Collections

My favourite object: an Islamic astrolabe

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Rana Ibrahim, the Museum’s Collections Project Officer (Multaka-Oxford), tells us about her favourite object, an astrolabe engraved with a Quranic verse.

I am the Collections Project Officer on the Esmée Fairbairn-funded Multaka-Oxford project, an inclusive volunteering project which works with local people and partners at the History of Science Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum. As Collections Officer I work mostly with the Islamic scientific instruments at the History of Science Museum. This includes astrolabes and Qibla indicators. I am working to make them more accessible and interesting to all our visitors.

Astrolabe with green prayer beads and red cloth handle.

One of my favourite objects at the Museum is this astrolabe by Khalil Muhammad ibn Hasan `Ali. It was made in about 1700. One of the reasons I admire it is because of the Quranic inscription of ‘Ayat Al- Kursi’ (The Throne Verse) engraved on the brass, which is a very significant verse in the Quran. It is one of the verses that all Muslims memorise by heart and read after each prayer to strengthen their connection to Allah. I also love the prayer beads attached to the astrolabe, which makes me think that the person who used it could have been an Imam of a mosque. Prayer beads (misbaha) are very important to Muslims as they help focus and calm the mind before and after prayer.

What is an astrolabe? They are astronomical tools invented by the ancient Greeks and further developed in the Islamic world from the 700s onwards. It is said that they have over 100 uses. One of the many uses for Muslims was to find the five prayer times in a day and also to calculate the date for Islamic months such as Ramadan.

In 2019, Ramadan started on 6 May and it will end on today (Tuesday 4 June). This Ramadan I would like to wish you all a very pleasant month and a happy and healthy year of 1440 Hijri. Remember, it’s a magical month for everyone on earth and may all your wishes come true in time, Inshallah. Make some wishes and Eid Mubarak!

Winning awards

Rana with the Museums + Heritage award.

In May the Multaka-Oxford Team won the Museums + Heritage Award for Volunteer Team of the Year! Talking about the Volunteer Team, Diane Lees (Chair of the 2019 judging panel) said “the genuine mutual benefit to both organisation and volunteer is clear to see … They have shared their experience, insight and expertise to collaborate and to reach new audiences, helping the museums to be more relevant and accessible to their communities.”

Not only did they win Volunteer Team of the Year, Multaka-Oxford was also Highly Commended for Partnership of the Year. The project has partners from across the city and beyond. Together our work is stronger – thank you Asylum Welcome, Refugee Resource, Syrian Sisters, Connection Support, Oxford City Council, Aspire Oxford and Sanctuary Hosting, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Collection Fund who have made the project possible.

The foundation of a museum

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Ninety-five years ago this March the University of Oxford passed a decree to accept Lewis Evans’ donation of scientific instruments and books. This marked the foundation of our Museum, which opened to the public in 1925.
We’ve collected together photographs of the Museum from 1924 to the start of 2000.

A history through photographs

Click on an image to see it full size.

