Locating Qibla based on Folk Astronomy in Andalusia

The status and importance of the qibla in the religious obligations of Muslims has placed locating qibla at the center of Muslim scholar’ attention. When Muslims arrived in Andalusia in 93 AH, one of their initial projects was the construction of the first mosque on the peninsula, which necessitated finding qibla in this land. Until the second half of the 3rd century AH, when mathematical methods and qibla-finding instruments were not yet common, qibla-locating, influenced by the popular astronomical knowledge of pre-Islamic Arabs, was determined by astronomical observations of sunrise and sunset.This study aims to investigate how qibla was located by Andalusian astronomers and jurists before the advent of mathematical methods. The paper discusses different ways of locating qibla in Andalusia, focusing on ancient Andalusian landmarks and ancient texts, along with an explanation of some recent European research. The findings suggest the divergence of viewpoints in the first qibla-finding methods in Andalusia so that their qibla –locating methods were not as precise as mathematical methods later adopted by astronomers.