Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4.

Volume 2 ( 2011)

An Ottoman Calendar (takvim) for 1740/41AD

An astronomical, historical and interreligious database
Gerhard Behrens Abstract: The article analyses in detail a takvim codex (one-year calendar) for 1740/41 AD dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I. (1740-1754). The takvims were presented yearly to the sultans during a court ceremony celebrating Nauruz, on the date of the vernal equinox. The takvims with their wealth of astronomical, historical and religious information have not been the object of a detailed study before. By comparing the astronomical data with modern computerised databases of the NASA and other sources the criteria for Ottoman timekeeping will be explained. The Muslim and Christian religious feasts that occupy a large section of the takvim also merit a detailed study, as they reveal a tradition that seems at odds sometimes with accepted religious doctrine. It can be shown that these as well as the takvims astrological data are rooted in the research of much earlier Muslim astronomers and chronologists like Biruni and others. The takvim proves, therefore, to be an important document of the knowledge Ottoman society had of astronomy and chronology, exceeding its primary use as a simple calendar.1

I am grateful to Professor J.M. Rogers for his critical reading and advice.

Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)

Ottoman perpetual 1 Introduction calendars, called ruznames2, rely A whole literature is on the latter method, which is devoted to methods of based on a cyclical recurrence of calculating the Islamic lunar arithmetically calculated dates calendar. Apart from the in both the lunar Hijri and the orthodox method that requires solar Julian Christian year. The actual sighting of the new moon ruznames have always been of as the start of a month, there are interest not only to astronomic calculations, which chronologists but also to are based on various criteria collectors of Islamic art, due to regarding the visibility of the their artistic design and new crescent, and finally the illumination as codices or scrolls compilation of a calendar with on parchment or paper, fulfilling fixed cycles disregarding both decorative purposes alongside actual sighting and astronomic their function as a chronological computation.1 tool3, similar to the astrolabes that were scientific tools and cherished works of art at the same time.

vid. M. Ilyas, A Modern Guide to Astronomical Calculations of Islamic Calendar Times & Qibla, Kuala Lumpur 1984, pp. 82ss. for a detailed explanation of the Islamic lunar month and the problems to define the visibility of a new crescent. Also Birunis treatise on the determination of the length of Ramadan (Albrn, The Chronology of Ancient Nations, [(transl. & ed. C.E. Sachau], London 1879 [reprint Frankfurt 1984], pp. 76-81) is still worthwhile reading because as a true polymath he treats the matter under every possible aspect - scientific, religious and even linguistic.

In a more general sense ruzname means also a journal for recording events. 3 e.g. three ruznames in: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, vol. XII/1 (ed. J. Raby), Oxford 1997, cat. 170-172
2

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They are a distinctive Ottoman contribution to Islamic science and exist basically in two versions, whose respective origins are attributed to hardly known authors. One of them is Shaykh Vefa, a mystic and a holy man who died in 14911; the other is Darendeli Mehmet Efendi, whose version, in use since the end of the 18th century2, superseded that of Shaykh Vefa. Some explanation is needed to read both versions, and only about once in a century a Western scholar took the pains to explain them in detail.3
1

Vindelicorum (=Augsburg/Germany) 1676; 2. J.B. Navoni, Rouz-nam ou Calendrier perptuel des Turcs, in: Hammer-Purgstall, Fundgruben des Orients, vol. 1, Vienna 1814, pp. 3867/127-153/253-277 (& attached tables); 3.. F.K.Ginzel, Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie das Zeitrechnungswesen der Vlker,vol.1, Leipzig 1906, pp. 26671; 4. N. A. Br & G. Rettelbach, Aufbau und Inhalt der Osmanischen

The cyclical or arithmetic dating method is dictated by the perennial purpose of the ruznames. Several tables, some arranged in linear, others in rhomboid form, are listed on their first page or on top of a scroll, with only the limited number of entries that are needed for one cycle. Otherwise they would become unwieldy and, therefore, useless. This method is only correct, however, regarding one of both calendars used in the ruznames, viz. the Julian-calendar with New Year on 1st of March. This calendar is truly cyclical as it alternates D.A. King, Astronomical between one intercalary year of Timekeeping in Ottoman Turkey. In 366 days and three normal years Islamic Mathematical Astronomy, of 365 days starting on one of XII. London: Variorum Reprints, pp. seven weekdays, which results in 245255, p.248. G.B.Toderini, De la littrature des recurring cycles of 4x7 = 28 Turcs (transl. l'Abb de Cournand), years that can easily be handled Paris 1789, vol. 1, p.146. even by the relatively short The only detailed explanations I ruznames. The task of could trace are by chronological determining in advance the first order: 1. Georgii Hieronymi Velschi (=Welsch), Commentarius in of the lunar months of the Ruzname Naurus sive Tabulae Islamic year, the lunation, is aequinoctiales novi Persarum & much more complicated, Turcarum anni, Augusta however. If the author of a
Kalenderrolle im Hamburgischen Museum fr Vlkerkunde, in: Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fr Vlkerkunde Hamburg. n.F., Bd. 20; 1990. pp. 145-160. Nos.2 to 4 are all versions of the Darendeli ruzname, while no.1 is a Sheykh Vefa ruzname. - M. dOhsson, Tableau Gnral de lEmpire Othoman, vol. I, Paris 1787, after p. 192 includes a Darendeli ruzname for 1192-1277 AH. without any explanation, however.

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ruzname had the ambition to apply astronomically correct methods for fixing the lunation for a period of many years, his calendar would be too voluminous to be included on a few pages or fit onto a scroll of one to two meters; it would rather require a codex of hundreds of pages. The ruznames had, therefore, to rely for the Islamic year as well on a cyclical calendar with short tables of recurring dates. This is in principle the same method as applied in modern Western conversion tables such as that of Mahler-Wstenfeld and in computer conversion programmes, the modern versions of a ruzname. This schematic calendar, whose method is comparable to that of the truly cyclical Western calendar, was already known to mediaeval Muslim astronomers.1 Instead of computing the dates of the new crescent as the start of lunar month by one of several rather complicated astronomical calculations, it applies an easier cyclical formula that approximates very closely the
1

astronomical calculation. This well-known formula uses a recurring cycle of 30 years, in which normal years (354 days) are followed at certain intervals2 by intercalary years (355 days), while the months change alternately between 30 days (Muharram) and 29 days (DhulHijja), with the last month (Dhul-Hijja) having 30 days in intercalary years. Yet as mentioned before, this cyclical calendar can only approximate the astronomical determination of the lunar dates for future dates and in the case of Ramadan in particular could always be overruled by actual sightings of the new crescent. The Darendeli ruznames, moreover, apply a cycle of only eight years, which sacrifices more precision for the sake of yet greater convenience. Whereas eight correctly
2

Qalqashand, ub al-ash f ina al-insh, Cairo 1913-9 (reprint 1963), vol.VI, pp. 255-6.; Sdillot, Prolgomnes des tables astronomiques dOloug-Beg traduction et commentaire, Paris 1853, p.11.

In both Qalqashand s and Ulug Beg s 30-years-cycle the 15th year is an intercalary year, whereas other cyclical calendars based on the same cycle mark the 16th year instead. As the difference to the astronomically correct calendar reaches precisely half a day after 15 days and calendars are divided into full days, the jump necessary for the alignment can be equally justified by adding a full day to either the 15th or the 16th year of the 30-years cycle. In arithmetic calendars with 15.7.622 as the epoch of the Islamic era the 15th year of a cycle is normally an intercalary year, while those based on 16.7.622 add one day to the 16th year.

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calculated lunar years are equivalent to 2834d22h28m36s, the simplified eight-year cycle is composed of a full number of 2835 days.1 This number can be divided without any remainder into 405 weeks, which fits ideally into a perpetual calendar, although the difference from the true solar calendar results in an error of approx. one day for every 126 years. As the ruznames normally cover only a lesser number of years, this difference could be tolerated. A more important and rather annoying source of error, shared by both the ruznames and the modern conversion tables/programmes, lies in their rigid alternating sequence of lunar months of 29 and 30 days. Islamic historians are often frustrated when they have to realise that the Hijra dates mentioned in historical sources or even modern Arab newspapers diverge from those given in the conversion tables, e.g. when a month with 29 days is followed by another month with also only 29 days. The final decision about this was formerly the task of religious authorities2.
whereas the 30-years-cycle, which is not used in the Darendeli ruzames, results in the almost correct figure of 2834 days + 22 hours for eight lunar years. 2 According to Wrschmidt, a German professor in Constantinople in 1917, the Sheykh ul-Islam was then in
1

Therefore, the conversion of Hijra dates into the Western calendar in the ruznames and modern tables, although being mostly correct, can never be taken for granted unless confirmed by the day of the week.3

charge of fixing the length of the months: J. Wrschmidt, Die Zeitrechnung im osmanischen Reiche, Deutsche Optische Wochenschrift, 10 (1917) p.99. In the modern Islamic world printed calendars are based on dates fixed mainly by government observatories. Navoni, who at the beginning of the 19th century had still the possibility to learn how ruznames were used in practice, states this quite clearly (Navoni, op.cit, p.42): car les astronomes turcs ne se rglent pour cela ni daprs le cycle de trente ans, ni daprs celui, bien moins exact, de 8 ans, dont ils font usage dans leur Calendrier perptuel, pour trouver le jour de la semaine, par lequel commencent, ou plutt sont censes devoir commencer leurs annes et les lunaisons suivantes. He repeats this assessment when he contradicts Toderini, one of his sources, who erroneously had described the ruzname as a very precise instrument for getting correct lunar dates and even times (Navoni, op.cit, pp.40-1)

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The following discussion deals with a calendar manuscript valid for one year only (1740/41 AD), which differs from the perpetual ruzname1. The calendar for one year, generally known in Turkish as takvim (Arabic: taqwm), 2 can easily compute all days of that year by the finely tuned and more precise methods of the astronomers. It has furthermore the possibility to register astronomical phenomena that occur on a particular day of this year with a precision that cannot be reached by the uniform
1

Other calendars in my own collection a takvim scroll for 1831/32, a codex salname (a complete almanac including annals, list of foreign dynasties etc.) for 1895/96 and a takvim booklet for 1938 will be consulted for comparison and explanation of data. vid. article Tawm by M. Hofelich in EI2 & its bibliography. A description of a takvim or what he called journal of the year [daftar alsana] is given by Biruni, Kitb altafhm li awil ina al-tanjm, (transl. R. Ramsey Wright), London 1934, no. 321. It resembles the Ottoman takvims, although with a slightly different choice of data. For the design of a standard Ottoman takvim see also M.A.N. Akgr, Mneccimba Takvimlerinde Tarihleme Yntemleri, Trk Dnyasi Aratrmalar, vol. 80, 1992, pp. 99-120, which in spite of its title does not provide much information concerning the methods (yntemleri) applied by the Chief Astronomers.

dating method of the ruznames. The focus of the takvims for 1740/41 and 1831/32 on astronomy is further accentuated by their choice of the basic year, viz. a solar year starting on Nauruz, the vernal (spring) equinox, which is different from all other calendars in practical use in the Ottoman Empire.3 The dates of the Julian, Mali-Financial and the Seleucid calendars (all solar) that were in actual use for mainly administrative purposes are not defined by the astronomical observation of the Sun. Also the solar Coptic calendar and the lunar Islamic calendars connect day One of their first month to other stars (Coptic: Sirius, inherited from an Ancient Egyptian calendar; Islamic: Moon), while they count their years from historical events (Coptic: accession year of Emperor Diocletian; Islamic: Hijra of the Prophet).

The Malikshah calendar with its New Year on the vernal equinox was known, but not used in practical life in the Ottoman Empire, unlike Iran where it even forms the basis of the present calendar.

