From Alamut to Dadu: Jamāl al-Dīn’s Armillary Sphere on the Mongol Silk Roads

Abstract

This article aims to shed light on a hitherto unknown transmission route of the astral sciences from Alamut to Dadu (Beijing). I argue that the huntianyi 渾天儀, an armillary sphere, which Jamāl al-Dīn dedicated to Qubilai in 1267, was designed in Alamut – the main stronghold of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlīs – on the grounds that the instrument was set to Alamut’s latitude. After its fall in 1256, the armillary sphere traversed the Mongol Silk Roads. The Dastūr al-munajjimīn, an Arabic work of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlīs, functions as the missing link in this West-to-East transmission.