph Finder-Wilson
Dr Julian Raby
Tim Stanley
Nahla Nassar
THE NASSER
D. KHALILI
COLLECTION OF
ISLAMIC ART
VOLUME XII
Part One
General Editor Julian Raby
I HI'
AS'*
i-'
The Nour Foundation
in association with
Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press

SCIENCE,
TOOLS & MAGIC
Part One. Body and Spirit, Mapping the Universe
by Francis Maddison
and Emilie Savage-Smith
Published in the United Kingdom
by The Nour Foundation
in association with Azimuth Editions
and Oxford University Press
The Nour Foundation is part of The Khalili Family Trust
The Nour Foundation
Nour House, 6 Hill Street, London wix /fu, England
Azimuth Editions
33 Ladbroke Grove, London wi 13ay, England ’C. 1*^ ,«
Edited by Julian Raby and Alison Effeny
Design by Anikst Associates
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Published in the United States
Yll
by The Nour Foundation
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and Oxford University Press Inc., New York pi - <
Copyright © The Nour Foundation 1997
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be 14214.2 2
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
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as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988,
or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with
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Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms and in other
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Maddison, Francis
Sc
Science, tools magic. - (The Nasser D. Khalili Collection
of Islamic Art; v.12)
I. Art, Islamic
I. Title II. Savage-Smith, Emilie iii. Nour Foundation iv. Nasser D.
Khalili Collection of Islamic Art v. Body and spirit vi. Mundane worlds
704. 2971
ISBN 0-19-727610-5
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
(data applied for)
■ISBN 0-19-727610-5
Photography by Christopher Phillips
Typeset by Azimuth Editions
Printed on acid-free paper by PJ Reproductions, London
Contents
PART ONE 8 FOREWORD
lO INTRODUCTION
BODY AND SPIRIT
14 The depiction of human anatomy in the Islamic world cat. 1-4
25 Medicine in medieval Islam cat.^-ii
42 A medical, pharmaceutical or perfumery utensil cat. 12
48 Glass alchemical equipment cat. 13-19
59 Magic and Islam cat.20-23
72 Magic-medicinal bowls cat.24-3 8
loi Magic-medicinal bowls in China cat.39-42
106 Talismanic charts cat.43-48
117 Talismanic shirts cat.49-30
124 Talismanic mirrors and plaques cat.3i-3y
132 Amulets and related talismanic objects cat.38-104
148 Divination cat.103-111
160 Astrologer’s globes and a standard cat.i 12-114
MAPPING THE UNIVERSE
168 Islamic celestial globes and related instruments
cat.113-118, 123, 134, 138, 142-143, 131, 161
186 Planispheric astrolabes
206 The earliest astrolabes cat.i 19-122, 124-126
219 Indian (Mughal) astrolabes cat.i2y-i33, 133-137
242 Two globes by Balhumal cat.i40-141
248 Iranian astrolabes cat.144-130
160 Andalusi and Maghribi astrolabes cat. 132-134
166 Quadrants cat.139, 133-160
lyi Finding the direction of Mecca cat.i62-16y
lyy The daHrat al-mu'addil cat.168-169
281 Three ruznames cat. iyo-iy2
282 The Kitdh-i Bahriye of Piri Reis cat.iy3
Foreword
The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art documents the artistic achievements of
the Islamic world, hut the items it contains also serve to illustrate the high level attained
by Muslim society in other spheres of culture. Science, Tools & Magic brings together
objects that relate to several aspects of that wider culture. One such aspect is scientific
endeavour in fields as diverse as medicine and astronomy. The second is the techniques
employed in a variety of economic activities, from beekeeping to leatherworking. The
third is the invocation of supernatural forces on behalf of the individual believer,
through astrology, making talismans, casting lots and other magical crafts.
The links between these three subjects are manifold. Talismanic designs were
used, for example, to protect beehives, as in the case of cat. 204 and 205, while in cat. 13 5,
a marble template for the mater of an astrolabe, the Collection possesses a tool that was
used in the production of scientific instruments. Connections also exist at a deeper
level, for the conception of knowledge and craft current in the pre-modern Islamic
world was not so neatly divided into categories as is the practice today. Thus a celestial
globe could be employed to tell the time, a ‘scientific’ use, and to cast a horoscope, an
activity that is no longer counted as part of science. The single most important factor
binding these elements together was a belief in Islam, but this factor has often been
underestimated by the modern world, especially in relation to Islamic science.
It is generally appreciated that medieval Arab civilization preserved and
enhanced the astronomical knowledge current in the Mediterranean world in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods, and that the transmission of this knowledge to
Christian Europe marked an important stage in the rebirth of European scientific
culture. But however useful Arab astronomy may have been to the development of
Europe, it was of far greater importance to the functioning of Islamic society, whose
preoccupations it reflected. For the knowledge in question was fostered by the Arabs
and by other Muslims for reasons of their own, some of which were intimately
connected to their religious beliefs. A select few were concerned with philosophical
enquiry; a larger number had recourse to astrology; but every Muslim needed to know
in which direction Mecca lay, and the precise times of the five daily prayers, data that
could be obtained by observing the heavens. Indeed, the well-developed match between
Islamic astronomy and the everyday concerns of pious Muslims explains why this form
of the science continued to flourish in lands with a Muslim population long after
European scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo and Newton had led European
astronomy on to a different plane of enquiry.
