From Complex to Simple: the Example of Qibla-Indicators

The advantage of an instrument for determining qibla for prayers was the fact that the sophistication and abstraction of mathematical operations could be masked well behind the functionality and mechanism of a tangible object. On the way to reach this goal, generations of mathematicians devised and refined diverse qibla-indicators whose story of failure and success is the subject of this study. I will follow the thread of improvement along the history of evolution of qibla-indicators and see how instrument-makers analysed their faults and upgraded their products by offering attractive instruments in sizes, shapes, simplified functions, and multi-purpose applications. This study is also a window to observe how complex mathematical instruments for qibla-finding like astrolabes and quadrants shifted progressively towards today’s user-friendly, ad hoc tools which work literally as input-output calculators.