Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

40 • The Making of Islamic Scienceabout geography but also cosmology, history, religious practices,social customs, the political and economic situation of the time,relationships between different scientists, debates between scientistsand scholars of his time, and many other subjects (Al-Biruni, tr. 1967)Al-Biruni did not write his book in isolation; like his otherscientific works, his geographical treatise emerged out of a vibranttradition that had already gone through numerous substantialchanges since its emergence in Islamic civilization. At the dawn ofIslam, Arabs had a practical knowledge of the geographical areasthrough which they traveled or from where pilgrims came to Makkah.They also had a general conception of the nature of the Earth, whichhad been part of their folklore for centuries. This knowledge howeversoon became inadequate for religious as well as practical reasons.The religious aspect of this inadequacy was primarily (but notentirely) due to a certain verse of the QurāĀn revealed to the ProphetSouthEastThree partsLine of prayerat GhaznaWestNorthThe need to determine the direction of Ka‘bah (qiblah) played animportant role in the development of many branches of Islamicscientific tradition, including geography and astronomy. Al-Birunidescribed a simple method for architects and artisans to determineqiblah from Ghazna in his Kitab Tahdid al-Amakin. The method involvesdrawing lines on a polished stable surface of a circle.