Emilie Savage-Smith and Francis Maddison have, I believe, made a significant
contribution to the study of the themes covered by this catalogue, and I am very
grateful to them for their hard work and their generosity with their time and ideas.
Other people have also added their thoughts and efforts, not least Ralph Finder-Wilson,
whose work on the stone press-moulds in the Collection has illuminated a subject
previously obscured by misinformation. Tim Stanley has kindly contributed a selection
of locks, padlocks and tools.
Others have also made generous contributions to the project, and in particular
the authors have asked me to thank, in London, Stewart Emmens of the Science
Museum, Dr Sheila Canby, Dr Venetia Porter and Dr St John Simpson of the British
Museum, Georgina Shirley of Sotheby’s, Dr Jonathan Katz, now Master of the Queen’s
Scholars, Westminster School, and Regina Krahl; Dr Geoffrey Khan of the University
of Cambridge; at the University of Oxford, Dr James Allan, Emeritus Professor
Charles Dowsett, Miss P.M.C. Jackson, Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Lewis, Professor
Wilferd Madelung, Anthony Simcock, Andrew Topsfield and Colin Wakefield; Dr
Moshe Brown of Christie’s, Amsterdam; Rena and Norman Indictor in New York;
Professor David A. King of Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe Universitat, Frankfurt-am-
Main; Daisy Raccah-Djivre of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem and Dr Raya Shani of
Haifa University; Dr Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma of Aligarh University; Dr George
Scanlon of the American University in Cairo; Professor V.N. Sharma, at present at the
University of Wisconsin; John Tuddenham of Preston Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire;
Anthony J. Turner, Le Mesnil-le-Roi, France; Madge and Roderick Webster of the
Adler Planetarium, Chicago; Mohamed Zakariya of Alexandria, Virginia; and Dr M.B.
Smith and Patricia Maddison in Oxford.
For my own part, I should like to acknowledge the contribution of Christopher
Phillips for his photography, and Diane Dixson-O’Carroll, who provided all the
drawings. At Azimuth Editions, Julian Raby and Alison Effeny edited the text and
Lorna Raby supervised the production of the volumes; Anikst Associates were the
designers. Wendy Keelan and Sally Chancellor provided invaluable administrative help.
Most especially, the authors and I would like to thank Manijeh Bayani, Tim Stanley and
Nahla Nassar, the assistant curator of the Khalili Collection, for their untiring
assistance with all aspects of the project.
Nasser D. Khalili
London, 1997
9
Introduction
The artefacts and manuscripts catalogued in this volume represent a blend of the
rational, the magical and the practical - a comingling often incomprehensible to modern
Him,
readers. Yet in the medieval Islamic world, the word usually translated as ‘science’,
was used for all attempts to comprehend and, to the extent that God permits, to predict
and control the forces surrounding human existence. To this end, all avenues of
investigation and explanation were utilized. Though such hypotheses may be largely
rejected today, to many medieval thinkers magic was another form of rationality, just as
astrology and alchemy were logical systems of explanation.
Astrology in some form was associated with nearly every other discipline discussed
in this volume. It played a role in medical prognosis and the timing of therapy; it was a
Cat. 29, detail showing the figure
major focus for the application of astronomical theory and related instrumentation; its
of Mercury
theories underpinned most forms of divination; and its symbolism was an important
part of the magical vocabulary and of the decorative repertoire of the artisan. A magic-
medicinal bowl in the Khalili Collection, cat.29, nicely illustrates this combination of
astronomy, astrology, magic, and metalworking in its anthropomorphic rendering of the
planet Mercury holding an astrolabe.
Despite the fact that orientation towards Mecca and the times of prayer, which
marked out the day for the entire population, are the most pervasive examples of the
application of pure astronomy and astronomical instrumentation, a larger proportion of
medieval and early modern society probably used divination and magic rather than the
more National’ sciences of mathematics, astronomy or Greek humoural medicine.
Divinatory techniques were used by many for the prognosis and diagnosis of mental
and physical illnesses, to determine the well-being of someone who was absent or in
gaol, to discover the location of lost property, or to determine the appropriateness of a
proposed action. Magic-medicinal bowls and amulets represent medical care at a more
popular level than the formal, learned face of medicine represented by most treatises.
God’s blessing and protection were sought on all occasions and by every available
means, sometimes by wearing amulets, sometimes by employing magical equipment or a
talismanic chart, and sometimes by placing a talismanic or benedictory inscription on a
utilitarian object, such as a mortar, lock or spoon.
Dividing this diverse collection into groups of related artefacts and manuscripts has
provided the opportunity to reflect in our accompanying essays upon the importance
of each type of object as a remnant of the material culture. Under each topic, we have
tried to combine the evidence provided by the artefacts themselves with that of written
treatises regarding the practice of a particular art or technique. On occasion there is a
discrepancy between written text and object. At other times the artefacts enrich our
understanding of the text, as sometimes the literature helps us understand the surviving
artefact. Throughout the volume, consideration has been given - to the extent that
available evidence permits - to the historical development of each type of object.
Certain classes of objects covered in this volume, such as alchemical equipment,
mortars and pestles, and magical mirrors, have received very little attention from
scholars. In the case of other objects (the so-called cupping glasses and the curious
sphero-conical vessels, for example), their very function is still a matter of speculation.
For scientific and magical material in general, there is in most instances no unequivocal
association of objects with reliably dated sites. The signed astronomical instruments are
a refreshing exception to this limitation, and it is possibly for this reason that they have
been the subject of greater historical study than any other topic covered here. In a few
10 Introduction