  • A photocopy of the Decree from the University of Oxford that laid the foundations for the Museum. It reads: Decree passed by the Convocation of the University on Tuesday, March 4, 1924 :— That the offer to the University by LEWIS EVANS, F.S.A., of a valuble collection of Scientific Instruments and of books connected therewith be gratefully accepted, and that the Collection be kept in the two rooms on the upper floor of the Ashmolean Building. [Signed by the] Registrar of the University.
    In 1924 this Decree from the University of Oxford laid the foundation for the Museum.
  • A corner of the top floor of the building showing old wooden cases filled with scientific instruments
    The collection opened to the public on 5 May 1925 and was kept on the top floor. Both photographs from 1925 are from Gunther’s 1925 article about the Museum in Country Life.
  • the main floor of the building, it is mostly empty with desks running down the right side of the room and shelves on the left.]
    The middle floor in 1925. Lexicographers (people who write dictionaries) worked here on the New English Dictionary (OED).
  • the top floor of the building, showing wooden exhibition cases of various sizes filled with objects. A woman is sitting at a desk reading, and a man and a woman are leaning over one of the cases.]
    The top floor in the 1950s.
  • the front of the Museum in 1956, taken from across the street. The stone work is very dark from age. The front door of the museum does not have steps leading to Broad Street, instead there is a balcony.
    The front of the Museum in 1956. At this point the stone steps to the main entrance don’t exist.
  • The front of the Museum taken from across the street in the 1960s. The main feature is the new steps running from the door to Broad Street. They are paler and cleaner than the rest of the building
    In 1957 the stone steps leading from Broad Street to the main door were completed. The stone steps are remarkably fresh when compared to the rest of the building in the 1960s.
  • a photograph of the exhibition Geometry of War. A large pillar stands in the middle with the exhibition title on it. To either side, and behind pillars, are the first two exhibition cases
    The Geometry of War exhibition opened in 1996 and explored the application of practical geometry to the ‘arts of war’.
  • A close up of one of the cases in the Geometry of War exhibition. Astrolabes and surveying equipment are arrange on concrete blocks.
    The Geometry of War aimed to be provocative. Objects were presented on concrete blocks and rusting iron mesh instead of using neutral displays.
  • The outside of the Museum during extensive renovations in 1999. Boards have been put along Broad Street to cordon off the building, and the pavement immediately in front of the Museum is being dug up to alter the foundations
    In 1998 we began a huge redevelopment project. This included improvements to galleries and building the Special Exhibitions Gallery.
  • The outside of the Museum during extensive renovations in 1999. The ground in front of the Museum has been dug up to improve the foundations, and the photo is taken from the hole while looking up to the Museum. The front wall is held up on metal stilts. The image is in bright colour
    Excavations at the front of the Museum in 1999. This area has since been covered again by cobbles.
  • The outside of the Museum during extensive renovations in 1999. The ground in front of the Museum has been dug up, and the photo is taken from the hole while looking up to the Museum. The front wall is held up on metal stilts.
    Laying the foundation for new facilities under street level at the front of the building.
  • the top gallery of the Museum filled with empty exhibition cases
    This haunting photograph shows the Top Gallery shortly before we re-opened in 2000.

Get in touch

If you’ve got photographs of the Museum from the 1900s we would love to see them! You can email us at info@mhs.ox.ac.uk or share them with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using @HSMOxford.

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My favourite object: an Earl’s armillary sphere

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Helen Pooley, the Museum’s Primary Education Officer, tells us about her favourite object, an armillary sphere once owned by an Earl. 

You can’t really miss the armillary sphere, which boasts a central spot in the Top Floor in the Museum. The kind of scientific instrument you might expect to find on the opening sequence of Dr Who or the Game of Thrones, it is in fact a model of the Ptolemaic universe.

Helen Pooley standing behind the armillary sphere - an interlocking set of rings balancing on top of three lions. The armillary sphere is the same height as Helen.

A large object, it comprises a sphere (representing stationary Earth) surrounded by rings (representing the heavens) mounted on three imposing lions. Beautiful, but also functional. Closer inspection reveals images of the zodiac, the points of the compass in their Latin form, a number scale and curious human forms.  The pathway of the sun, as it travels through the constellations of the zodiac, is represented by a broad band encircling the sphere.

School children often ask me what sort of person owned this amazing object. It’s always fun telling them about the owner Henry Percy, the 9th Earl of Northumberland, also known as the Wizard Earl. Percy was imprisoned in the Tower of London owing to his suspected involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. But, that didn’t prevent him from pursuing his scientific interests. One visitor to the Tower describes finding him ‘engaged in mysterious rites’ involving crucibles and a zodiac table suspended from walls, revolving celestial globes and a human skeleton holding an hour glass in its hand!

I find the sphere intriguing as a working mathematical model and as a work of art – but also as a wonderful connection to a mysterious figure from the past.

Discover how an armillary sphere works with our Animate It series: