The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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Publications & Services> Books> Book Series> The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road

The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road

Edited by Philippe Forêt and Andreas Kaplony

Books

Available
Publication year: 2008


Series:	Brill's Inner Asian Library, 21
ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 17165 7
ISBN-10:	90 04 17165 7

Cover:	Hardback
Number of pages:	lxiv, 248 pp. + foldout

List price:	€ 49.00 / US$ 79.00

Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Transliterations and Conventions
List of Illustrations and Maps

Foreword - Lorenz Hurni

Preface: What Is a Map? - Valerie Hansen

INTRODUCTION - Philippe Forêt and Andreas Kaplony

PART I: THE BUDDHIST ROAD
1 Traces of the Silk Road in Han-Dynasty Iconography: Questions and Hypotheses -
Nicolas Zufferey

2 Visualizing Pilgrimage and Mapping Experience: Mount Wutai on the Silk Road - Natasha Heller

3 The Mapping of Sacred Space: Images of Buddhist Cosmographies in Medieval China -
Dorothy C. Wong

PART II: THE MONGOL ROAD
4 Lost in Translation: Gridded Plans and Maps along the Silk Road - Jonathan Bloom

5 Square Horoscope Diagrams in Middle Eastern Astrology and Chinese Cosmological Diagrams: Were These Designs Transmitted through the Silk Road? - Johannes Thomann

6 The Intrusion of East Asian Imagery in Thirteenth-Century Armenia: Political and Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Road - Dickran Kouymjian

PART III: WITHIN THE ISLAMIC WORLD
7 Comparing al-Kāshgharī’s Map to His Text: On the Visual Language, Purpose, and Transmission of Arabic-Islamic Maps - Andreas Kaplony

8 The Book of Curiosities: A Medieval Islamic View of the East - Yossef Rapoport

PART IV: THE MEDITERRANEAN ROAD
9 Celestial Maps and Illustrations in Arabic-Islamic Astronomy - Paul Kunitzsch

10 Revisiting Catalan Portolan Charts: Do They Contain Elements of Asian Provenance? - Sonja Brentjes

CONCLUSION - Philippe Forêt and Andreas Kaplony

Appendix: List of Geographical Nomenclature in al-Kāshgharī’s Text and Map - Andreas Kaplony

General Bibliography
Index

Readership

For all those interested in the history of religions, fine arts, cartography and geography, and cultural and scientific exchanges in pre-modern Asia and Europe, as well as for scholars and students in Arabic, Armenian, Buddhist, Chinese, Inner Asian, Medieval, Turkish studies, and, of course, in Silk Road studies.

About the author(s)

Philippe Forêt, Ph.D. (1992) in Geography, University of Chicago, is a Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich and an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of Mapping Chengde (Honolulu, 2000) and La véritable histoire d’une montagne plus haute que l’Himalaya (Paris, 2004), and the coeditor of La Haute-Asie telle qu’ils l’ont vue (Geneva, 2003) and New Qing Imperial History (London, 2004).

Andreas Kaplony, Dr. (1986) in History and Arabic studies and Habilitation (2001) in Islamic studies, both from the University of Zurich, is an Assistant Professor at the Oriental Institute, University of Zurich. He is the author of Konstantinopel und Damaskus: Gesandtschaften und Verträge zwischen Kaisern und Kalifen 639–750(Berlin, 1996) and The Ḥaram of Jerusalem 324–1099 (Freiburg i.Br., 2002), and the coeditor of the Arabic Papyrology Database (www.ori.uzh.ch/apd) (2006) and Documentary Letters from the Middle East: The Evidence in Greek, Coptic, South Arabian, Pehlevi, and Arabic (1st–15th c CE) (Berne, 2008).

This book covers new ground on the diffusion and transmission of geographical knowledge that occurred at critical junctures in the long history of the Silk Road.

Much of twentieth-century scholarship on the Silk Road examined the ancient archaeological objects and medieval historical records found within each cultural area, while the consequences of long-distance interaction across Eurasia remained poorly studied. Here ample attention is given to the journeys that notions and objects undertook to transmit spatial values to other civilizations. In retracing the steps of four major circuits right across the many civilizations that shared the Silk Road, The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road traces the ways in which maps and images surmounted spatial, historical and cultural divisions.

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