The Book of Nativities(Kitâb al-Mawalid) by Abû Ma'shar. This version is from Cairo, 15th Century.
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The Book of Nativities goes back to Baghdad, in the 8th Century C. E. By the time it appeared in Cairo in the form presented here, it had been all over the Muslim world.
It consists of some plates depicting Iblis and a few Demon entities. Some of these have correspondences in the lore. See below. It also consists of depictions of the 36 Decans of the Zodiac. It is evidently a guide to determining the characteristics of people according to the Decanate of the Zodiac they happen to fall under.
Here are a few items we found on the Internet regarding the Book of Nativities. Following this, we shall pick up the Fihrist concerning this interesting little book, and perhaps other things...
http://cultureofiran.com/astrology.php
"The Book of Nativities (Kitab al-Mawalid) was a five part astronomical work that was translated from Pahlavi into Arabic in 750. It was ascribed to Zoroaster and according to the Iranian historian Sa’id ibn-Khurasan-Khurreh, "it was translated by Mahankard, an Iranian scholar from among the books of Zoroaster".
http://www.iuo.it/dipfp/attivita_di_ricerca/hermeslatinus/indice.htm
Abu Ma'shar, Kitab ahkam al-mawalid, IX, 1, ed. Paul Kunitzsch 83
Textus Arabicus et translatio Anglica 84
http://www.iuo.it/dipfp/ATTIVITA_DI_RICERCA/HermesLatinus/prefazione.htm
1. Il primo gruppo di testi, dal titolo De stellis beibeniis, è preceduto da una introduzione di Paul Kunitzsch, che ricostruisce la complicata storia di quest’opera, che attraverso rielaborazioni e ‘translationes’ in aree linguistiche diverse perviene dall’astrologia greca al mondo latino. L’originale greco è un frammento con la dottrina delle “Trenta stelle fisse” dell’opera perduta di un astrologo egiziano (Anonymus anni 379). Il testo fu poi ripreso da un astrologo greco al principio del sec. VI, e una sua copia corrotta sembra costituire la fonte sia di Retorio Alessandrino nel sec. VII, sia di una versione in medio-persiano (pahlavi), forse anche in neo-persiano e finalmente in arabo. Nel sec. VIII la redazione araba viene inclusa in forma abbreviata in un trattato attribuito a Masha'allah e nel sec. IX nel Kitab ahkam al mawalid (Libro sui giudizi delle natività) di Abu Ma'shar. In seguito il trattato di Masha'allah, contenente il compendio sulle trenta stelle fisse, è volto in latino da Ugo di Santalla nel 1141-1151 con il titolo Liber Aristotilis de ducentis quinquaginta quinque Indorum voluminibus, mentre l’originaria versione araba è tradotta a Toledo da Salio di Padova verso il 1218 con il titolo Liber de stellis beibeniis. Se ora possiamo disporre di questa letteratura, lo dobbiamo alle ricerche e alla competenza di Paul Kunitzsch, che ha edito l’originale arabo con la versione latina a fronte e la redazione di Abu Ma'shar con traduzione inglese. La versione di Ugo di Santalla è stata ripresa dall’edizione del Liber Aristotilis a cura di Charles Burnett e David Pingree. Del testo è rimasta anche una versione ebraica dall’arabo, Sefer Hermes, edita con traduzione inglese da Fabrizio Lelli, che ne ricostruisce la storia e il significato nella cultura ebraica.
Abu Ma'shar
He was Abu Ma'shar Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Balkhi. He was at first a scholar of the Hadith. His house was on the West Side by Bâb Khurasan. [1] As he was antagonistic to al-Kindi, he stirred up the populace against him, accusing him because of his philosophical sciences.[2] But al-Kindi played a trick on him by means of a man who interested him in the sciences of arithmetic and geometry. Although he entered into this study, he did not perfect himself in it, turning instead to the science of the judgments of the stars. Then he ended his ill will for al-Kindi because of his interest in this science, which was of the same type as the sciences studied by al-Kindi himself. It is said that he learned about the stars after he was forty-seven years old. He was a man of a superior type, with good judgment.
[The Caliph] Al-Musta'in had him beaten with lashes because he correctly foretold him of an event before it took place. So he used to say, "I hit the mark and I was severely punished."
Abu Ma'shar died at al-Wasit after he had passed the age of one hundred, on Wednesday, during the last two nights of the month of Ramadan [the ninth Muslim month], during the year two hundred and seventy-two [A. D. 866]. [3]
[1.] This was the northeast gate of the original city, on the west bank of the Tigris at Baghdad. See Le Strange, Baghdad, pp. 17, 107 map; Levy, Baghdad Chronicle, pp. 21, 31.
[2.] As Abu-Ma'shar started as a student of the Hadith, he was undoubtedly a conservative theologian who believed in the revelation of the Qur'an and opposed philosophical studies, which were based on reason. This passage has been translated freely.
[3.] MS 1135 has: "He was born al-Wasit on Wednesday, during the last two nights of the month of Ramadan, and Abu-Ma'shar died when he had lived longer than one hundred years."