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More modern Turkish calendars like a salname for 1895/96, while substituting the solar Nauruz year with the MaliFinancial year (beginning on 1st of March) that became widespread for administrative purposes since the 17th century, still kept their focus on astronomy by dating planetary aspects such as conjunctions. A takvims lunar and other astronomical data can be correct only if the calendar authors use a correct zj, the traditional database of Islamic 1 astronomers. For many centuries they would apply the zj of Ulugh Beg, who was more successful as an astronomer than as a short-term Timurid sultan (1447-9). His zj, known as zj-i suln after his title or zj-i gurgn after his nisba, became the standard tool, supplanting the zj-i lkhn of the equally famous astronomer Nir al-Dn s2. At the end of the 18th century, however, Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) cancelled its use in favour of the tables of the French astronomer Jacques Cassini (d. 1756), translated by Halifezadeh Ismail Efendi (d. 1790), which were considered more correct. They
1 2

in turn were substituted in 1829 by the tables of another French astronomer, Joseph-Jrme Lefranais Lalande (d.1807), after a report presented to Sultan Mahmud II (1808-39) by its translator, the mneccimba Hseyin Hsni Efendi, had revealed that Cassinis tables also included mistakes.3 We may assume, therefore, that the takvim for 1740/41 AD, published here, is based on Ulugh Beg and the takvim for 1831 on Lalande.

D.A.King/J.Sams, Zdj, EI2 Sdillot, Prolgomnes des tables astronomiques dOloug-Beg, vol. 1, Paris 1847, p. cxix.

E. Ihsanolu, The Introduction of Western Science to the Ottoman World: A Case Study of Modern Astronomy (1600-1860), in: E. Ihsanolu, Science, Technology and Learning in the Ottoman Empire, Aldershot(UK)/Burlington(US) 2004, chapter II, pp.31-2.

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The traditional takvims marked Nauruz, the day of the vernal (spring) equinox, as the beginning of the year. The feast, originating just like its name itself in Iranian culture, was an occasion for giving presents and for the recital of poems known as Nevruziyye. While some orthodox Muslim authors criticized the celebration of Nauruz for its continuation of heathen traditions, the Shia even incorporated it into their own hagiography by commemorating it as the day, when Ali was born, when he married the Prophets daughter Fatima, and when the Prophet proclaimed him as his successor. Neither orthodox criticism nor Shi heterodoxy prevented the Ottomans from celebrating Nauruz, however1. During an important ceremony at the Ottoman court on that day, the mneccimba, the Chief Astronomer, whose task was to prepare the takvim for the next year starting on Nauruz, presented it to the Sultan, the Grand-Vizier and other dignitaries.2 A similar ceremony is recorded already in pre-Ottoman times.3
1

Mamluk Cairo also seems to have attached a special importance to the presentation of the calendar. Muammad b. Abdallh (d. 1472), a highly respected mqt (a person in charge of defining prayer times) and astrologer, gave every year calendars to high-ranking people upon their special request4. While the Fatimids of Egypt (969-1171) also celebrated a Nauruz, their feast marked the beginning of the Coptic year (end of August), not the day of

http://www.edebyahu.com/makale /22/nevruz-gelenegi S. Aydz, Mneccimba, Islam Ansiklopedisi, and . Gndz, Nevruz, Islam Ansiklopedisi. G.Necipolu, however, does not mention the celebration in her book Architecture, Ceremonial, and Power The Topkap in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Cambridge/US, London 1991), which leaves the possibility open that the Nevruz ceremonial did not take place at all times.. At the court of the Buyid ruler Aud al-Dawla (983-990 according to Saliba, G. The role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society, in: Magic and Divination in early Islam (ed. Emilie Savage-Smith), Aldershot 2004, pp. 341-370, p.356. al-Jawhar al-ayraf, A. Inb alhar bi-abn al-ar (ed. . abashi), Cairo 1970, p.455.

On the importance of Nauruz in the Ottoman Empire vid. C. Bayak, Nevrziyye, Islam Ansiklopedisi and Yahya Kemal Beyatl, Nevruz Gelenei in:

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the vernal equinox.1 As already mentioned, the Ottoman sultan ultimately decided which zj would form the basis for astronomical date keeping, at least at the turn of the 18th to the 19th centuries. The Nevruz ceremony moreover confirms the importance of calendars in Ottoman culture and of the conspicuous role played by the sultans in this matter.2. The Christian world had been preoccupied as well with the liturgical calendar, when it came to defining the date for Easter, a matter of theological dispute for centuries, even millennia, which finally led to the Gregorian calendar reform. Yet in the Islamic world the significance of time-keeping reached far beyond the sphere of religion and the determination of prayer and fasting times. Apart from the general belief in astrology, with the exception of a few orthodox and some rationalist thinkers3 , the study
1

of the rules of time-keeping was stimulated to a large extent by the presence of important nonMuslim minorities, who kept their own calendars. Moreover, the impact of the rich traditions of astronomical studies and chronology of India and preIslamic Iran contributed to this interest. Ottoman astronomers and chronologists were acquainted with other traditions through the enduring importance encyclopaedic works on Greek, Roman, Christian, Iranian and Indian astronomy, astrology and chronology by e.g. Brn (9731048AD).4 Brn, who was widely travelled like many Islamic scholars (apart from Khorezm he lived in Ghazna in modern Afghanistan -, India and Jurjan, near the Caspian sea), painstakingly recorded local traditions of chronology and religious feasts. 5 Brn remains
early Islam (ed. Emilie Savage-Smith), Aldershot 2004, pp. 277-340, p.216 lists names of skeptic Islamic scholars who criticized the astrologers. 4 An outstanding polymath.from Khorezm, now a part of modern Uzbekistan that in Brns time was still part of the Iranian world (later increasingly subject to Turkic influence). 5 After writing his often quoted important work on the chronology of Middle Eastern nations, Brn in his later life studied in detail astronomy and timekeeping as practised in India, resulting in his equally important book on India: Kitb f

Maqrz, Taq al-Dn A. Kitb al-

maw i wa l-i tibr bi-dhikr alkhia wa l-thr (ed. A.Y.Sayyid), vol. 2 (London 2002), p.600. 2 According to J.Gimpel, La rvolution industrielle du Moyen Age, Paris 1975, p.142-3, the role of the Chinese emperor was even more important since only he could promulgate the calendar, the rules of which were a state secret. 3 Michot, Y. Ibn Taimiyya, an Astrologer annotated translation of three fatwas, in: Magic and Divination in

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the most important source for Middle Eastern chronology. His influence even on the relatively modern Ottoman takvims is obvious as the following analysis of the takvim of 1740/41 will show. One striking example of his impact is a rather obscure Khorezmian feast, the Nauruz Khorezmshah (see details below in the chapter on holidays p.54) included in several Ottoman takvims, which is recorded in his Chronology of Nations, but nowhere else, as far as I can ascertain. The inclusion of the Central Asian animal calendar for the determination of the current year in late Ottoman takvims (see below p.25) is evidence of their link with even more remote regions in Asia. The other end of the geographical spectrum was covered by among many others, including Brn Ktib elebi, the prominent Ottoman encyclopaedist of the 17th century, in his guidebook to European traditions with the significant title The bewildered persons initiation to the history of Greece, Rome and the Christians [Irshd al-ayr il trikh al-Yunn wal-Rm walNar]1 The multi-cultural
taqq m li-l-Hind...(ed. C.E. Sachau), London 1888. O.S. Gkyay, Ktib elebi, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition;

aspect of Turkish (as compared to Western) almanacs is already evident in the title of folio one of the takvim under study here: table for date conversion between well-known calendars [cedvel-i marife-i tahvil-i sal ve tevarih-i mehure] 2. On a more mundane level, the need to manage tax matters on a seasonal, i.e. solar, basis, which the lunar Islamic calendar does not meet, required the study of alternative solutions that were on offer by both Iranian and Christian calendars. All through Islamic history peasants had been complaining when overzealous tax collectors forced them to pay taxes before they could even harvest their crops, because payment dates based on the short 354 day lunar calendar advanced by approximately 11 days every year compared to the seasons that are dictated by the Sun and not by the Moon. To alleviate this problem Muslim rulers have made several attempts some more successful than others to introduce solar tax calendars beside the Islamic calendar that still remained the official source
idem, Ktib elebi, Islam Ansiklopedisi. In this and the following I use, depending on the context, either the modern Turkish transliteration of the Ottoman original or for pure Arabic quotations the transliteration rules for Arabic.

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for date reckoning. It would be interesting to know whether this 18th century almanac and later Ottoman almanacs with their focus on planetary phenomena were still committed to the Ptolemaic idea of the planets (including the Sun and the Moon) moving around the earth or had already adopted the heliocentric world model of Copernicus. The Copernican ideas were transmitted to the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 17th century by the works of European astronomers Noel Durret (translated by Kse Ibrahim Efendi in 1660-4)1 and Janszoon Blaeu (translated by Ab Bakr b. Bahrm b. Abd Allh al-anaf al-Dimashq, d.1692)2. It took them longer, however, to gain general acceptance. When Ibrahim Mteferrika, the father of the Ottoman printing press, in 1732 published and commented Cihannma, the work of the already mentioned Ottoman author Ktib elebi, or in 1733 the translation of Atlas Coelestis by the German cartographer Andreas Cellarius, only seven/eight years prior to our takvim, he was cautious enough not to attack openly the Ptolemaic geocentric theory in favour of the Copernican system or Tycho Brahes curious
1 2

combination of geocentric and heliocentric ideas. His caution was obviously motivated by his fear of the Ulema. The fears might have been unfounded, because heliocentric views were much less heretical for the Muslim religious establishment than for the Christian church, whose disquieting reaction Mteferrika knew well from his past as a student of theology at a Hungarian college of the Christian Unitarian denomination.3 Even as late as in the early 19th century4 Seyyid Ali Bey, Director of the Mhendishne-i Berr-i Hmayn (Imperial Land Forces College of Engineering, later merged into Istanbul Technical University), in the preface to his edition of a work of a 15th century geographer opted for the geocentric world of Ptolemy, although he did mention Copernicus and Tycho Brahes theories.5 It was only after Seyyid Ali Beys dismissal in 1830 that the Copernican world model gained general acceptance under his successor Ishak Efendi.6 It is very probable, therefore, that the author of the takvim for
E. Ihsanolu, op.cit., pp.15-20. About the same time when the Catholic Church removed heliocentric works from the Index of forbidden books! 5 E. Ihsanolu, op.cit., p. 34 6 E. Ihsanolu, op.cit., p. 35.
3 4

E. Ihsanolu, op.cit., pp.3-10. E. Ihsanolu, op.cit., pp.10-15.

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1740/41 still believed or professed to believe - that the Sun and the planets moved around the Earth. As astronomical phenomena can be explained more or less convincingly in all world models and the terms used are compatible to all of them, this question must remain open.1

By Gods will, this year is a sign of happiness for the virtuous, the pious and the believers, and may they be granted blessings, luck, good fortune and rule, especially [by] the sultan of the sultans of the time and the world, the Great Khan, image of Alexander, vested with authority, the caliph of the messenger of the Lord of The takvim under study the Worlds whose supreme here2 was produced to honour power reigns in Paradise - , the Sultan Mahmud I (1740-1754), refuge of kings and sultans, the as its dedication attests. Its text protector of the poor and the (folio 2 recto) deserves to be destitute, the bearer of the quoted for its exalted rhymed banner of the Holy Law, the eulogy (with a few Arabic follower of the rightly guided mistakes included) that is caliphs, the saviour of Islam characteristic for the period and the Muslims, the destroyer (underlined passages marked of the unbelievers and red in the original, bold passage polytheists, who finds help in marked gold): the support of the Lord of the Worlds, the victorious by the grace of the Lord of victories, the sultan, son of sultan, son of sultan, the Sultan Ghazi Mahmud Khan, son of Sultan Mustafa Khan, son of Sultan Mehmet Khan, may the trees of 1 In the 10th century already, Biruni stated that all astronomical his state be green and the phenomena can be equally well flowers of his reign be red explained in a helio- and a geocentric forever until the end of all system (Kitb f taqq m li-l-Hind, times. Amen, oh Lord of the vol.1, p.277). See also C. De Vaux, Les Worlds.
2

Penseurs de l'Islam, vol 2 (Paris ), p. 217. I am grateful to Sam Fogg (of Sam Fogg Gallery, London) for his permission to publish the manuscript of the almanac of his collection and to David Brunetti for the high-resolution images of the original.

