page_title: Muwaqqit
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Muwaqqit / History
caption_attribution_description: Cours de la mosquée Amr Ibn al-`As au Caire. Première construction en 641. Détruite plusieurs fois la dernière reconstruction complète date de 1845 parMohammed Ali Pasha.
context_page_description: In the history of Islam, a muwaqqit was an astronomer tasked with the timekeeping and the regulation of prayer times in an Islamic institution like a mosque or a madrasa. Unlike the muezzin who was usually selected for his piety and voice, a muwaqqit was selected for his knowledge and skill in astronomy.
  Not all mosques had a muwaqqit. The office was first recorded in the late 13th century in the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in the Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo and then spread to various parts of the Muslim world. Even then, many major mosques only relied on muezzins to determine prayer times using traditional methods, such as observing shadow lengths and twilight phenomena. The lack of historical sources and research makes it difficult to ascertain the specific functions and roles of the muwaqqit. There is uncertainty among historians of science whether the muwaqqit was a specialised office whose holder dealt exclusively with astronomical matters, or if it was part of a broader role of a teacher who also worked and taught in other fields.
  During its peak in the fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries, prominent scientists held the post of muwaqqit.
context_section_description: Unlike the muazzin whose history and origin has been well-studied, the origin of the muwaqqit is unclear. The earliest known record shows that the office already existed in the thirteenth century Mamluk Sultanate. According to King, the first muwaqqit known by name was Abu al-Hasan ali ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Sim'un (died 685 AH or 1286/1287 CE), a muwaqqit in the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat, Egypt for 30 years. His son Muhammad al-Wajih (died 701 AH or 1301/1302 CE) and grandson Muhammad al-Majd also served as muwaqqit there. At the same time, similar offices likely existed in Al-Andalus and the Maghreb with different names. In Al-Andalus, in the late 13th century, astronomers Ahmad and Husayn—father and son from the Ibn Baso family—computed prayer times for the Great Mosque of Granada. Manuscripts refer to them with various titles, including al-muadhdhin al-mubarak, al-imam al-mu'addil al-mubarak, al-shaykh al-mu'addil, amin al-awqat, and muwaqqit. The University of al-Qarawiyyin in Fez employed the astronomer Muhammad al-Sanhaji (fl. c. 1307) in a similar position with the title al-mu'addil. A manual of professions from around 1300 by the Egyptian author Ibn al-Ukhuwwa mentioned the post of the muazzin and its duties and requirements but did not mention the muwaqqit.
caption: The Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Fustat (today part of Cairo), where the official title of muwaqqit was first recorded.
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