This book is divided into three parts. Chapter one in part I introduces the history of astrology in pre-Islamic Iran. It is demonstrated how, in the Achaemenid era (6-41h cent. B.C.) Iran played a role of cultural and scientific mediation among the Mesopotamian, Greek and Indian civilizations, which it continued to perform even after the end of the Achaemenid civilization. Above all during the Sasanian era (3'ct-7111 cent.
A.D.), the cultural contacts between the Iranic world and the Western and Indian worlds were very intense.
The book deals in particular with exchanges in the field of beliefs and astrological techniques. The signs of the zodiac and the planets, astronomic concepts on which astrology was based in a Hellenistic environment beginning in the 2nd century B.C., were already known in Iran in the Achaemenid period. However, the first documentary evidence on astrology in Iran is found in the 9111-century Middle Persian texts (based on Sasanian era works) and in Arabic texts deriving from Iranian sources. There were various Arabic translations of Middle Persian astrological texts which were then translated from the Greek in the Sasanian era (such as the works of Dorotheus of Sidon, Vettius Valens, Teucros the Babylonian and Hermes, as well as the "Book of the Nativity" attributed to Zardusht). Also the Arabic translation of a Pahlavi text written by a Sasanian astrologer, Handarzgar Zadanfarrox, has come down to us. Astrology was held in such high regard in Sasanian times that it was included in the system of beliefs to which the Sasanian state religion, Zoroastrianism, subscribed. This is demonstrated by the numerous 9111-century Middle Persian texts (almost all in the field of religious literature) containing references to astrological doctrines in which astrology was adapted to suit religious beliefs.
The complex of these texts shows that Sasanian astrology was very largely based on doctrines elaborated in a Hellenistic, and partly Indian,
environment. But it also developed original elements and techniques of its own, such as historical astrology, which determined the historical destiny of nations, peoples or dynasties, on the basis of the conjunctions between the two slowest planets known at the time, Jupiter and Saturn. This form of astrology was transmitted to the Islamic world through Arabic texts based on Iranic sources, and thereby to the Byzantine and Medieval Latin worlds.
The second chapter in part I summarizes the astrological section of the Middle Persian text Bundahisn, which includes chapters V, VA and VB, as well as VI F, which is closely linked to V A. Chapters V and V B are given a particularly detailed treatment: they describe events linked to the attack by the planets (which Zoroastrianism considered as evil) on the cosmos created by Ohrmazd, in which they battle against the benevolent stars.
Chapter one of part II presents the location of chapters V A and VI F in the manuscripts of the Bundahisn, and the studies focused on it that appeared from the late 19111 century down to the present times. In several of these studies references are found to the chapters and their most interesting topic, the horoscope of the world (in chapter V A) and the horoscope and death of Gayomard at the age of thirty (in chapter VI F). In the only comprehensive study on these two chapters, published by MacKenzie in 1964, the conformation of the two themes (with the planets in the position of exaltation, i.e. of maximum power) is considered, in keeping with the preceding studies, to have been taken from 'Chaldean' tradition. On the other hand, this conformation, as David Pingree has shown, is linked to Indian astrological tradition.
Chapter two contains a transcription, transliteration and translation of the Pahlavi text of the two chapters.
Part three is divided into two chapters that provide a detailed analysis of the contents of VA and VI F, respectively.
Chapter V A describes the time that the world began, when at midday on the first day of the seventh millennium after creation, the cosmos was attacked by Ahriman and the planets (§ I). It goes on to describe the world's 'birth chart' (§ 2), citing the signs and the houses (the houses were the twelve sectors into which the birth chart was subdivided, and varied according to the place and time of birth) in which the planets are situated.
In the case of the first and tenth houses. also the lunar mansion (a further subdivision of the zodiac) in which the planets are found is specified; it is said that the star Tistar (Sirius) is located in the first house. The paragraph
does not specify the degree at which the planets are situated although several elements in the chart show that they are situated at the degree of exaltation (that of their maximum power). Nor does it specify the degree at which the houses of the chart begin, except the first, which starts at 19°
Cancer. This is due to the fact that the Sun is in its exaltation at 19° Aries, and so as a result of its position the intention was to start the twelve houses from 19° in every sign. However, from the rest of the description it is clear that the beginning of the houses in the chart coincides with the beginning of the sign (0°): therefore, the notation of the Ascendant degree is foreign to the rest of the description.