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[In sha llh bu sl sadat nishn akhyr jihn wa

mukhaara [sic]

2,

wa azhr

mma-i abrr wa ahl imn zerine mubrak wa maymn wa khujaste wa humyn ola, The takvim codex was khuan suln saln zamn designated by later inscriptions wa zamn wa khqn Iskandar as waqf of Sultan Mahmud to nishn hib al-tamkn, khalfa the Narat-i aramayn alrasl rabb al-lamn, al-wil Sharifayn (the department in uluw qadrihi il al-illiyyn, kahf charge of the Holy Sites of Mecca and Medina) in a location al-mulk wa al-saln, maldh described as inside the Bab Azab [Azap Kaps] in the al-fuqar wa al-maskn, rfi annexes (mulaqt) of the waqfs alm al-shar al-mubn, slik near the Holy and Great mosque maslik al-khulaf al-rshidn, of Aya Sofia in Istanbul3. iyth [sic] 1 al-Islm wa almuslimn, qtil al-kafara wa almushrikn, al-muayyad bi-tayd rabb al-lamn, al-manr binura khayr al-nirn, al-suln ibn al-suln ibn al-suln alSuln al-Ghz Mamd Khn ibn al-Suln Mustaf Khn ibn al-Suln Muammad Khn l zla [sic; should be: zlat] ashjr dawlatihi
2

salanatihi muammara [sic], il khir al-zamn, wa ghyat alawn. Amn, y rabb al-lamn]

Both terms - mukhaara and muammara are grammatically wrong: They should be mukharra

Meant is iydh = succour in Arabic.

3

iyth would be a derivative of tha = to destroy!

and mumarra, instead. According to a note on the upper part of 1st folio recto.

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The royal provenance explains the luxurious design as a codex in leather binding with gold embossed medallions. According to Toderini, who worked as instructor at the embassy of Venice in Istanbul in the 1780s, takvims1 in codex form were produced for dignitaries, while the sultan himsel f was presented with a scroll on parchment.2 If his observation is correct, the present takvim must have originally belonged to a dignitary, not to the sultan himself, although it came later to be part of the sultans waqfs. A detailed analysis of the takvims shows that its users in particular and probably the Ottomans in general were particularly interested in astronomy, mainly but not exclusively in combination with astrology, and must have had a considerable knowledge of the movements of the Sun, the Moon and the planets. The records of the relative positions of these heavenly bodies, their so-called aspects, as explained in detail in the following pages and their sometimes seemingly irregular movements could only have been of interest to a community that had more than a passing knowledge of
Called ruz-nameh de lanne by Toderini. 2 G.B.Toderini, op.cit., vol.1, p. 149.
1

astronomy. Another aspect of the takvims that contrasts with the contemporary almanacs of the Western world is their recording of the feasts not only of Islam, the main religion, but equally of Christianity and to a lesser degree of the Jewish minorities, as well. The takvim authors went even so far as to devise a short formula for calculating Easter, before even the Christian world had invented a mathematical algorithm for this (vid. chapter on holidays for details, p. 54s.). This is quite remarkable as the calendar makers were recruited from the Muslim religious establishment. The significance of this kind of calendar manuscript lies, therefore, in the wealth of astronomical, astrological, chronological, religious and meteorological data that reveal in a concise form Ottoman knowledge and interest in these subjects. As other takvims of less elaborate design but with similar data exist, this interest could not have been confined to the social elite only. In the 17th century comparable almanacs were sold in Britain by the thousands, exceeding even the Bible in their popularity and authority, no literate person of any social class being without at least one almanac, and at the end of the 18th century even between a quarter and a half million copies

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of one individual almanac were sold.1 Similar distribution figures could not be reached in the Ottoman Empire, of course, as takvims were not printed until much later. There is no doubt, however, that before mankind had reluctantly advanced into the Age of Enlightenment, the almanacs/takvims with their attractive mixture of factual knowledge, pseudo-science, superstition, religious data and practical advices were immensely popular in the Ottoman and Western societies alike. The takvims astronomical and religious data will be analyzed in detail on the following pages, with sometimes quite remarkable results. The last folios with a drawing of a lion attacking an animal, a Persian poem together with a chronogram for 1706 AD and two ghurretnames2 for the much earlier years of 1110 AH and 1118 AH, show no obvious connection with the takvim, which was designed for 1152-4 AH/1740-1 AD. Therefore, they will not be discussed here.
P. Whitfield, Astrology a history, London 2001, pp.176, 188. 2 a ghurretname is a table to compute the weekday of the first day of each month for several years (from Arabic: ghurra [first day of a month] and Persian name [book, list]),
1

folio 1 verso

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2. General Sections (folio 1, verso, see p. 14) These pages merit a detailed study of the astronomical phenomena and chronological data that were used to determine the starting date of the takvim and record a partial lunar eclipse. The takvim refers to the year for which it is made in several ways: 1) past occurrence of two planetary conjunctions 2) New Year date by equivalent dates of five different calendars 3) a horoscope for the Turkish animal calendar 4) a horoscope for the ascendant of the year 5) the exact time of Nauruz, the vernal equinox 6) a partial lunar eclipse ad 1) The year according to planetary conjunctions Two astronomical phenomena are given as a reference for the year of the almanac, which is defined as: (a) the 19th year of (better: after) the smaller conjunction of the two superior planets in Sagittarius of the fiery triplicate

[msellese-i nariyeden burc kavsda vaki kran- asgari ulviyaneyn on dokuzuncu senesi], (b) the 2nd year of (better: after) the conjunction of the two malefic planets in Cancer [kran- nahseyn saratanin ikinci senesi].

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The common denominator of both events is the conjunction [kran] of two planets. The aspects of the planets, i.e. their relative position to each other, and their movements are decisive in astrology. They are frequently mentioned in the takvim with the Arabic terms used by Islamic astronomers/astrologers. A conjunction (Arabic: qrn, alias marriage) occurs when two real planets are at close distance to each other, as seen from the Earth.1 Astrologers generally defined a conjunction rather loosely, because planets radiate a sphere of virtue extending several degrees in each 2, meaning that both direction planets need only to be within the same zodiac sign. Such a conjunction could last several days, while the takvims mark them for one day only. The reason why the takvims prefer a closer conjunction is probably the idea that if the space [between the planets] is equivalent to half the body of each one or less, then the effect [of the conjunction] is more certain.3
Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no 250. The other relative positions (aspects) of the planets are mentioned below on p.37. 2 P. Whitfield, op.cit. p. 44. 3 Ab Maar, The abbreviation of the introduction to astrology together with the medieval Latin translation
1

The planets in conjunction (a). The five real planets 4 were defined by their spheres relative to the Sun. The Arabic (genitive) dual used in the takvims is sufficient to identify the two inferior planets [Arabic: sufliyyayn], as there are only two planets moving in orbits closer to the Earth than the Suns orbit, in other words below the Sun. These are Mercury and Venus. The Moon, strictly speaking also a planet in the geocentric world model with its own sphere closest to the Earth, and the Sun are not normally included among the planets [Arabic: al-kawkib almutaayyira or al-sayyra], but known as the two luminaries [Arabic: nayyirn].

of Adelard of Bath (ed. & transl.: C. Burnett/K. Yamamoto/M. Yano), Leiden/New York/Kln 1994, pp. 401. for the explanation of the planets in Islamic astronomy and astrology see: Kunitzsch, al-Nudjm II, EI2 and Hartner[Kunitzsch], Burdj , EI2 Minaat al-

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An Ottoman Calendar

With three known planets on spheres beyond the Sun Mars, Jupiter, Saturn the designation two superior [planets] [Arabic: ulwiyyayn] in the takvim would normally not be precise enough. There was a well-established convention, however, to reserve this term for the top two planets, viz. Jupiter and Saturn.1 The conjunction of these two planets is, as Brn writes, the conjunction par excellence [mulaq]. Mars, the third superior planet, appears in conjunction lists only as a partner of Saturn, both known as the two malefic planets [nasayn], and only while they are in the zodiac sign of Cancer2, as in conjunction (b). One more term in the takvim, viz. lesser [Arabic: aghar], which qualifies the Jupiter with Saturn conjunction, needs further explanation.

Brn as well as 3 Mallh distinguish between lesser [aghar], middle [awsa] and greater [aam] conjunctions depending on the zodiac constellation, where the conjunction occurs4. The astrologers divided the zodiac into four sets (each named after one of four elements) of three signs, the so-called triplicates [Arabic: muthallatha; Turkish: msellese]5. The three signs that constitute one triplicate lie exactly 120 degrees from each other on the zodiac, thus forming an equilateral triangle. Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, which happen approximately once every 20 years, would, therefore, never
a Jewish astrologer in Basra in the 2nd half of the 9th century. 4 Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no 250; Mallh, as cited by Ab Maar, Ab Maar on Historical Astrology (The Book of Religions and Dynasties), (ed. & transl.: K. Yamamoto/ C. Burnett), vol. 1, Leiden/Boston/Kln 2000, vol.1, pp.584-5.) The term aghar is also used to distinguish Mars as the lesser [nahs-i asgar] of the two
3

Anonymous, taqwm al-adwr, Istanbul 1287AH/1870/1AD, p.3. The opposition [muqbala], i.e. the aspect when two planets are 180
5

apart, of the ulwiyyayn on for 7./19.3.1832, recorded in the takvim for 1831, is also valid for Jupiter with Saturn only. 2 Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no 250. .

inauspicious planets [nasayn] from Saturn, the bigger one [nahs-i ekber], and the Moon, the smaller of the two luminaries [nayyirayn], from the Sun, the bigger one. Aries, Leo, Sagittarius = fiery triplicate; Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn = earthy triplicate; Gemini, Libra, Aquarius = airy triplicate; Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces = watery triplicate.

