As a result of the collaboration with the City Council of Priego de Córdoba, a prominent landmark on the Route of the Caliphate, the town’s municipal council has set up a space dedicated to El legado andalusí, where exhibition pieces that are renewed from time to time, are showcased.
On this occasion, the piece chosen is the Solar Quadrant by Ibn as-Saffar, a replica of the original on display in the Archaeological Museum of Cordoba. The replica on display belongs to the collection of El legado andalusí Andalusian Public Foundation.
The Solar Quadrant of Ibn as-Saffar (Córdoba, ca. 1000), was found on Camino Viejo de Almodóvar (Córdoba), and was crafted in white marble by the astronomer Ahmad ibn as-Saffar, according to an inscription on it bearing his name.
The piece, that will be on display in this space until June, gives evidence of the great revolution in scientific knowledge that the period of al-Andalus represented. Muslims brought to the Iberian Peninsula numerous works that collected the knowledge of antiquity, which they had assimilated and developed, attaining great advances. This knowledge, fused with the existing tradition, continued to develop brilliantly in al-Andalus, so that we can speak of a golden age of science, mainly from the 10th century onwards. An example of this boom are the numerous astronomical instruments that have survived from the period of al-Andalus. In addition to astrolabes, other instruments also employed to measure time were manufactured in al-Andalus, such as solar quadrants.
