Calculations were needed for religious observance such as determining the Qibla and the positions of the sun from pre-dawn to dusk to calculate the times for the Salah and calendarial work4.
This is evidently a purely rhetorical argument: Rome can hardly be taken as a case in point, since it constitutes the standard background for calendarial and martyrological entries; it is surely significant that no other example from England is cited to support such an assertion.