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leave the same triplicate, as long as they occur in one of its three zodiac signs, in other words: in signs 0, 120 or 240 apart from the previous one. This happens quite often, because Jupiter with Saturn conjunctions always occur at only slightly more than 240 difference to the preceding conjunction1, in other words approximately two thirds of a full circle apart from the previous zodiac sign. As long as the triplicate does not change, any new conjunction is called a lesser [aghar] one. Yet according to Biruni after twelve of the lesser conjunctions a middle [awsa] conjunction
1

makes the shift [intiql almamarr] into a new triplicate, i.e. every 20 x 12 years = 240 years. This means that according to Brn s reckoning2 the conjunctions must occur at 242.5 intervals, because the odd number of 2.5 degrees multiplied by 12 amounts to 30 or one twelfth of the zodiac, when there must be a shift to the adjoining zodiac sign and therefore into another triplicate. Finally, the whole cycle of the four triplicates starts anew after 4 x 240 years = 960 years with the shift to a greater [aam] conjunction. According to modern databases3 Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction on 1 5./16.1.1723 at 2319 within The longitudinal position on the the 30 large zodiac section of celestial equator - the projection of 2 the Earths equator on the celestial Sagittarius . This marks the year globe - known as right ascension of the takvim, which begins on (RA), is measured in 9/20.3.1740, in fact as the hours/minutes/seconds similar to 19th year after this conjunction, the division of the 360-circle of a if we include both first and last clock into 24 hours, starting at 0h0m0s with the zodiac sign of Aries, year conform to the traditional i.e. the point of the vernal equinox method of counting.3
(Aries 0-2 hours, Taurus 2-4 hours, Gemini 4-6 hours, Cancer 6-8 hours, Leo 8-10 hours, Virgo 10-12 hours, Libra 12-14 hours, Scorpio 14-16 hours, Sagittarius 16-18 hours, Capricorn 18-20 hours, Aquarius 2022 hours, Pisces 22-24 hours). Their latitude relative to the celestial equator the declination is measured in degrees from 000 (a position on the celestial equator) to +9000 (the celestial North Pole) or -9000 (the celestial South Pole.) The dates of Jupiter with Saturn conjunctions in modern astrological databases show that Birunis figures should only be taken as a very close - approximate calculation, mainly as a result of irregular behavior of the planets due to the eccentricity of their orbits. 3 I have relied mainly on Newcomb.exe (for MS-DOS), a programme developed by David Eagle and published by Willmann-Bell, Inc.,
2

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In another manuscript Mallh interprets the term aghar al-ulwiyyayn differently, however, as a conjunction of Mars with Jupiter4. There was indeed such a conjunction in Sagittarius also nineteen years before 1740/41 (on 10.1.1723). A further one occurred, however, eleven years later on 9.2.1734. This is quite fortunate, because it eliminates any doubt that the takvim understands the term aghar al-ulwiyyayn as a conjunction according to Mallhs first definition, not according to his second definition as a conjunction of Mars with Jupiter per se.
Richmond/Virginia, USA 1986, for data of the planets and the Sun. 1 Western dates will be given according to the Julian calendar (OE = Old Era), which is used in the takvim, and for years after 1582 also by the corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar (NE = New Era.)
2

Otherwise, it should have defined 1740/41 not as the 19th year after a conjunction on 5./16.1723, but as the 8th year after a conjunction on 9.2.1734. The planets in conjunction (b). Here we are dealing with the two inauspicious planets [nasayn], Mars and Saturn. Elsewhere - in the detailed calendar pages - the takvim also includes entries for the dates of conjunction of the two auspicious planets [sadayn], Venus and Jupiter. On 6.4.1739 Mars and Saturn were in conjunction at degree 4 within the 30 sign of Cancer5. Thus 1740 was in fact the nd year after this conjunction 2 according to the traditional counting method with both start and end date included. Both reference dates are chosen correctly because no other conjunctions of the two planets occurred within the two zodiac signs Sagittarius and Cancer, respectively, before 1740 (1782 and 1769 were the next years of occurrence).

http://www.astropro.com/features/tab les/geo/ju-sa/ju000sa.html (c) Richard Nolle 3 e.g. Pentecost = the 50th day after Easter Sunday when both dates are included, whereas we would now understand Whitsunday/Pentecost to be the 49th day after Easter (the start date Easter Sunday not included). 4 Ab Maar, Historical Astrology, vol. 1, p.585 n.36, where he defines awsa and aam as the conjunctions of Mars with Saturn and Jupiter with Saturn, respectively.

http://www.astropro.com/features/tab les/geo/ma-sa/ma-000sa/ma000sa4.html

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One more question remains, though. Many other planetary conjunctions occurred before and during 1740/41. Why did the author choose these conjunctions in particular? It is difficult, if not impossible for a modern reader to understand why mediaeval astrologers favoured one stellar event over all others. As Brn like modern astrologers - singles out the two conjunctions of Jupiter with Saturn and Mars with Saturn among all other conjunctions in the relevant passage of his book on astrology, the choice could have been simply due to a long established tradition in Islamic astrology, while the original idea behind it had been forgotten. Brn does not furnish any explanation, why this particular conjunction was so important.

A more specific explanation offered by Ab Ma ar, who lived one century earlier1, may be that a conjunction within the fiery triplicate indicates power for the people of the Mashriq, with Sagittarius as the strongest and Aries as the weakest sign, while Leo takes the middle rank.2 It is tempting to give a political meaning to this choice. In particular the term which Ab Ma ar used in this connection, i.e. quwwa = power, is usually associated with political or military power. His choice could have been motivated by selecting the conjunction that was most auspicious in the power struggle of the Islamic East against a loosely defined West. But this interpretation is almost certainly wrong. It would be anachronistic to suspect such a modern concept in the thoughts of a mediaeval astrologer. Besides Ab Ma ar did not simply oppose the Mashriq to the Maghrib alone, but in a true scholastic manner assigned each of the four triplicates to the

Ab Ma ar al-Balkh (787-886), known in the West as Albumasar, Albusar or Albuxar, a Persian scholar, best known for his works on astrology that are considered among the most important in that field. Ab Ma ar, Historical Astrology, vol.1, pp. 30,31.

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people of the East, the West, the North and the South. Ab Ma ar also offers a more convincing clue why conjunction (a) could have been so important in astrology. He mentions that a ruler who came to power during (or possibly in the year of) the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Sagittarius could expect an exceptional long life.1 Given the importance of horoscopes for rulers in particular, this could be the true reason for singling out the years of that conjunction from among others.2 Whatever the reasons for it, conjunction (a) is considered to have the strongest positive influence. The conjunction (b) of the two malefic planets in Cancer is, on the other hand, the worst possible aspect according to common astrological belief.

The takvim for 1831/32 has the same choice of conjunctions: a) the 11th year of the conjunction of the two upper planets in Aries and b) the 5th year of the conjunction of the two malefic planets in Cancer.3 The authors of both takvims were probably aware that these conjunctions were taken as a reference in order to represent the best and the worst of planetary aspects before the current year, although it cannot be ruled out that were just blindly following a tradition. ad 2) The New Year date, when in all countries and latitudes day and night are equal [cemi-i buldan ve urudda istiva-i leyl ve nehar mtehakkik olur], i.e. the date of the spring equinox according to following Middle Eastern calendars:

Ab Ma ar, Historical Astrology, vol.1, pp. 32,33. 2 As no Ottoman sultan acceded to power in 1723, the prediction as to their life expectancy could not be put to a test, though quite fortunate for the astrological profession. Just for the record: When Sleyman I., the longest reigning Ottoman sultan, took the throne in 1520, Jupiter and Saturn were not in conjunction!
1

Also checked as correct.

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a. 29 Shahrivar 1110 Old Persian calendar, i.e.the solar Yazdegerd calendar, beginning with the accession of the Sasanian king Yazdegerd III.in 612 AD. The adjective old, sometimes even used alone without further reference to the calendar in question, marks the Yazdegerd calendar as opposed to the new Persian calendar of Malikshah (see d. below). Its epoch (chronological beginning) is the first day (or Hormuzruz) of its first month Ferverdin that corresponds to 16 June 612 AD, the date of Yazdegerds accession.1 As Yazdegerd III was the last Sasanian king to accede to the throne, the epoch of this calendar has not subsequently changed.

b. 13 Barmahat 1456 Coptic calendar. The Coptic era, although correctly labelled Era of the Martyrs, is in fact a fossilised pagan Roman calendar that counts the years from the accession year of the emperor, in this case Diocletian, who was honoured by the Copts with the start of their calendar, notwithstanding his relentless persecutions of Christians. But unlike the Yazdegerd calendar, the New Year of the Coptic calendar (1 Tut = 29 August) does not commemorate the day, when the emperor acceded to the throne (20.11.284), but is based on a much older Egyptian calendar starting its year with the heliacal rising2 of Sirius.

Nikolaus A. Br, whom I wish to thank for his valuable advice on chronological matters, gives a very good and detailed explanation of Iranian calendars, Iranische Zeitrechnungen, on his website http://www.nabkal.de/irankal.html

For an explanation of this term see below p. 40.

2

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c. 9 Azer 2051 Rumi calendar. This is obviously not one of the two other date styles normally called rumi (= Byzantine or Greek), viz. the Julian Christian calendar counting the years Anno Domini and the Ottoman Mali (Financial) calendar counting the years Anno Hegirae. It designates the Seleucid calendar that starts with the accession year of Seleucos I Nicator1, a general of Alexander the Great, in 312 BC. Since the Roman occupation of the Near East the Seleucid calendar follows the Roman (Julian) rules for calculating the length of a year. The takvim applies the most common of several versions of this calendar, i.e. with the twelve months having Syrian names and the year beginning on 1 Tishrinievvel = 1 October Julian Era. This solar calendar was popular in the Middle East for many centuries as a seasonal adjusted alternative to the lunar Islamic calendar. It is also known as Era of Alexander, being mistakenly associated with Alexander the Great.

1Elias

J. Bickerman, Notes on Seleucid and Parthian Chronology, http://ddc.aub.edu.lb/projects/arch aeology/berytusback/berytus08/73.html

d. New Year 662 Malikshah calendar, also known as Jalali-calendar. According to the calendar reform by the Seljuk sultan Malikshah (1072-92) the era of his solar calendar begins during the Islamic year of 471 AH with the vernal equinox, which was equivalent then to 15 March 1079. Because the Julian year exceeds the true solar year by approx. three days in 400 years a discrepancy repaired by the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582 that dropped the intercalation every 100 years, except in multiples of 400 years - , the spring equinox in 1740 occurred six days earlier on 9 March of the Julian calendar. One year in the Malikshah calendar year is identical with the takvims basic year, which also starts on Nauruz Sultani, i.e. Nauruz of Sultan Malikshah. e. 21 Dhul-Hijja 1152 after the Hijra (AH). The addition of according to the sighting (of the Moon) [biasab al-ruy] after the date reflects the traditional difficulty of Islamic chronologists in reconciling their calculated prognosis with the religious dogma that only the actual sighting of the new crescent moon can define the start of a month.

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The Western date corresponding to the dates given by four of these calendars, the Coptic, Rumi, Malikshah and Lunar-Hijra, is uniformly Sunday, 9/20 March 1740 AD. The Yazdegerd date 29 Shahrivar 1110, however, coincides with 9/20 March 1741 - one year too late. On the other hand, within the calendar we find the beginning of 1110 Yazdegerd Era on Friday 12./23.9.1740. The author was well aware then, that Nauruz 1740/41 AD, a day approx. six months before that date, corresponded to 29 Shahrivar 1709 (not 1710) of the Yezdegerd Era. The error was thus only due to an oversight when the first page of the takvim was written. 9/20 March 1740 AD is, therefore, clearly defined as Nauruz of this year and constitutes the starting date of the takvim.

It is remarkable that the two most important solar calendars of the late Ottoman Empire are not included. They are the Julian and the Ottoman Financial (Mali) calendars, both mentioned already. The omission of these two calendars shows that the takvim was primarily an astrological tool with a focus on astronomy and less a civil calendar like the Julian and Mali calendars. The Darendeli ruznames on the other hand with their period spanning many years, which were not of much use to astrologers, regularly provided a database for the conversion of the Islamic Hijra into the civil Mali-calendar. ad 3) A horoscope for the Turkish animal calendar

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On the bottom right of folio one verso is a list in a rhomboid grid entitled horoscope of the year of the Turks [zayie-i sal- Turkan] with the year names of the Central-Asian animal calendar, that counted the years in cyclical periods of 12 years, each one carrying the name of an animal.1 This calendar applies the same rules established in the better known Chinese animal calendar, still popular in China for special feasts2. I use the commonly accepted English equivalents of the Chinese year names, although the exact translation of the almost exclusively Persian year names in the takvim might be slightly different.3 Only one name is quite unusual, viz.

ksk [ ] for Rat, which is of Eastern Turkic origin.4 Years in this cycle were counted starting from the year of the Rat (year One) until the year of the Boar (year Twelve) in the grid roughly arranged counter clockwise. As each year in a 12-year, i.e. duodecimal, cycle belonged alternating to five different elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), they formed one complete greater sexagesimal cycle of 60 years. A delegation of pagan Turks visiting the court of Mahmud of Ghazna (998-1030) explained how to convert Rumi (Seleucid) calendar years into the animal calendar.5 Their method shall be used to check if the takvims animal calendar is correct:
4

