muwaqqit
Sign in to saveAlso known as miqati, muwakkit
thumb|The muvakkithane ("lodge of the muwaqqit") in [[Hagia Sophia, Istanbul]]
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
11 sectionsContents
- Background
- Duties
- Salary
- Relations with the muezzin
- History
- In the 14th and 15th centuries
- After the fifteenth century
- Calculating prayer times today
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
thumb|The muvakkithane ("lodge of the muwaqqit") in [[Hagia Sophia, Istanbul]]
In the history of Islam, a muwaqqit (, more rarely mīqātī; ) 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 (reciter of the call to prayer) who was usually selected for his piety and voice, a muwaqqit was selected for his knowledge and skill in astronomy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “muwaqqit” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.