-- Kitab al-Fihrist, 656-657.
Abu Ma'shar [Ja'far ibn Muhammad] said in his book about the variations of astronomical tables:
"Because of their care in preserving [the books about] the sciences, their eagerness to make them endure throughout the ages, and their guarding them from celestial happenings and earthly damages, the kings of Persia actually chose for them the writing material [1] which was the most durable in case of accident, the longest lasting in time, and the least prone to decay or effacement. This [writing material] was the bark of the white poplar tree, the bark being called tuz. The peoples of India, China, and the neighboring countries imitated them. They also selected this [material] for their bows with which they shot, because of its hardness, smoothness, and durability in the bows during a long period of time.
Then, after they [the kings of Persia] had obtained the best writing materials in the world to preserve their sciences, they desired [to store the books about] them in the place which among all of the regions of the earth and the towns of the provinces had the cleanest soil and the least amount of decay, being also the furthest removed from earthquakes and eclipses, as well as possessing the most cohesive clay with the quality of construction, which would endure the longest throughout the ages. After they had made a complete survey of the lands and regions of their kingdom, they were unable to find under the vault of the heavens any place possessing these advantages to a greater extent than did Isbahan. [2] Then as they examined the districts of this locality, they did not find any spot in it that could excel Rustaq Jayy. [3] Furthermore, in Rustaq Jayy they did not find any place more completely like what they desired than the locality in which, later on, the city of Jayy was marked out during the time of Dahir.
Then they went to the quhunduz, [4] which is inside the city of Jayy, to make it the depository for their sciences. This [depository] was called Sarwayh (Saruyah) [5] and it has lasted until our own time. In regard to this building, the people knew [6] who the builder was, because many years before our time a side [of the building] became ruined. Then they found a vault in the cleft-off side, built without mortar, and in which they discovered many books of the ancients, written on white poplar bark (tuz) and containing all of the sciences of the forefathers written in the old Persian form of writing.
Some of these books came into the possession of a man interested in them. Upon reading them, he found among them a book related to the ancient kings of Persia. In it it was mentioned that Tahmurath, the king who loved the sciences and scholars, was forewarned of an atmospheric phenomenon in the west, in the form of a series of rains which were to be excessive in both duration and abundance, [7] surpassing the [normal] limit.
From the first day of the years of his reign, to the first day when this phenomenon in the west began, was two-hundred and thirty-one years and three hundred days. From the beginning of his reign the astrologers led him to fear that this occurrence might pass from the west to the eastern regions. So he ordered the engineers to reach an agreement for the selecting of the best place in the kingdom, with regards to soil and atmosphere. They chose for him the site of the building which is known as Sarwayh and still exists at the present time within the city of Jayy. [8] So he commanded the construction of this well-guarded building. When it was completed there was moved to it from his libraries a great deal of scientific material of various sorts, copied for him on white poplar bark (tuz) and placed in a part of the building so that it might be preserved for mankind until after the phenomenon should come to an end.
There was in it [the building] a book which was related to some of the ancient sages and which contained [knowledge of] the years and known cycles for deriving the intermediate positions of the stars and the reasons for their motions. The people of the time of Tahmurath and those who lived earlier than they did in Persia called these the cycles of thousands (adwar al-hazarat). The wise men, the kings of India who were on the face of the earth, the former kings of Persia , [9] and the ancient Chaldeans, who were tent dwellers belonging to the earliest Babylonian period, reckoned the intermediate positions of the seven stars from these years and cycles. [10] He [the king] gave special care to this [book] from among the astronomical tables of his time, because he and his contemporaries found upon examination that it was the best and briefest. The astrologers of the period, therefore, derived from it the astronomical tables, which they called the Astronomical Tables of al-Shahriyar.
[1.] The Arabic word translated "writing material" os makatib, a plural form. It usually means "schools." Tuz shajar al-khadank is the inner bark of the khadang or white poplar tree. As a rule it was used for wrapping bow strings.
[2.] Unlike the other versions, the Flügel edition has Isfahan.
[3.] Jayy was an old town near Isbahan, also called Shahrastan. Rustaq signified a military encampment. Se Yaqut, Geogr., II, 181; III, 342 bottom; IV, 452, 1045, l. 9.
[4.] This was the Persian name for a fortress inside a city.
[5.] The fortress called by the Zoroastrians Jem-gird and later Sruwa, famous as the building where early Persian records were discovered; see "Isfahan," Enc. Brit., XIV, 869.
[6.] The Tonk MS. has a variation from dara ("knew").
[7.] The manuscripts give al-dawm, whereas Flügel has al-dawam; both forms mean "abundance." There are unimportant other variations.
[8.] For the proper names, see notes 3, 5.
[9.] The words "wise men" and "of Persia" are found only in the Flügel edition.
[10.] The seven stars probably refer to the sun, moon, and five known planets.
-- al-Nadim, The Fihrist, Chapter 7, pp. 576-578.