For a detailed explanation of the structure of this calendar vid. O.Turan, Oniki hayvanl Trk takvimi, Istanbul 2009 (reprint). 2 There is a debate whether the Chinese or the Turks are to be credited with the invention of this calendar; for details vid. O.Turan, op.cit., pp. 71ss. 3 e.g. Panther [prs] instead of Tiger, Crocodile or Shark [nahang] instead of Dragon. Other takvims might use different names, mostly a mixture of Persian, Turkic and Arabic terms. A takvim for 1831, for instance, has the Arabic fars for Horse, the Arabic ghanam for Sheep or Ram, the Persian msh for Rat and the Turkic daqq (modern tavuk] for Cock.
1

According to O.Turan, op.cit., p. 113, ksk is the Uighur calendar name for a rat, a term adopted by Nir alDn s, Ulugh Beg (vid. Sdillot, op.cit., vol.1, p.9) and Biruni. L. Bazin, Les calendries Turcs et mdivaux, 1973, p.529, writes that prudish calendar makers like our author avoided sgan or modern san, the Turkish term for rat common in calendars since the 13th century, because it resembles srgan, a vulgar insult (something like shitter), and preferred to use instead the antiquated ksk. O.Turan, op.cit., pp.47-8. The information was given to Biruni, who, while staying with Mahmud of Ghazna at that time, tapped this unique source to complete his

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An Ottoman Calendar

After adding nine years to the Rumi (Seleucid) year, the result is divided by 12. By adding the remainder to 1 ( = the first year of the animal calendar), we arrive at the current year within the 12-year cycle. The mathematical formula in our case is (2051+9) mod 12+1. The result is 9, in fact the number of the Monkey year. The takvim emphasizes both the name and the number of the animal year in golden letters. It contrasts with other personal horoscopes and astrological statements (see below chapter Choices p. 69) in that each year has well defined features not following the more or less arbitrary rules of individual astrologers. The year of the Monkey is characterised by three different authors1 as a year of social unrest and lawlessness, and, in a more specific and also more banal sense, as a year when large animals like camels and horses get sick, and fruit and grapes become scarce.

The standard inclusion even in late Ottoman takvims of the rather exotic Turkish animal calendar, which was not generally used in the Ottoman Empire (unlike Iran), can be explained by its astrological importance, as demonstrated by the term horoscope [zayie] that introduces it. Usually lacking entries for months and days, it was in fact used mainly for indicating the year of birth like someone saying I was born in the year of the Tiger. With twelve years difference between the previous and the next year of the Tiger, this was normally quite sufficient for be certain of the exact age, if the person was present. It served also as a horoscope for events during that year, including the birth of children2.

admittedly limited knowledge of Turkish chronology. According to O.Turan, op.cit., p.104: Ab al-Fal, Tufat al Munajjimn, Mamd al-Kagar, Dvn Lgat it Trk, Ibrahim Hakki, Marifetname.
2

O.Turan, op.cit., p. 32..

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ad 4) A horoscope for The Arabic term li the time of the ascendant of marks the ascendant, a key term the year for any horoscope, sometimes even used as its synonym. It is defined as the point where the ecliptic intersects the Eastern A rhomboid grid1 on the bottom left of folio one verso is entitled horoscope for the ascendant of the year on the horizon of Istanbul [zayie--i tali-i sal bi-ufuk- Dar asSaltana al-seniyye].

The distinctive rhomboid layout is also common in mediaeval European horoscopes, vid. P. Whitfield, op.cit., pp. 128, 132, 161,162.

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An Ottoman Calendar

horizon, in other words as the rising zodiac sign, which is supposed to exert a profound influence on a person born at that time. On 9/20 March 1740 between 8.45 am and 10.38 am local time, i.e. the time span during which the new year started at the vernal equinox (see below ad5), the ascendant for Istanbul was Gemini1, as marked in the grid. The horoscope has been calculated for the time, when Gemini as the ascendant of the new year began to rise at 8.45 local time (not for the time of the equinox that occurred some time later!). According to Newcomb.exe the Suns right ascension at that time was 23h59m54s, i.e. still a few seconds before 0h0m0s, the start of Aries. Therefore, the author rightly placed it into the zodiac constellation of Pisces, the constellation preceding Aries. After the ascendant and the Sun, the positions of the other heavenly bodies distributed among the zodiac constellations need to be checked. They are: the Moon, the five real planets known in antiquity, the Head [ras], the Tail [dhanab], the Lot of Fortune [sahm al-sada] and the Lot of Absence [sahm alghayb].
1

Head and Tail stand for the dragons head and tail [Arabic: ras al-tinnn and dhanab al-tinnn], respectively. These are the nodes or points2, where the Moons slightly inclined (by five degrees) orbital plane intersects the ecliptic, the plane described by the Suns apparent yearly orbit around the Earth. Both nodes - the Headnode, in Western astrology also known as the male node, where the ascending Moon passes from the south (lower) to the north (upper) side of the ecliptic, and the Tail-node for the descending Moon - are lying opposite each other on an axis 180 degrees apart. They do not remain at their position, however. The Moon does not travel around the earth in a plane that cuts the ecliptic always at the same points, but like the precession of the Earths axis its orbital plane reverts slowly backwards, like a wobbling spinning top, making a tour through the zodiac in approx. 18.6 years or 6793.4 days, known as a draconic year, to complete a circle of 360. This means that during one day of 24 hours a node travels 0.05299, equal to 12.74 seconds in terms of right ascension. .
2

http://www.astro.com/cgi/

Not to be confused with real stars known by this name; cf. P.Kunitzsch, Arabische Sternnamen in Europa, Wiesbaden 1959, p. 165 (no. 102) vs. p. 197 (no. 163)

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An Ottoman Calendar

The invisible nodes are thus behaving somehow like planets, which also move through the zodiac.1 In their untiring search for signs from the heavens, the astrologers interpreted these nodes as quasi-planets with their own share of planetary influence.2 This explains why the takvims mention the nodes in the horoscope not only for New Year, but also on several other occasions during the year, when a planet in its apparent orbit around the Earth meets such a node or - to use the standard term when it is in conjunction with it.

While the Moons nodes have still a sound astronomical base as the points of intersection between the orbit of the Moon and the ecliptic, the other two bodies, the Lot or Part of Fortune [sahm al-sada] and the Lot of Absence3 [sahm alghayb], are only the result of astrological cabbala (quite obvious with names like these4). Their position is defined by a calculation based on the positions of the Ascendant, the Moon and the Sun. The Part of Fortune lies at a distance from the Ascendant equalling the distance of the Moon from the Sun5, while its partner, the Part of Absence, lies opposite to it, i.e. 180 degrees apart.6 Anyone
Other translations are known as well, like Part of Spirit or Part of Daemon. The term could probably best be translated as Part of Occult. 4The Arabic term sahm in the sense of lot or share instead of the literal meaning arrow could well have its origin in the pre-Islamic game of maysir that used real arrows to draw the lot for the distribution of the parts of a slaughtered animal. 5 Islamic astrology has different calculations for their position during the day and during the night. 6 A detailed description including the method for calculating the position of these parts is in Biruni, Kitb altafhm, no 475. Relevant sections of the webpage http://www.skyscript.co.uk/alparts. html are largely based on this book. See also: F.I.Haddad/D.Pingree/E.S. Kennedy, Al-Brns treatise on
3

For a good visual demonstration of the movements of the nodes see http://www.astrologyclub.org/ar ticles/nodes/nodes.htm The nodes as additional planets have even found their way into objects of Islamic art, as has been demonstrated by Willy Hartner, The Vaso Vescovali in the British Museum, in: Kunst des Orients IX1/2, 1972, pp. 100-130. An example in Indian art is a zodiac design with seven planets and two dragon nodes on a Hindu temple: F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1, p.87 n.1.

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interested to know more about this cryptic science is referred to the abundant literature on astrology1. The following domiciles are recorded by Newcomb.exe for the real and virtual planets during the ascendancy of Gemini on 9./20.3.1740:
Pla net P M M M V oo er e n cu n ry u s M J u pi te r V S at u r n J M ar s S H e a d N o d e C C a n c e r C C a n c e r M T ai l N o de A Ca pr ic or n A Ca pr ic or n

Ne wc om b.e xe Tak vi m

N S A Sa Ar T T git ies a a ta u ur riu r us s u s t S A Sc Ar A T or ies ri a pi e ur o s us

T C a n ce r A C a n ce r

T A qu ar iu s T A qu ar iu s

Bold marked entries show where the takvim differs from the modern astronomical database. The difference is, however, only due to sloppy design, not the result of wrong calculations made by the author. This is quite obvious in the case of Venus, which should have been in Taurus instead of Aries, H T where the takvim locates it. That the author was aware of the correct domicile is attested by the entry transit of Venus into Gemini on 1.4.1740 OE on the first calendar page (see below p. C38). Before that date Venus C must have been in the sign immediately preceding Gemini, which is Taurus, not Aries a fact the author must have C C known.

astrological lots, Zeitschrift fr Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, vol.1, 1984, pp. 954. e.g. Ab Ma ar, Historical Astrology, vol.1, pp.593-6, and the sources cited in the notes. A good introduction (incl. Islamic astrology) can be found in P.Whitfield, op.cit.. For a check I used Kemal Milars astrological program http://www.astrozoom.com/

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An Ottoman Calendar

The position of the Moon in Scorpio is also wrong, because all databases agree that by then it had already far advanced into the next zodiac sign of Sagittarius by more than 20 of a total of 30. It is nearly certain, though, that also this mistake was not caused by a wrong calculation of the Moons longitude, but equally by a simple error in design. The author must have known that it belonged to Sagittarius, although he joined it with Scorpio by mistake. The evidence for this is that he placed the Lot of Fortune in Gemini, where it can only be while the Moon is in Sagittarius, but never while it is still in Scorpio. If the Moon had been in Scorpio, the Part of Fortune would be at a longitude calculated by adding a) the distance between the Sun (in Pisces) to the Moon ( in Scorpio) = max. 240 degrees, to b) the longitude of the Ascendant at 60 degrees1, which results in a maximum longitude of 300 degrees. This is the starting point of Aquarius, the zodiac sign preceding Gemini!
1

Yet the same calculation made with the Moon correctly positioned in Sagittarius defines Gemini as the domicile for the Lot of Fortune, where the author has also placed it. The fact that three mistakes occur in the design but not in the calculation viz. the wrong Yazdegerd year on the first page and the wrong positions of the Moon and Venus in the horoscope of the ascendant - suggests that the takvim was not designed by the astronomer himself, whose calculations were most likely correct. It rather seems that the copyist made the mistakes while entering the correctly calculated chronological and astronomical data into the takvim. This would be consistent with the well known division of labour in Middle Eastern craftsmanship, also in the production of manuscripts. The occurrence of these mistakes in a luxurious codex made to honour a sultan remains surprising, however.

This is the maximum, as in case of the ascendant reaching more than 60 degrees during Nauruz the Sun would have already advanced into Aries.

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An Ottoman Calendar

ad 5) The exact time of New Year The time, when during 9/20 March 1740 the Sun reaches exactly the point of vernal equinox defined as longitude 00m0s of Aries, is described in rather florid terms on folio 2 recto as follows: in the 1152nd year of the message given by the Hijra of the shining sun in heaven [the Prophet1], on Sunday, the 21st day of Dhu l-Hijja according to the sighting [of the moon], four hours and twenty-two minutes after sunrise the great luminary, i.e. the luminous Sun, transits and passes into the first second of Aries, when there is equality of day and night and Nauruz Sultani as a joy [to mankind].

[tarih-i hicret-i hurid taban-i asman risaletin bin yz elli iki senesi Zilhiccesinin bihasab al-ruya yirmi birinci ahad gn tulu- aftabdan drt saat yirmi iki dakika mururnda neyyir-i ekber yani shams-i ziyagster burc- Hamln evvel saniyesi tahvil ve intikal edp tesavi-i leyl ve nehar Nauruz Sultani meserret asar olur]. All three key terms sunrise, hours, Nauruz used in this definition, although seemingly easy to understand, need some explanation. Sunrise/Sunset The definition of sunrise as the beginning of the day is by no means unequivocal it could be any time between the first signs of dawn until the full appearance of the sun disk above the horizon. This question is not purely academic, as sunrise/sunset times define times for prayer and they serve also as the basis for calculating the time of key events like - in the present case - Nauruz or eclipses.

