>From years I am interested in the Islamic and Ottoman sundials and on this argument some years ago I have written a little book (in Italian, never published, but that many have read) and also recently some articles (always in Italian) .
>From some years I have begun to annoy some friends trying to convince them to build one of these dials and today I can inform that some have been finished: - 3 in Aiello del Friuli (Norther Italy) (completed some months ago) - one installed few days ago in Bremen (Germany) by the friend Reinhold Kriegler - another, very great, is almost completed in Reggio Emilia (Italy) on the façade of a building used as a mosque, by the Italian dialist Renzo Righi. These are the first vertical declining sundials of the Ottoman type, with only the lines of the Islamic prayers, that have been built in the last 100-150 years in Europe and, in my knowledge, also in the whole world. The original drawings are, for better or for worse, done by me J. All you already know the horizontal dial of this type built by Roger Bailey in St Louis-Missouri (very beautiful!!) The dials that are in Aiello will officially be inaugurated during the "Party of the Sundials" next 30 May . They have been drawn by the Italian dialist Renato Devetak. The clock by Reinhold Kriegler is the first one in Europe, beyond the Alps, and the only one in a place with a high Latitude ( about53°): you can see it, together with a long explanation (in German and partly in English), in his site http://www.ta-dip.de/209,0,ottomanische-sonnenuhr,index,0.html The Roger Bailey sundial is presented in http://www.walkingshadow.info/Ottoman-Dial.jpg Some images of the sundials in Aiello are in http://picasaweb.google.com/gfmerid/OttomanSundials#<http://picasaweb.google.com/gfmerid/OttomanSundials> ------------------ For those that don’t know the Islamic and Ottomans sundials, I remind that generally these instruments don't have the hour lines but almost exclusively some lines to find the instants in which the Islamic prayers have to begin. In the simplest dials there are only the lines concerning the two diurnal prayers (noon and afternoon) , in those more complex we find also the lines relative to the sunset prayer and to the two night prayers (of the beginning and of the end of the night). Often there is also a line that can be useful to determine the direction of Mecca (qibla). Almost always two or more gnomons are present. To note that these "sundials" give us instants that are not achievable with the common mechanical clocks and for this reason they were built in the great cities of Turkey till the first years of the XIX century (many can be seen also today on the walls of the mosques in Istanbul). Today we can find electronic watches (Casio) that give these instants in each day . Moreover in all the newspapers in Arabic language, or read by the Muslims in the world, these data are daily published. A regard Gianni Ferrari -- Mail to : [email protected] Lat. 44;38,18.5N Long. 10;56,05.3E
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