|
THE HOROSCOPE OF Muhammed
historical and astrological notes
by Juan Antonio Revilla
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:02:14 -0600
Subject: [Centaurs] the horoscope of Mahoma
In March 2004 I wrote several posts on the birth of Muhammed in another
list, and I would like now to summarize that material and repost it
here.
I.
There is no way of knowing for sure on what day exactly Muhammed was
born. According to tradition, the Prophet was born on the "12th day of
Rabi-ul-Awwal", equivalent to Monday April 20, 571 A.D. This day is
celebrated by Muslims and is generally accepted to have been "invented"
later in Islamic tradition, around the 12th or 13th Century.
A detailed explanation of the origin of this date can be found here:
http://www.amaana.org/prophet/milad.htm
[BEGIN QUOTE]
"It
seems that the tendency to celebrate the memory of Muhammad's birthday
on a larger and more festive scale emerged first in Egypt during the
Fatimid Era (969-1171). This is logical, for the Fatimids claim to be
the Prophet's decendants through his daughter Fatima. The Egyptian
historian Maqrizi (d.1442) basing his account on Fatimid sources. It
was apparently an occasion in which mainly scholars and the religious
establishment participated. They listened to sermons, and sweets,
particularly honey, the Prophet's favorite, were distributed; the poor
received alms."
[...]
"The
first comprehensive work about the Prophet's birth, as far as one
knows, was composed by the Andalusian author Ibn Dihya, who had
participated in the festive maulid in Arbela in 1207. Written in prose
with a concluding poetical economium , his work has the characteristic
title Kitab at-tanwir fi maulid as-siraj al-munir (The Book of
Illumination about the Birth of the Luminous Lamp), in which the
light-mysticism associated with Muhammad is evident. Two Hanabilites,
Ibn al-Jauzi and, a century and half later, Ibn Kathir, devoted
treatises to the maulid. Poetical works about this important event were
also composed relatively early."
[END QUOTE]
This gives us the date but not the hour. Astrodatabank provides a
horoscope (rated XX) for this traditional birth date, Monday, April 20
571, and the reference is:
[BEGIN QUOTE]
Manly
Hall in the NAJ 1933 states "recorded" at ... 1:25:35 AM LMT. Rao gives
the same data as "reproduced from the writings of Professor B.
Suryanarian."...
[END QUOTE]
Since Astrodatabank never checks references and depends on what others
say, we have no way of knowing what these "writings" might be. It would
be nice to know what are the original sources of this horoscope...
This date shows a close conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in early
Scorpio, and fits perfectly in the medieval astrological doctrine of
Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions. The conjunction of 571 is the beginning of
a major or "grand" triplicity shift according to the chronology of
Masha'allah: <<The advent of a major prophet, an event most
portentous of all, is heralded by the completion of a cycle of shifts
through all four triplicities.>> (page vi of E. S. Kenedy and David Pingree "The Astrological History of Masha'Allah", Harvard Univ. Press, 1971). It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume, then, that this date was fabricated.
II.
But Masha'allah, one of the first extant authors to adopt this doctrine
and explain its details, uses a very different date for Muhammed's
birth, when Jupiter and Saturn were separated by 17 degrees.
There is a reference to Masha'allah date in Astrodatabank, however
almost everything in it is wrong:
(NOTE: in the following quote, the date is given as February 9 first,
February 7 later. The time "3 p.m." does not appear in the original
paragraph at all nor in Biruni's account. Anushirwan is spelled
"Anushirwaf". "1 Favardin" is quoted as "Pavardin", and the years, 574
and 575, should be 571 and 572.)
[BEGIN QUOTE]
Ruth
Dewey gives February 9, 575 AD N.S., 3:00 PM from "The Astrological
History of Masha'Allah," translated by Kennedy and Pingree, Harvard
University Press, 1971, p.127, "Date recorded by Biruni as being
Monday, the Khur (eleventh) of the month Dai in the year 41 of
Anushirwaf. At the beginning of the 7th hour, with the Sun in the liver
of heaven and the ASC in Cancer. Pavardin of the 41st year of
Anushirwaf according to the calendar was May 3, 574 AD, and therefore
the day was February 7, 575, which was indeed a Monday. this date is
from Arabic astrology in the 8th century."
[END QUOTE]
compare this with what is really written in the book by Kenedy and Pingree (p127):
-----------------
begin quote
-----------------
APPENDIX 1
Masha'allah´s Date of the Prophet's Birth.
This
date is recorded in his "Chronology" (*) by Biruni as being Monday, the
day of Khur (11) of the month Dai in the year 41 of Anushirwan at the
beginning of the seventh hour with the Sun in "the liver of heaven" and
the Ascendant in Cancer. 1 Favardin of the 41st year of Anushirwan
according to Masha'allah's calendar was 3 May 571; and therefore 11
Dai, the day of the Prophet's birth, was 7 February 572, which was
indeed a Monday. The Sun was then in Aquarius, and would have been
setting if Cancer had been in the Ascendant. This passage in Biruni
confirms our previous assertions regarding the "zij" used by
Masha'allah and its calendar.