That the Prophet is compared in these exalted terms to the shining sun in heaven is quite surprising as the pure human nature of the Prophet is always stressed in Islam. It is, however, consistent with similarly phrased metaphors used for dating Nauruz (in B.5 above) and a lunar eclipse (see below p.15) where the traditional addition of Pray for Him undoubtedly denotes the Prophet.

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An Ottoman Calendar

According to Brn daytime in the opinion of the experts [ahl al-ina] starts at the moment, when the centre of the Sun (markaz al-shams) appears at the horizon.1 Ulugh Beg some 400 years later also defines daytime for the astronomers, the Persians and the Greeks as the time between the rise of the centre of the Sun until its setting [ghurb], while for Muslim jurists/theologians (ahl al-shar) it lasts from the

definition of daytime according to the theologians by using religious arguments himself3. The correct time of daybreak, when the centre of the Sun rises, needs moreover to be defined more precisely: Is it the appearance to the eye or the true astronomical position of the Sun at the horizon? Both occur at different times due to the refraction of light. The method used in the taqvim to calculate daytime can be detected by comparing a start of real dawn (ul ub sample of six dates of its daylight data found in the 1st diq) - as opposed to a previous column (from right) of the calendar table (see below B.) period of false dawn [ub with a database of the US Navy kdhib] during which the night that lists the times for sunrise rules for fasting and prayer and sunset in Istanbul, defined continue to be applied - until there as the time when the the complete disappearance of upper edge of the Sun disk the sun disk (ghurb tmm jarm appears on the horizon4. shams)2. Brn refutes the
1

Biruni, Al-Qnnul-Masd (Canon Masudicus), vol.1 (Hyderabad/India 1954), p.66. He cites as a mistake [zalla] the dissenting opinion of one Ab alFal al-Haraw, who defined daytime from the appearance of the whole disk of the Sun until its disappearence below the horizon. Sdillot, op.cit., vol.2, pp. 8-9. vid. also Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, nos.1324 with less clear definitions for daytime, sunrise and sunset. See also P.G.Schmidl, Volkstmliche Astronomie im islamischen Mittelalter, Leiden/Boston 2007,vol.2, 499-501.

i.a. a) God would not have gone to such lengths in Sura II:183 to command the start of Ramadan fasting when you distinguish a white thread from a black thread, if he could have simply ordered it for the beginning of the day; b) according to the same Sura the time for breaking the fast at sunset not at the end of the evening twilight is simply called the beginning of the night; c) the noon prayer was known as the first day prayer, which classifies the morning prayer at the start of dawn as a night prayer (Albrn, Chronology, pp.7ss.) http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/as

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An Ottoman Calendar

The takvims daytimes are even shorter, however, viz. by eight to twelve minutes. The D Sunrise ay time to Sunset question arises, therefore, if the 9./20. 1 1 Muslim astronomers did in fact calculate daytime not from and 03.1740 2h00m 2h08m 20./31 1 1 to the appearance of the centre .03.1740 2h30m 2h39m to the eye, but according to the 1./11.0 1 1 true astronomical position of the 4.1740 3h00m 3h08m 10./21. 1 1 centre of the Sun at the horizon. Due to the refraction of light the 05.1740 4h30m 4h40m 10./21. 1 1 centre of the Sun is already 06.1740 5h00m 5h08m visible, when its true position is 11./22. 1 1 still 34 arc minutes below the 07.1740 4h30m 4h39m horizon at sunrise (mutatis 10/21. 9 9 mutandis at sunset). Daytime 12.1740 h00m h14m calculated as the time between If the Muslim the true astronomical position of astronomers definition of the centre of the Sun at the sunrise/sunset according to horizon in the morning and the Ulug Beg were to be understood evening is, therefore, shorter (by as the appearances of the centre approximately another 6 of the Sun disk on the eastern minutes). Altogether this would and western horizon, they would in fact roughly account for have recorded daytime to be daytime in the takvim to be approx. two minutes shorter eight to twelve minutes shorter than the times in the US Navy than in the US Navy table, which table, as these count the time is based on the appearance of 1 between the appearances of the the Suns upper edge . It seems, therefore, that the centre and the upper edge. takvims sunrise and sunset times are defined by the true astronomical position of the Suns centre.
Takvim 1740/41 US Navy
1

tronomical-applications/dataservices/rs-one-year-us

According to Ch.Pellat, Layl and Nahr, EI2, nahr begins with the appearance of the upper edge of the Sun on the horizon, just as in the US Navy definition. The synopsis makes it clear, however, that Ottoman calendar makers must have followed the rule given by Ulugh Beg.

35

An Ottoman Calendar

Hours/Minutes The Ottoman Empire knew mainly three methods of calculating hours and minutes. The most recent one is the modern system with 24 equal hours, so-called vasati saatler constituting a full day, which starts at midnight a convention principally due to the introduction of railways with the accompanying need for unequivocal timetables. A more traditional method - used often concurrently with the first well into the 20th century -, while also based on 24 equal hours, starts the day at sunset counting the hours from sunset or evening [akam] prayer, which are therefore called ezan saatler, i.e. hours of the Adhan, or (in Arabic) awqt sharia, religious times. This means that clocks had to be readjusted practically every day according to the changing times of sunset. The third and oldest method divided the night (from sunset to sunrise) and the day (from sunrise to sunset) into 12 night time and 12 daytime hours each1, which were of different length, changing like daytime and night-time with the seasons more so in summer and winter
1

and less in spring and autumn2. Probably due to the increasing use of clocks, in later times certainly in the 18th century the second method with 24 equal hours starting at sunset was generally adopted, although they were still counted from 1-12 only.3 This method is comparable to the modern convention of dividing a full day into two parts of twelve hours a.m. and p.m. Ezan hours are different, however, in two respects: The zero point, the sunset, moves with the seasons, and the jump from 12h59m to 1h00m is done without a mnemonic help like a.m. or p.m. These peculiarities have to be borne in mind when reading traditional prayer tables. In dealing with this takvim of 1740/41, however, it is only important to remember that at this time all hour/minute data
As in mediaeval Europe: J.Gimpel, La rvolution industrielle du Moyen Age, Paris 1975, pp.158 ss. 3 Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no.135,
2

mentions

both

equal

(sat

mustawiya) and unequal hours (sat muwajja or zamniyya), without indicating where and when they were used. Wright in his translation of Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no. 390 includes a passage about the use of unequal hours by Arabs and equal hours by us (probably Iranians), that cannot be found in the Arabic original, however, and is probably taken from elsewhere.

D.A.King, The seasonal hours and the time of the uhr and Ar Prayers, in: D.A.King, In Synchrony with the Heavens, vol.1, Leiden/Boston 2004, pp. 553-8.

36

An Ottoman Calendar

were already based on equal hours in accordance with modern timekeeping.

This rule was also valid in the Ottoman Empire. A salname (yearbook) for 1895 records the vernal equinox on Nauruz 8./20.3. at 4h26m36s ezan Although for saatler (after sunset), i.e. at conveniences sake Nauruz is approx. 22h26m local time. The often defined as the day of the salname accordingly postpones vernal equinox, this definition is Nauruz to the following day, inexact. Only if the Sun enters 9./21.3. the zodiac sign of Aries before As the vernal noon, that day is Nauruz. If the equinox in 1740 occurred on vernal equinox happens after 9./20.3. before noon as noon, then Nauruz falls on the explained in the following next day. This would be passage, Nauruz was not consistent with a method to postponed in that year. count days from noon1, not from --midnight according to todays The takvim timed h22m after sunrise standard or from sunset as in equinox at 4 the Islamic tradition. on 9./20.3.1740. A US Navy table records sunrise in Istanbul on that day at 4h08m a.m. Universal time (UT) 2, which translates into 6h04m a.m. local time by adding 1h56m , the time difference 1 According to Albrn, Chronology, pp. 6s., most... astronomers between Istanbul (longitude E preferred to count the days from 28h58m) and Greenwich.
noon, a reference time that is easier to find than sunrise/set or midnight. Nauruz as celebrated today is, therefore, rooted in this tradition. The a.m. Jalali-calendar of the Seljuk sultan Malikshah still counted the days from noon, whereas the current Iranian Hijri-solar that is largely based on the Jalali-calendar counts the hours from midnight, with the exception of Islamic holidays that start at sunset (vid. http://www.nabkal.de/irankal.html under heading Der Tagesanfang im Kalender Dschelal ed-Dins and Der Jahresbeginn im heutigen iranischen Kalendar, with further references).

http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/as tronomical-applications/dataservices/rs-one-year-world

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An Ottoman Calendar

Taking into account that sunrise on the day of the spring equinox according to the takvim was at exactly 6h00m (see daylight table above) according to the definition of sunrise by the Muslim astronomers as discussed before, equinox recorded in the takvim would have occurred at 10h22m a.m local time (6h00m a.m plus 4h22m). Two modern computer programmes1 list the time of vernal equinox on 9./20.3.1740 as 7h23m GMT = 9h19m local Istanbul time, however, i.e. more than one hour earlier.

The later time recorded in the takvim would have been correct only for a location approx. 17 east of Istanbul (near Tabriz!). It is true that even modern databases and programmes may also differ in the exact definition of the equinoctial time, but never more than a few minutes. We must bear in mind on the other hand that, although this is quite a substantial difference in terms of time, the difference in longitude of the Sun between both dates amounts to no more than 01m49s. Such differences in celestial coordinates occur regularly elsewhere in most modern databases and could be the result of either different observation or calculation methods or simple mistakes. A modern comparative study of equinox times that were recorded by mediaeval Islamic astronomers with modern calculations reveals an average error of 1h12m , which the authors of the study still consider a remarkably good result.2.

Institut de Mcanique Cleste et des phmrides: http://www.imcce.fr/en/grandpublic /temps/saisons.php; Nova Scotia: http://www.ns1763.ca/equinox/vern 1452-1811.html

S.S.Said & F.R. Stephenson, Precision of Medieval Islamic Measurements of Solar Altitudes and Equinox Times, Journal of the History of Astronomy, vol. 26 (1995), pp. 121-132, p. 128 table 5.

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An Ottoman Calendar

It is difficult to explain the discrepancy other than as the result of an error in computing the equinox. To assume that the author got his bearings so wrong as to locate Istanbul east of its true location, viz. near Tabriz, would be absurd. As Ottoman astronomers seem to have based their calculations on longitude E 23301 - instead of correct E 2858 for Istanbul -, an error in the opposite, i.e. western, direction would have been more plausible. One possible explanation could be that the takvim defined sunrise in its calculation of Nauruz not - as elsewhere - by following the opinion of the astronomers, but instead that of the ahl al-shar mentioned by Ulugh Beg and Brn . Only if sunrise was timed at 4.57 a.m. local Istanbul time, i.e. during the twilight of dawn, the takvim would have given the correct time of the equinox (4.57 a.m. + 4h22m = 9.19 a.m.). The US Navy tables give following start times for twilight on Nauruz 1740 in Istanbul: Civil twilight (centre of sun 6 degrees below horizon) at
1

5h36m, nautical twilight (centre of sun 12 degrees below horizon) at 5h04m and astronomical twilight (centre of sun 18 degrees below horizon) at 4h31m. If sunrise is, therefore, understood in this particular case as the time when the centre of the sun disk had advanced to approximately 13 degrees below the horizon, the Nauruz calculation of the takvim would have been correct. But the takvim for 1831/32 found the correct time of the equinox, when it occurred during the day, by counting from sunrise according to the astronomers definition2. There is no apparent reason, why the author of the takvim for 1740/41 should have deliberately chosen a different time for sunrise, viz. that of the ahl al-shar, as a basis for his calculation. Also other takvims the salname for 1895 and the takvim for 1938 obtained the correct time3 of the vernal equinoxes by counting the hours from sunset according to the Muslim astronomers convention (centre of sundisk at western horizon).