The idea of the world chart reached Iran from the classical world (also in Vettius Valens' "Anthologies", which were translated into Pahlavi, there are traces of this notion) although the classical thema mundi presents all the planets not in exaltation but in the sign of the domicile (another planetary position of extreme power).
A chart with all the planets in exaltation is instead found in Indian astrology: this consists of a birth horoscope of exceptional persons, and is described for the first time in the Yavanajiitaka (text of the 3'd cent. A.D.).
This chart must have been known also in Sasanian Iran, where it was applied to the first man and the first king in Zoroastrian tradition, Gayomard. It was then applied to the world, replacing the classical type of world chart. In the horoscope of Bd. V A, 2, however, two elements of classical origin were retained: the Ascendant in Cancer and the presence in the first house of the star Sirius.
However, in the world chart we find also an original element invented by the Sasanian astrologers: the presence of the head and tail of Gozihr, the cosmic serpent of Indian origin of which the Sasanian astrologers invented the exaltation no earlier than the 5111 cent.: it may thus be imagined that the chart was drawn up after this date (it may well date to the era of Xosroe I, in the 6111 century, in which astrological activities were fervent).
The text contains numerous other points of interest. In all the manuscripts the description of the world chart is accompanied by its representation (the only astrological graph present in Middle Persian manuscript tradition: it contains numerous graphical errors and inconsistencies with the text, probably due to the absentmindedness or incompetence of the copysts).
In V A, 3-4, there is a description of the battle between the stars and the planets. Four stars and four planets have control over the four cardinal
directions. To them is attributed the title of spahbed of that direction, copied from the politico-military title of Sasanian Iran). The stars assigned to the direction of the cardinal points have their equivalent in Mesopotamian Uranographic tradition; the planets in Greek tradition.
Paragraph 5 of the same chapter describes the position of the sphere and the (retrograde) movement of Gozihr, the cosmic serpent, the head and tail of which represent the lunar nodes (the two points at which the eclipses take place).
Paragraphs 6-7 describe the link with the Sun's chariot of the comet Mus Parlg (an imaginary body previously mentioned also in the Avesta) and of the black Sun (Mihr i tam/g) and with the chariot of the black Moon (Mah 1 tamlg). Mihr i tamlg and Mah i tamig may be identified as the head and tail of Gozihr, the lunar nodes.
Paragraph 8 speaks of the link with the Sun's chariot no longer of imaginary bodies but of the planets, of which it specifies the maximum distance from the Sun. The values given in the text for Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Venus reflect astronomic reality; those of Venus and Mercury are supported by data present in Ptolemaic texts. The link between the planets and the luminaries echoes the concept of the planets being moved by cords as excogitated in Indian tradition to account for the anomalies in the motion of heavenly bodies.
Paragraph 9 contains a list of the positions in which the planets have their maximum and minimum power. This list displays surprising textual correspondences with Greek, Byzantine and Arabic astrological works.
The list is followed by an explanation (which also occupies § 1 0) as to why the planets, although evil in nature, possess the beneficial characteristic of brightness.
Chapter VI F proposes, in §§ I -6, an astrological explanation of the death of Gayomard at the age of 30 due to the reciprocal position between Jupiter and Saturn at the time. Owing to the fact that it takes into consideration the astral situation some considerable time after an individual's birth, as well as the positions of Jupiter and Saturn, this passage is reminiscent of the techniques of continuous astrology (a Greek form of astrology widespread in Sasanian Iran) and of historical astrology.
It is interesting to note that many Arabic texts about Gayomard mention several elements which are found also in this chapter: his birth chart, his semen falling on the ground at the time of his death (mentioned in § 7), the birth of metals from his body at his death (described in § 8), and the growth of the earth, fertilized with his semen, the primordial couple, Masi
and Masanl (§ 9). The legend of Gayomard in all probability entered Islamic culture through the Arabic translation of the official chronicles of the Sasanian courts, the Xwaday namag ("Book of Kings") made in the 81"
century by Ibn al-Muqaffa'.
The book is concluded by an appendix containing further Zoroastrian texts, as well as classical, Indian, Arabic, Byzantine and Mediaeval Latin texts that speak of the horoscope of the world and of the horoscope of Gayomard and of exceptional persons. Above all, this survey illustrates the historical events related to the idea of horoscope of the world, from its transmigration from the classical world to the East, until its return to the West, through translations from Arabic, in the Byzantine and mediaeval Latin world, modified by its passage through a large number of different cultures and civilizations.