Re: Manazil Al Qamar Pdf Download
Icaro Aveiga
Various cultures have used sets of lunar stations astrologically; for example, the Jyotisha astrological nakshatras of Hindu culture, the Arabic manzils (manazil al-qamar), the Twenty-Eight Mansions of Chinese astronomy, and the 36 decans of Egyptian astronomy. Western astrology does not use stations, but each zodiac sign covers two or three. The Chinese system groups houses into four groups related to the seasons.
In the traditional Arabic astrological system,[5] the new moon was seen to move through 28 distinct manāzil (singular: manzil "house") during the normal solar year, each manzil lasting, therefore, for about 13 days. One or more manazil were then grouped into a nawaa (plural anwaa) which were tied to a given weather pattern. In other words, the yearly pattern was divided in the following manner:[6] A year was divided into anwaa, each of which was made up of one more manazil, which were associated with a dominant star or constellation. These stars and constellations were sometimes, but not always, connected in some way to constellations in the Zodiac. Moreover, as the anwaa repeat on a regular, solar cycle, they can be correlated to fixed points on the Gregorian calendar.
(2) the ʿAmal (Islamic view of angels, equivalent to rank of the "Watcher" or "Guardian Angel") is the Angel that rules the corresponding Arabic alphabet (rhythm of the alphabet in numerology of the Abjad system), manazilu-l-qamar (lunar houses) and constellations (i.e. zodiac signs). Generally speaking, the four Archangels in Islam ace Jibrāʼīl, Mīkāʼīl, ʼIsrāfīl and Malaku-l-Maut (ʿAzrāʼīl).
There is no reference in the Quran to the pre-Islamic system of anwa in which the year is divided into precise periods on the basis of the rising and setting of certain stars. According to tradition, this system was considered anathema in Islam. The most relevant Quranic allusion to calendar-related computation is to the stations of the moon (manazil al-qamar, 10:5, 36:39). There are twenty-eight such stations defined on the basis of a combination of the pre-Islamic system of anwa with the lunar stations system.
Before the days of Islam, the celestial geography of Arabian astronomy was heavily textured and characterized by a rich multivalency of meaning derived from visual observation at various times of night and seasons of the year. Stars and star groupings were cultural texts that could be read by anyone in the community who knew their meanings, which were transmitted through poetry and rhymed prose outside of direction observation in the night sky. This is a characteristic of the celestial chronotope, a concept that describes the transmissible cultural meanings attached to the appearance of stars as they moved through time and space. Many stars were connected to each other as parts of overlapping associations of stars. Arabian folkloric celestial complexes depicted scenes in the sky, with individual stars often representing animals or people, but sometimes drawing single figures together like the constellations of Greek astronomy. Arabian calendrical celestial complexes included setting rain stars (al-anwa') and also rising stars that forecast seasonal changes. The rain stars that set just before dawn were especially laden with meaning and were commonly ascribed agency for bringing seasonal rains, a situation that was immediately at odds with the monotheistic tenets of formative Islam. Over time, Arabian celestial complexes were fragmented and incorporated within the framework of foreign astronomical systems, including the lunar stations (manazil al-qamar), a calendar that claimed a uniform separation in time and space between each star grouping that was not reflected in the actual observation of the sky. These changes effectively flattened the multivalent textures of Arabian astronomy, reducing its observed celestial complexes and agency-laden celestial chronotopes to hegemonic discourses that imposed regularity within a systematic universe. As a speech act itself, this dissertation reanimates the Arabian celestial chronotopes and celestial complexes by stripping away the hegemonic discourses that imposed order upon them and effaced their multivalency.
Varie culture hanno usato astrologicamente serie di case lunari; ad esempio le nakshatra astrologiche della cultura indù, le manzil arabe (manazil al-qamar), le ventotto case dell'astronomia cinese e i 36 decani dell'astronomia egizia. Altre case sono raggruppate insieme: nell'astrologia occidentale ciascun segno dello zodiaco copre 2-3 case, mentre il sistema cinese raggruppa le case in quattro gruppi legati alle stagioni.
L'astrologia araba utilizzava un sistema di 28 case lunari chiamato Manāzil al-qamar. In questo sistema si riteneva che la luna si muovesse attraverso 28 distinte manazil (singolare: manzil = casa) durante il normale anno solare, ciascuna delle quali durava, perciò, circa 13 giorni. Una o più manazil erano poi raggruppate in una nawaa e l'insieme delle anwaa (forma plurale di nawaa) componeva l'anno. In altre parole, lo schema era il seguente:[3] un anno era diviso in anwaa, ciascuna delle quali era fatta di una o più manazil, che erano associate a una stella o costellazione dominante.
The last double-page illustration in the manuscript refers to a short treatise dealing with the mansions or stations of the Moon (manazil al-qamar). This is another astronomical subject that was taken up by astrologers and an iconography was developed at least as early as the 14th century to illustrate the text. The movement of the moon across the night sky and its different phases could be easily followed and standard reference points were provided by groups of stars marking its daily journey eastward. Medieval astronomers in the Islamic Near and Middle East relied on twenty-eight groups of stars for reference, which became known as Lunar mansions or resting-places of the Moon. The shift to an astrological meaning for these mansions was natural and both text and images probably developed at an early stage. The two facing pages include the general title in gold ink repeated in the cartouche at the top of each folio. The text and illustrations are organized in four vertical rows with seven mansions on each giving a total of twenty-eight. A narrow vertical cartouche that includes the name of the mansion in red ink is sandwiched between seven lines of text inside a square to its right and the illustration to its left. The figures depicted in the vignette, all set within a gold, broken-arch frame are sometimes difficult to interpret because the name of the mansion is self-explanatory only in several instances, often being based on passages in the text or an earlier iconography that is unclear to us. Without a doubt, the mansions of the moon are rarely depicted in Islamic astrological manuscripts therefore a consistent imagery may not have developed throughout the centuries.