D.A. King, Astronomical Timekeeping, pp.250-1. Perhaps this explains also the wrong qibla direction in a Darendeli ruzname (idem, plate 5), which would have been correct for a location west of Istanbul.

computer equinox: 10h22m local time; takvim: 4h07m after sunrise 6h08m local time = 10h15m 3 Ascertained by checking with the US Navy tables.
2

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An Ottoman Calendar

The time recorded in the [birle tarih hicret-i takvim for 1740/41 for the Sultan- Cihan - alayhi min alvernal equinox must be, therefore, due to an error made alawt atammuh ve min alby its astronomer. taslimt akmaluh hazretlerinin yz elli senesi A partial lunar eclipse evvalinin on drdnc The takvim predicts on dembeh gecesi gurubdan yedi the last page (before the saat ve on dakika mururnda appendix) in its typical exalted mah munir ukde-i rasta burc language a partial lunar eclipse: seratanda inhisaf ghaz ve sekiz In the 1153rd year of the saat krk dakikada on iki Hijra of His Presence, the Lord asbu takdiran olunan carm- of the World - the most kamardan yedi asbu mkdar complete prayers and most mnhasif olup vasat- husuf ola perfect benedictions for Him -, ve der akab incilaye balayp on on Monday, 14 Shawwal, in the saat ve on dakika mururnda evening, seven hours and 13 bil-kulliye mnceli olur. minutes after sunset, begins an Dhlika taqdr al-Azz al-Alm] eclipse of the shining moon at its head node in Cancer. At eight The takvims data shall be hours and 43 minutes is the compared to the data of a middle of the eclipse reaching 2 seven digits of the moons modern database that also diameter of twelve digits (i.e. recorded a partial lunar eclipse 7/12th partial eclipse).1 After in Europe, Africa and the Middle that its shine starts to increase, East during the night from to attaining full light when 10 21.12.1740/1.1.1741 22.12.1740/2.1.1741. hours and 13 minutes have passed. As ordained by God, the Most Exalted, the Omniscient.

This reading is consistent with the description of an eclipse in Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no. 321, where Biruni also writes that an eclipse, with its implication of unpleasant things [ghayr mamda], should not be mentioned at the beginning of a takvim..
2

http://www.eclipse.org.uk/eclipse/112 1741/L1741Jan01.pdf

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An Ottoman Calendar
start s time of maxim um t maxim um extent m end e durati on

m mod ern data base takvi m

2h0 2m4s UT
t

2h0 0m UTa)
a)14

2 3h4 6m 9s UT 2 3h3 0m UTb)

2 .56 21 2 .58 33c)

0 1h09 m 4s UT 0 1h00
m

UTd)

0 87 min utes 0 80 min utes

Shawwal 1153 began at sunset on Sunday, 21.12.1740/1.1.1741. On that date sunset in Istanbul (according to the modern definition = upper edge of the Sun at the western horizon) was at 14h47m UT = 16h43m p.m. local time1. The eclipse started, therefore, at 16h43m plus 7h13m = 23h56m local time = 22h00m UT b) maximum at 16h43m (start time) plus 8h43m = 01h26m. local time = 23h30m UT c) 7/12 of the Moons diameter d) end at 16h43m (start time) plus 10h13m = 02h56m local time = 01h00m UT

According to the takvim the eclipse started approx. two 1 minutes before the modern recording, which might be due to the different definition of 1 sunset in both sources, as mentioned before. The difference in time increased to 16 minutes for the time of greatest extent and decreased again to nine minutes at the end of the eclipse. Other than the calculation of the vernal equinox, the takvims prediction of the start of lunar eclipse is, therefore, much closer to the true data. The statement that the eclipse occurred, while the Moon was at its head node in Cancer, is also correct. A lunar eclipse happens when the Earth obstructs the light of the Sun by casting a shadow on the Moon, which at this time is on the axis Sun-Earth-Moon, i.e. at 180 or in terms of right ascension at 12h distance from the Sun. At the time of the eclipse the Sun was at RA 18h51m7s, placing it into Capricorn2. Therefore, the Moon was in fact domiciled in Cancer, the zodiac sign 180 opposite Capricorn.
d

http://www.spectralcalc.com/solar_ calculator/solar_position.php. For the conversion of UT (Greenwich) into/from Istanbul local time approx. 1h56m have to be added/substracted by taking into account the longitude of Istanbul east of Greenwich (2858 E)

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folio 2 verso

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Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)

3. The Calendar Each page of the main part of the takvim has 6 columns and 30 rows with astronomical, chronological and meteorological data as well as advice for every day, plus a title row. The first page (folio 2 verso, see p.37) might serve as an example to facilitate the explanation:

Choices (Ikhtiyrt)

Zodiac

Rumi

Arabic

Weekday

il tr wa kamn - shir-i ayawn imrat ar talm musiq forbidden (madhr) wa bunyn jat az qu wa prn jat az ulam - ubat fuqah safar wa arakat shirkat wa tijrat shurb daw kharq majr-i m

Sagittarius

9 10

21 22 23 24

Sunday

Muarram alHaram 1153 For the observer: Tuesday night, South, elevated; clear visibility Naurz Sulan; first day of Spring

Monday Mihrimh (old) Transit of Mars into Pisces; Move of Blood

Capricorn

11 12
Aquarius

Tuesday

Wednesday

13 14
Pisces

25 26 27 28 29 1 2 3 4 5

Thursday

Friday

Move of Insects First Drink Laxatives Square Mercury Saturn of

15 16
Aries

Saturday

intermediate (mumtazij)

Sunday Monday Tuesday

of with

17
tartb li-shukr il lt safar tazwj abkr ghars ashjr Taurus

18 19 20 21
Gemini

Muarram alHaram 1153

Wednesday Day: 12.5 hours, Night: 11.5 hours Rise Muqaddam of

tijrat wa shirkat - ibtid-i kr mulaja wa shikr - hjat az kibr tarr nmeh tajdd jmeh -

Thursday

Friday

22

Saturday

Transition of Mercury into Taurus

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An Ottoman Calendar
shikr dary riyat riy Cancer

23 24 25
Leo

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday

Call of Nightingale Sextile Venus Saturn

the of with

intermediate (mumtazij) shir-i jawhir hjat az akbir aqd liw - ass wa bin anat zargar shir-i jawhar tajdd thiyb mushrakat shir-i abb dawb tamr kharb tartb adwiye libs jmeh

26 27 28

Virgo

29 30

Day of shr; Sharaf of Sun; Coptic Barmda; Naurz Horezmshah Square of Sun with Saturn Day: 13 hours, Night: 11 hours April (Nisn); Transit of Venus into Gemini

Libra malefic (nas)

31 1 2

Wednesday Thursday Rise of Muakhkhar

shurb daw - ilj mar shirkat wa tijrat ajmat wa zaynat ddr Pdishh alab izz wa jh ijr-i anhr ayd wa shikr

Scorpio

3 4
Sagittarius

Friday

Saturday Red Egg (Beiza-i Srh); Rise of Waters Conjunction of Benefic Planets;Trine of Malefic Planets

6
Capricorn

20

Sunday

fargh wa uzlat - alab maghfarat

21

Monday

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Astronomical data (1st column from right)1. a) Relative positions of the planets. Apart from the conjunction [qrn] already explained in the introduction the following relative positions of planets, their aspects, are recorded in the takvims detailed data pages: muqbala = opposition. Planets are 180 degrees apart. itirq = burning . A conjunction of a real planet with the Sun, when it is burned by the Sun. tathlth = trine. Planets are 120 degrees apart. tarb = square. Planets are 90 degrees apart. tasds = sextile. Planets are 60 degrees apart. maa al-ras = planet together with the Head; maa al-dhanab = planet together with the Tail.

ras and dhanab are not the planets own Head or Tail nodes, where their orbit crosses the ecliptic, but the Moon nodes that have been explained above.2 As they were considered virtual planets, these occurrences could also be called conjunctions of a real planet with a virtual one. According to the astrologers such a conjunction enhances the planets influence.

M. Uhlmann, Die Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften im Islam, HdO I, Ergnzungsband 6, I, Leiden 1972, 345-347

Nodes, unless specified differently, have always to be understood as lunar nodes: Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no. 177.

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An Ottoman Calendar

At seven different dates the takvim refers to planets being with [ma such a a] 1. In these cases planets and node nodes were of course in the same zodiac sign, but still slightly apart from each other, viz. 0.1 to 1.20 degrees2. That is hardly surprising, because a perfect planet with node conjunction could only occur when the planet crosses exactly the point of intersection between the Moons orbit and the ecliptic. At any rate on each of the seven dates the planets were at their closest longitudinal distance to the nodes in 1740/41. Accordingly the term with should be understood as at the closest distance possible, not exceeding a few minutes. Bearing this in mind, the takvims dates can be accepted as correct. b) Movements/Absol ute positions of planets

Tawl = The transition of a planet into the next zodiac sign. These dates are regularly mentioned in the takvim. Specially named ta wl dates are 9/20.4.1740 [Evvel Sene-i Sevr] New Year of Taurus and 14./25.4.1740 [Aher Sitte-i Sevr] Last six of Taurus. Both dates define a period of six days after the Sun enters Taurus, the second zodiac sign of the year after the vernal equinox. According to meteorological folklore, it is a season of bad weather. awaj [also: dharwa] = apogee, the point of greatest distance of a planet from the Earth during its elliptical orbit around the Earth (Ptolemy) or the Sun (Copernicus). a = perigee, the point of closest distance of a planet to the earth during its elliptical orbit around the Earth (Ptolemy) or the Sun (Copernicus).

12./23.5.1740 Venus + Head; 26.6./6.7.1740 Sun + Head; 15./26.12.1740 Sun + Tail; 28.12.1740/8.1.1741 Jupiter + Head; 7./18.1.1741 Mercury + Tail; 16./27.1.1741 Venus + Tail. 2 According to the tables in http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swep ha_e.htm.
1

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An Ottoman Calendar

Raja = return. The moment, when planets on their orbits around the Sun start their backward (western) movement in relation to the Earth. This phenomenon can be easily visualized in any planetary model of the heliocentric system. The astronomers of the Ptolemaic tradition had to posit additional circular movements of the planets around a centre that moved along with the planets on their orbit around the Earth the so-called epicycle [falak altadwr] to explain why the planets did stop and reverse course while circulating around the Earth.1 istiqma = standstill. The opposite moment, when the planets stand still before resuming their forward (eastern) movement in relation to the Earth

A good visual demonstration with a comparison between the geocentric and the heliocentric model is given in http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stod dard/JAVA/ptolemy.html. Both terms, raja and istiqma, are explained in Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no.151.

sharaf and hub = exaltation and dejection. In Islamic astrology these terms denote the place of exaltation for a planet, like its throne, and the opposite place of dejection, respectively. These places are not defined by their highest or lowest position in one of the known astronomical coordinates, as their terms might suggest, but by a certain intermediate degree, which a planet has reached during its move around the zodiac. Brn , who does not explain the criteria for the choice of these degrees he only mentions that they were defined by the Persians and Greeks2 - and Ab Ma shar3, who does not elaborate either, list the places of exaltation [sharaf] of the planets (incl. the Moon nodes as virtual planets). The rows of the following table contain: - the degrees of sharaf and hub (180 from sharaf) according to Brn and Ab Mashar - the Julian calendar dates of sharaf and hub according to the takvim for 1740/41 - the correct dates as computed by newcomb.exe.

2 3

Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no.443. Ab Mashar, op.cit., p.580.

