A PREVIOLY UNRECORDED EARLY MAMLUK BRASS ASTROLABE-QUADRANT, SIGNED BY MUHAMMAD B. AHMAD AL-MIZZI, AND DATED 740 AH/1339-40 AD One side is engraved with an astrolabe-quadrant, for latitude 33°30’ (presumably for Damasc) with the positions of 15 stars marked and named. The other side is engraved, as is ctomary, as a sexagesimal sine/cosine quadrant, with arcs of the obliquity of the ecliptic and of sine and ‘versed sine’ and two prayer lines. The inscriptions throughout are in simple eastern kufic script, and the numeration of the scales and the date in abjad. The inscription on the astrolabe side in the empty space below the astrolabe, in a larger font size, records the maker of the instrument as Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mizzi al-Maliki in 740 AH/1339-40 AD The instrument is made of brass and measures 145 mm along each of the straight sides and on average 1.5 mm thick. The weight is 229 grams. The lead plumb bob (ed for sighting) that came with this artefact is jt under 25 mm long and weights 14.5 grams. THE MAKER The famo muwaqqit (mosque astronomer) and an astronomical instrument master, Muhammad b. Ahmad al‐Mizzī, was born in the village of Mizze near Damasc in 1291 AD. Sources about his life state that he studied in Egypt and that he was tutored by the famo Egyptian physician and encyclopedist Ibn al-Akfānī. Working at the Umayyad Mosque in Damasc as a muwaqqit until his death, al-Mizzī owed his reputation to the fact that his didactic treatises were very popular among students who studied the science of miqāt, i.e. calculation of the prayer times. Moreover, the astrolabes and quadrants he made were considered among the best quality of its time and were sold at very high prices (2 dinars or more, for a quadrant). OTHER QUADRANTS BY AL MIZI Five instruments by al-Mizzi, apart from that offered here, have been recorded , all astrolabe-quadrants: a) Dated 727 H (#5003, London BM, 1326/27 AD) b) Dated 727 H (#5004, Cairo IAM, 1326/27 AD) c) Dated 730 H (#5005, Copenhagen, David Meum, 1329/30 AD) d) Dated 734 H (#141, Leningrad, Kunstcamera, 1333/34 AD) e) Dated 734 H (#5007, British Meum, London, [1333/34 AD) These instruments are similar in design although they vary in size. According to the above list, the instrument at hand seems to be his latest quadrant. This instrument, is previoly unrecorded and no reference to the it been found in literature. With Ring: 20.5cm Length: 15.5cm