When there was no such modern technology as the Internet, satellite and mobile phones, a small instrument as the legendary Jam of Jamshid revealed the world for the people of the Isfahan. They used this magic tool to get the altitude, geographic location, distance traveled and much more. This instrument was called astrolabe that reached its peak in the Islamic era in Iran and Isfahan. As Jean Chardin (traveler and cultural traveler) suggests “No country’s craftsmen can create astrolabe in terms of the beauty and elegance as the Iranians.”
This progress in the handicraft of astrolabe making was undoubtedly related to the many uses of it at the Safavid court. Shardin writes “Every one of the astronomers of the Safavid court has an astrolabe, which is located in a subtle frame and is fastened to his waist. The astrolabe and its frame of some astronomers are so small that their diameter is not more than two or three thumbs long.” As well as other handicrafts, astrolabe making has disappeared with the advent of modern technologies, and the name of the masters of this craft in the twelfth century remained only in history.
Jalaluddin Homayi, literary scholar and historian of Isfahan, mentions “Mohammad bin Hamed Isfahani is a master of stomatology as well as a skillful astrolabe maker… I have seen his works in Tehran, written in the Kufi script, and has been made masterly. This astrolabe dates back to 558 AH (1163 A.D.).” Apparently, the prayers time of some cities such as Isfahan, Ray, Hamedan, Qazvin, Basra, Samarkand, Neyshabur, Baghdad, Fars, which at that time were important Islamic cities, were determined with the help this ancient astrology. .