(*) "Documenta Islamica Inedita", ed. J. Fück (Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1952), pp.95-96
---------------
end quote
---------------
Masha'allah was a a Jewish astrologer from Baghdad who flourished in
the middle of the 8th century and apparently participated in the
calculations that led to the astrological founding of Bhagdad in 762
AD. Kenedy and Pingree give here a reference to Al-Biruni (973-1048) in
his book "Al-Athar al-Baqiyah'an al-Qorun al-Khaliya" (The Chronology of Ancient Nations),
written in about AD 1000. Biruni mentions Masha'allah's horoscope of
Muhammed, using the calendrical system of Masha'allah himself.
According to E.S. Kenedy in the preface (p. viii of the Kenedy and
Pingree), Masha'allah died somewhere between AD 809 and 829. Since,
according to the authors (page 105), Muhammed died 8 June 632, this
means that Masha'allah's mention of the horoscope of Muhammed was made
somewhere between 130-150 years after the Prophet's death. In page 113,
the authors write: <<we know that Masha'allah died in about
815...>>. With this we have an upper limit for this horoscope of
815-632 = 183 years after the death of Muhammed.
We don't know the sources of Masha'allah for the birth data, but it is
not unreasonable to assume that he used older sources available to him,
or was repeating what at his time was oral knowledge. Of course the
horoscope may have been "invented", but since this is probably the
oldest reference to his horoscope known today, I believe it is a
valuable historical and astrological reference point.
III.
Masha'allah used the "Zij al-Shah" or "tables of the Shah",
so his positions were sidereal based on the Sasanian zero point or
ayanamsa. Details of the Sasanian sidereal zero point can be found in
my examination of the horoscope of the founding of Baghdad in my site:
http://www.expreso.co.cr/centaurs/posts/mundane/baghdad.html
Muhamed's traditional place of birth is Mecca (39e49/21n27). Sunrise
occurred that day at 6h24m solar time (6h40m40s LMT), so "the
seventh hour" described by Biruni is somewhere between approximately
1:30 and 2:30 p.m. LMT, and not close to sunset, as the authors say
erroneously. The main reference point (in addition to "the seventh
hour") to ascertain the hour is Biruni's mention of the Ascendant in
Cancer according to Masha'allah. I use Riyal and the Sasanian ayanamsa
and obtain:
7 Feb AD 572:
14h 06m LMT = ASC. 00,04 Cancer
16h 20m LMT = ASC. 29,55 Cancer
(sunset occured at 17h53m LMT)
One can calculate <<the beginning of the 7th hour>> as described by Biruni more accurately. From my last post:
sunrise = 6h41m LMT
sunset = 17h53m LMT
12 "seasonal" hours is then equivalent to 11h12m "equinoctial" hours. 7
hours is equivalent to 6h32m after sunrise, "the seventh hour" being
from 13h13m LMT to 14h09m. However, this calculation, though accurate,
does not reflect necessarily what Masha'allah had in mind, because he
had to be working with tables of rising times which are unknown to us,
and which were probably inaccurate or cast for another latitude. Our
modern computations will give only a rough approximation to the
(innacurate) measurements ancient astrologers were using.
This establishes that the (alleged) birth according to Masha'allah,
based on the knowledge available to him about 150 years years after
Muhammed died, took place sometime around 2:00 p.m. of 7 February A.D.
572, in Mecca (39e49/21n27).
Keep in mind that using the tropical zodiac will shift the time somewhat.
To summarize, we have:
1-) 7th hour = from 13h13m LMT to 14h09m
2-) Cancer on the Ascendant (sidereal/Sasanian) = from 14h06m to 16h20m LMT
These are only points of reference. It is of course impossible to know
what was the degree on the Ascendant according to Masha'allah.
IV.
It is clear that the date "12 Rabi' ul-awwal" --20 April 571-- is based
on legend and tradition, and came in late (12th century), while the
Masha'alla date is of a different order, purely astrological and
relatively close (about 150 years) to the death of Muhammed. This
obviously is no proof that the date (7 Feb 572) is historically
correct, but I think it is an interesting and important reference point
astrologically speaking. Altough there are other times traditionally
used by Muslims to celebrate the birthday of their Prophet, this one
ante-dates all the others by a far margin, and is much closer to the
time of Muhammed.
Astrologers tend to think that traditional dates --dates based on
legend or myth, without "true" historical foundation-- are worthless. I
think this is a mistake. It is the "epiphanical" and imaginative
meaning we give to a date what matters, not if the date refers to a
"real" physical event. There is (often) nothing physical about the time
we choose to do a horary chart, for example, or about many inceptional
event charts. "Events" are often purely subjective or fictional, and
are non-events for other people.
We have for example the date "December 25, 1 B.C. at midnight in
Bethlehem", a date celebrated by all Christendom for 2 millenia, and
nobody seems to think that the date is astrologically significant! I
confess I have never done any serious work with this chart, probably
afraid of being considered an ignorant fool by the whole astrological
establishment. This unfortunately is not considered serious work.
On the other hand, besides of course the "chart of Islam" made for 16
July 622 at sunset, which I think is very powerful, we have the date of
Muhammed's death (8 June 632), which apparently is indisputable
historically speaking. There is no need to speculate on the true date
of birth for astrological purposes when we have the true date of death.
Unless we are rotten materialists who think Astrology deals only with
the physical or the biological, the horoscope of death often offers a
better perspective of an individual´s spiritual constitution,
especially, as in this case, when the real (and in this case
monumental) spiritual legacy they left to the whole of mankind became
effective after (or because) they died.
My historical notes on the chart of Islam can be found here.
(will continue)
Juan
|