The Astrolabe: From the Stars of the Islamic World to GPS and the Maps in Our Hands is a journey through one of humanity’s greatest achievements: the ability to find our way.

Long before smartphones, digital maps, and GPS satellites, travelers and sailors looked to the heavens for guidance. The Sun, Moon, and stars served as natural landmarks, while astronomers developed mathematical methods and instruments to measure the sky and understand the Earth.

At the center of this story is the astrolabe, one of the most remarkable scientific instruments associated with the Islamic world. Building upon earlier astronomical traditions, Muslim astronomers and instrument makers refined, expanded, and applied the astrolabe to astronomy, timekeeping, geography, navigation, and religious life.

The book explores the remarkable development of Islamic astronomy and geography, the work of pioneering scholars, the creation of astronomical tables and maps, and the Arabic influence preserved in the names of many stars—including Suhail al-Yamani and others.

From the stars above the Arabian deserts and the waters of the Indian Ocean to the maps of medieval geographers, the story gradually moves toward the compass, sextant, marine navigation, radio systems, satellites, and eventually GPS.

Today, a person can open a smartphone and instantly see a blue dot showing exactly where they are, receive turn-by-turn directions, identify nearby locations, and calculate a journey across the world. Yet beneath this seemingly effortless technology lies a long history of observation, mathematics, astronomy, geography, engineering, and human curiosity.

The Astrolabe connects the ancient sky with the digital map in our hands.

It asks a simple but profound question:

How did humanity move from reading the stars to asking satellites where we are?

The answer is a story of science, civilization, exploration, innovation, and the timeless human desire to know where we are—and where we are going.