
Matthew Thomas
Senior Specialist
![A Zand Qibla-Indicator with Compass Persia, dated AH [1]182/AD 1768 image 1](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2011-02%2F04%2F94406479-6-1.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
![A Zand Qibla-Indicator with Compass Persia, dated AH [1]182/AD 1768 image 2](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg1.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%2Flive%2F2011-03%2F01%2F94406479-6-2.jpg&w=2400&q=75)
£6,000 - £8,000
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Inscriptions:
Top: Qur'an, sura XL, Ghafir, part of verse 44.
Sides: a prayer
Bottom: Qur'an, sura XL, Ghafir, continuation of verse 44.
From the Safavid period in Persia there was considerable interest in all aspects of the sacred direction or qibla. The resulted in the proliferation of pocket size qibla boxes with a magnetic compass and a gazetter giving the qiblas of a number of locations mainly in Iran.
On Persian gazetteers and qibla-indicators see King, World-Maps Centred on Mecca, pp. 128-193.
For a similar example see Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 9th April 2008, lot 207.