Astrology, Alchemy, and Politics, Iran/Central Asia 500–1500ce

Both astrology and alchemy had their influence on the public sphere. Astrologers were the favored advisors of Sassanid rulers in political matters, as documented in theKarnamag i Ardaxshir(sixth century). Alchemy may also have played a role, as later Arabic sources suggest. After the defeat of the Umayyads, the Abbasid caliphs modeled themselves and their courts after the Sassanids. In 762, Caliph al Mansur commissioned two Iranian astrologers to find an auspicious date and time for laying the foundation stone of the new residential city in Baghdad. Mashaʾallah (d. before 815) wrote the earliest extant work on political astrology based on the great conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. Abu Maʿshar (d. 886) developed a different concept in his bookal‐Uluf(The Thousands), based on a “world year“ of 360,000 years. A unique document of political astrology is the Dustur al‐Munajjimin, written in Alamut, the stronghold of the Assassins. The finest astrological manuscript is the personal horoscope of the Timurid prince Iskandar Sultan (d. 1415). Less clear is the political function of alchemy, but the example of al‐Tughraʾi (d. 1121), a high official in the Seljuk Empire, shows that alchemy must have had relations with the ruler. Alchemy claimed the possibility to transform base metals into gold, which was highly controversial among scholars. Al‐Kindi and Ibn Sina denied it, while al‐Farabi defended it. There was a less speculative and more practical side of alchemy. Chemical instruments were used in Nishapur in the ninth or tenth centuries, as evidenced by archaeological finds.