At a glance
- Era
- The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
- Review
- Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it
Overview
Ibn Fadl Allah al-Umari devoted a fourth chapter of his Masalik al-absar to the qibla and the signs by which it is known. 1
Methods of orientation
Al-Umari arranges the determination of the direction of the Ka'ba by four signs: the stars, then the winds, then the mountains, then the rivers. He describes them as the methods relied on by the people of the cities before precise astronomical constructions. 1
The details of each sign are not recorded here and would need a further source.
People and things also explored
Sharaf al-Dawla's observatory at Baghdad· Sizes of the heavenly bodies· Distances of the heavenly bodies from the Earth· The seven climates· The second motion (the planets' own motion along the zodiac)· The first motion (diurnal rotation of the heavens)· The solstices· The equinoxes
Sources
- Masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-amsar — al-Umari (1924 printing) , pp. 11, 128-129
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Qibla-finding by stars, winds, mountains and rivers”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/adillat-al-qibla/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.