This is interesting, for several reasons. It recalls the stories and legends about the Pillars, of Enoch, Seth, etc., that were buried. One to withstand water, the other fire. These figure in Persian and Central Asian legends too. Also, the kind of material we are reading about here, is just exactly the kind of material that the Time System derives from, though we did not possess any of these Persian books at the time we compiled it. Next, we provide some speculative material.
There is an interesting but elusive figure in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. He gets scant mention, but it is quite possible that we have a match. We are speaking of Flegetanis, the heathen. He lived in Toledo. He possessed manuscripts like the kind mentioned above. In Toledo, the Italian note at the top mentions that books like the Kitab al-Mawalid circulated during the early years of the 13th Century, when this work shows up there. Perhaps this book, perhaps another, found its way to Toledo, to the hands of "Flegetanis" -- a code word, by the way. A code word that signifies a Star Gazer.
Quoting, then, from the Mustard/Passage edition:
"Kyot, the well-known master, found in Toledo, discarded, set down in heathen writing, the first source of this adventure. He had first to learn the abc's, but without the art of black magic. It helped him that he was baptized, else this story would still be unknown. No heathen art could be of use in revealing the nature of the Grail and how its mysteries were discovered.
"A heathen, Flegetanis, had achieved high renown for his learning. This scholar of nature was descended from Solomon and born of a family which had long been Israelite until baptism became our shield against the fire of Hell. He wrote the adventure of the Grail. On his father's side Flegetanis was a heathen, who worshipped a calf as if it were his god. — How can the Devil bring people so wise to such a shameful pass that they do not and did not distinguish between a calf and Him Whose hand is supreme and to Whom all wonders are known?
"The heathen Flegetanis could tell us how all the stars set and rise again and how long each one revolves before it reaches its starting point once more. To the circling course of the stars man's affairs and destiny are linked. Flegetanis the heathen saw with his own eyes in the constellations things he was shy to talk about, hidden mysteries. He said there was a thing called the Grail whose name he had read clearly in the constellations. 'A host of angels left it on the earth and then flew away up over the stars. Was it their innocence that drew them away? Since then baptized men have had the task of guarding it, and with such chaste discipline that those who are called to the service of the Grail are always noble men.' Thus wrote Flegetanis.
"Kyot, the wise master, set about to trace this tale in Latin books, to see where there ever had been a people, dedicated to purity and worthy of caring for the Grail. He read the chronicles of the lands, in Britain and elsewhere, in France and in Ireland, and in Anjou he found the tale. There he read the true story of Mazadan, and the exact record of all his family was written there, and further how Titurel and his son Frimutel bequeathed the Grail to Anfortas, whose sister Herzeloyde was. By her Gahmuret had a child who is the hero of this story. He is riding now along the new path on which the grey knight met him." -- Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival. pages 243-245.
There are interesting clues in this passage. It might not necessarily be Jews, or descendants of Solomon, "per-se", but descendants of the Phoenicians who once existed in the area around Mount Hermon, where the host of angels left "it". The progeny of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Men are these Phoenicians, who, then, constitute the Living Grail. The descendants of these, too. Another thing, the practices ascribed to the "Heathens" doesn't necessarily suggest the Jews. It could be the Nusairi. It could be the Harranians. It could be a combination. This knowledge reached Europe at least a hundred years earlier.
The astronomical knowledge mentioned above is not that far off from the kind of material that the Persians preserved, and that which Abu-Ma'shar was learned in. That this information reached Toledo at roughly the same time that this story was written, indicates that it was known about at the time, at the very least.
Here is one more item from Parzival. It is in the endnotes section, prepared by the editors:
1. SATURN — "the highest of the planets, Zval" = Zubal — "Saturn."
2. JUPITER — "the swiftly moving Almustri" = Al Mushtori — "The Shining One."
3. MARS — "Almaret" = (?) Al Ahmar — "The Red" (so listed in the eleventh-century Glossarium Latino-Arabicum, along with the Hebrew term "maadim," also signifying "The Red"); = (?) Al Marrekh — Spanish-Arabic for "He armed with the long spear."
4. THE SUN — "the bright Samsi" = (ash-) shams — "the sun." (The Arabic word, however, may not stand without the article (ash-); the ending in -i is probably dictated by the rhyme.)
5. VENUS — "Alligafir." MS d has aliasir; MS g Aligofir; MS Gg gofir. The word is unexplained, and the proposal has been rejected that it represents the Arabic article Al plus Latin Lucifer.
6. MERCURY — "Alkiter" = (?) Al Katib — "The Scribe" (Glossarium Latino-Arabicum); = (?) Al Kedr — "The Dark One"; = (?) Al Utarid — "Mercury."
7. THE MOON — "And nearest us is Alkamer." = Al Qamar — "the Moon."
There is at least one parallel in this listing of figures: Image 4: the Demon al Malik al Ahmar. (above)
From what we can tell, the material in the Book of Nativities is very old, based on traditions handed down from the days of the Ancient Sages of Persia and bequeathed to them from sources long anterior to that ancient race.