Quadrant (front)

A quadrant is a quarter of a circumference of a circle. This wooden example was used with a plumb-bob for taking altitude observations. It was made in Turkey in the 19th century. The photograph shows the front of the instrument.

The quadrant is laid out with scales that allow observations of the altitude of the sun (or of particular stars) to be used to determine the time on a known date. It is marked for the latitude of 40 degrees.

This form of quadrant survived much longer in Islam than in the West. From at least the 17th century onwards in the Ottoman empire it was produced in lacquered wood, in considerable quantities and survived in use into the early 20th century.

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