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Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)
Satur n Jupiter Mars Sun Venus Mercu ry Moon Dragons Head Dragon s Tail
sharaf 21 Libra 15 Cancer 28 Capricorn 19 Aries 27 Pisces 15 Virgo 3 Taurus 3 Gemini 3 Sagittariu s

takvim

27.3.17 40

30.7.17 40 29.7.17 40 27 Virgo 15 Pisces 3 Scorpi o 3 Sagittarius 3 Gemini

correct:

30.3.17 40

hub

21 Aries

15 Caprico rn

28 Cancer

19 Libra

takvim

23.10.174 0

30.9.17 40 2.10.17 40

24.10.1 740 24.10.1 740

16.2.17 41 19.2.17 41

correct:
S upiter J ars

20.10.174 0

aturn

M un

Venus ercury

M oon

M ragons ead

D ragon Hs ail 3 Sagitt arius

D T 3

hara f akvi m orrec t: ub

s 1 Libra t c

2 5 Cancer

1 8 Capricor n

2 9 Aries

1 Pisces 2 3

27 5 Virgo

1 Taurus 3 2

3 Gemini

7.3.174 0 0.3.174 0 2 9 C ibra 2 0.9.174 0 2 .10.174 0

0.7.174 0 9.7.174 0

h 1 Aries

2 5 apricor n

1 8 C ancer 3.10.174 0 0.10.174 0

1 L

27 Virgo

5 isces

1 P corpio 1 1

3 S agittarius

3 S emini

3 G

akvi m orrec t:

t c

3 .1740 2 .1740

24.10 24.10

6.2.174 1 9.2.174 1

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Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)

The takvims data are only correct for the hub of Venus, but are one to two days too early or too late, respectively, for the other planets.

The Arabs divided the celestial globe into 28 lunar stations4, with each part 5/6 of the occupying approx. 12 360 ecliptic, while each of the 12 zodiac signs covered 2 1/3 stations. There is a striking c) Rise of lunar parallel between these Moonmansions and associated fixed related stations and the stars [ul] traditional concept of the zodiac The lunar mansions and as the background for the their rising also need some annual movements of the Sun. It explanation.1 A key concept in seems that both Sun or Moon Islamic astronomy/astrology are have been chosen separately by the anw (sing. Naw), an different peoples as the leading Arabic word that today would be luminaries of the skies. The translated roughly as storms or Arabs, who seem to have (bad) weather, but that focused on the Moon as the originally meant the rising of leading luminary5, but who were lunar stations.2 The present illiterate people (according to meaning of this term reflects the Brn), could not recognize (or astrological belief in stellar better: compute) the lunar stations as such, except by influence on weather3. observing the fixed stars in them. Therefore the lunar 1 For moon stations vid. P. Kunitzsch, mansions appear, when the Sternnamen, pp.54-7. associated fixed stars first 2 Using imaginative etymology, very much en vogue with traditional become visible during their soMuslim authors, Biruni traces the called heliacal rising above the word to the Arabic verb na, eastern horizon at dawn, after meaning sighing under a heaven having been invisible below the burden, here the burden of raising horizon and before they the lunar station! More about the disappear again when the sun
relation of the lunar stations with weather according to Arab tradition in: E.W.Lane, Arab English Lexicon (London 1863) under entry . Biruni relates both theories, the disbelieve the Arab theory, without making a clear choice, however (Albrn, Chronology, p.231-2). 4 Other divisions were known as well, like the 27 stations of the Indians and 30 stations of the ancient Egyptians. 5 Also the Khorezmians according to Albrn, Chronology, p.226.

stellar origin of the anw, that he attributes to the Arabs, whom he openly despises (vid. his sarcastic comments in Albrn, Chronology, p.226s.), and origin from natural causes. True to form he tends to

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An Ottoman Calendar

rises. The stars involved in the heliacal rising are changing, because the Earth, while rotating about its own axis, also moves in relation to the stars as it orbits the Sun. The following table records the days, when the fixed stars associated with their lunar stations made their heliacal rise, i.e. be first visible on the Eastern horizon.

Lunar Stations Rise of star: (Sad al-) Akhbiya Muqaddam Muakhkhar Ban al-t/Rish3 Sharaayn Buayn Thurayy Dabarn Haqa Hana Dhir Nathra arafa

Brn 989 AD1 1.3.989 14.3.989 27.3.989 9.4.989 22.4.989 5.5.989 18.5.989 31.5.989 13.6.989 26.6.989 9.7.989 22.7.989 4.8.989

Takvim 1740/41 AD (not included) 21.3.1740 3.4..1740 16.4.1740 29.4.1740 12.5.1740 25.5.1740 7.6.1740 20.6.1740 3.7.1740 16.7.1740 29.7.1740 11.8.1740

Position in Zodiac Sign2

Aquarius Pegasus Pegasus+Andromeda Andromeda Aries Aries Taurus Taurus Orion Gemini Gemini Cancer Cancer + Leo

His table is made for the year 1300 of the Era Alexander, i.e. of the Seleucid calendar, that corresponds to 989 AD: Albrn,, Chronology, p. 352. He must have been either a very precocious youngster or have used data recorded by someone else, because in 989 he was only 15 years old. 2 According to Kunitzsch, Sternnamen, pp.55-6 and F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1, 3 Both names (Rish in the takvims; Ban al-t in Biruni) denote the same lunar station: Kunitzsch, Sternnamen, p.135. For a detailed description of the Muslim lunar stations see also ibid., Untersuchungen zur Sternennomenklatur der Araber, Wiesbaden 1961.

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An Ottoman Calendar
Jabha Zubra arfa Aww Simk Ghafr Zubna Ikll Qalb Shaula Nayim Balda (Sad al-) Dhbi (Sad al-) Bula (Sad al-) Sud
17.8.989 31.8.989 13.9.989 26.9.989 9.10.989 22.10.989 4.11.989 17.11.989 30.11.989 13.12.989 26.12.989 8.1.990 21.1.990 3.2.990 16.2.989 24.8.1740 6.9.1740 19.9.1740 2.10.1740 15.10.1740 29.10.1740 11.11.1740 24.11.1740 7.12.1740 20.12.1740 2.1.1741 15.1.1741 28.1.1741 10.2..1741 23.2.1741 Leo Leo Leo Virgo Virgo Virgo Libra Scorpio Scorpio Scorpio Sagittarius Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Aquarius + Capricorn

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Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)

This table shows that after a period of 751 years (989/990-1740/41) the same fixed stars rise seven days later in the Julian calendar. This delay is explained by the combination of two factors: 1. the precession of the Earths axis1 that causes it to move in a complete circle around the celestial poles, with its axis returning to the same position every 25800 years2, just like the wobbling motion of a spinning top, when some force is exerted from the side (in the case of the Earth the gravitational force of the Sun, the Moon and to a much lesser degree of the planets)

2. the already mentioned imprecision of the Julian calendar. After 751 years had elapsed between 989/90 (Brn s table) and 1740/1 (our takvim) the heliacal rising of the fixed stars could be observed approx. eleven days later in a true solar calendar due to the precession3. As Julian calendar years, on which both tables are based, are too long compared to the true solar year by approx. three days every 400 years4, approx. six days have to be deducted again to find the corresponding date after 751 years, which accounts for the seven days difference between Brn s table and the takvim for 1740/41.

F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1, pp.25-28, to whom I must refer for details concerning the calculation of the precession. 2 Birunis figure for the precession circle is slightly less with 6 in 66 years, i.e. 23760 years. (Albrn, Chronology., p.354 )
1

751 years/25800 years = 0.02911 years = approx. 10d15h. 4 In the Julian calendar every fourth year is a leap year (with 29 days in February). In the (almost) true solar or Gregorian calendar the same rule applies, except for every 100th year that is not a multiple of 400. Thus to align Julian calendar dates with the (almost) true solar calendar, three days for every four hundred years have to deducted from similar dates in order to arrive at the corrected Julian calendar date.
3

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An Ottoman Calendar

The visibility of fixed stars at dawn at a certain latitude before sunrise cannot be timed exactly, as explained in detail by Ginzel.1 It is all the more remarkable that in view of the many factors defying a precise calculation the difference of the heliacal rising between the two tables remains constant.

These data were used for a rough conversion between hours la franca and hours la turca that start at sunset2. Example: On 10/21.6.1740 the time recorded in the takvim between sunrise and sunset was 15 hours (see table above), with sunrise at 5.30 a.m. and sunset at 7.30 p.m. la turca time of 2.15 (starting at sunset) on 10./21.6 1740 corresponded, d) Length of therefore, to 7.30 p.m. + 2.15 day/night hours = 9.45 p.m. in hours la Throughout the calendar franca. the length of daytime and the . corresponding length of the This list of the length of night are indicated in half hour days and nights is lacking in increments. As discussed above, other calendars, which on the the takvim counts from and to other hand include prayer times the moments, when the centre of that are omitted in the takvim the Sun is at the horizon in for 1740/41. astronomic terms, not when it appears to the eye. Therefore, daylight according to the modern definition is always longer, due to the refraction of light coming from the Sun, when it is still below the horizon

F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1, pp.25-28.

J. Wrschmidt, op.cit , p.100

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Middle East Studies Online Journal- ISSN 2109-9618- Issue n4. Volume 2 ( 2011)

Holidays (1st column from right) The choice of religious and other memorable dates differs widely in Ottoman calendars. Some include Christian holidays in addition to Islamic feasts, others completely ignore other religions, while some also record Jewish holidays, which are left out in other calendars. A republican takvim for 1938, still authored by a self-styled mneccimba (the office had been officially abolished already in 1924), adds a few entries to commemorate Turkish republican national days and victories over the Greeks during the War of Liberation in 1921-2. It was obviously left to the authors own choice which memorable days to include. It is still remarkable that the takvim published here, made in honour of Sultan Mahmud I. and later included in his wakfs for the Holy Places in the Hejaz, devotes so much space to Christian feasts, whose number even exceeds that of Islamic holidays (no Jewish dates are included in this takvim). a) hristian (dated according to the Julian/Gregorian calendars). Sunday [Beiza-i Srh] 6./17.4.1740

The Red Egg. This date coincides with Easter Sunday of the Orthodox Church in the takvim for 1740/41, the takvim for 1831/32 and another takvim for 1938, and is obviously a synonym for Orthodox Easter. Beiza-i Srh is the Ottoman/Persian version of modern Turkish Kzl Yumurta and of the original Greek , all meaning Red Egg that symbolizes Easter1. This term for Easter must have been in general use, because none of the takvims offers any further explanation. The Ottoman salname for 1895/96, when Easter was celebrated on the same day (2./14.4.) by both the Orthodox and the Western churches, lists that date by two terms, Beiza-i Srh and Paskalya, the former being the term for Easter in the Orthodox church, while the latter obviously means Easter in the Western churches. The Hamburg ruzname, described by Br & Rettelbach2, includes the following formula for computing Beiza-i Srh, which is quite different from any of the traditional methods used to find Easter Sunday3: C
H.K. Qadr, Trk lughat, Istanbul 1927, vol.1, p.84. 2 see above p. 2 note 5. 3 A clear explanation how to compute Easter is in http://www.ortelius.de/kalender/eas t_en.php
1

54

An Ottoman Calendar

Sunday after the th of Wednesday following the 15 the Arabic month that starts in March, is Beiza-i Srh [Mart iinde yeni olan arabi aynn on beinden sonra gelen aramba akbnda gelen yekenbi Beiza-i Srhdr]. This definition apparently tries to redraft in Ottoman terms1 the Christian Easter formula going back to the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, which is in principle: The first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon [related, but not identical with astronomical Full Moon] on or following the 21st March.

The reference to a month in the Julian calendar, which was well known in the Ottoman Empire but less so in other Muslim countries of the Mashriq, points to an Ottoman origin of this formula. Also the word Mart for March is typically Turkish.

To use the Islamic calendar in order to find a date in Christian liturgy seems surprising at first, but is quite logical, because both the Islamic calendar and the Christian Easter are defined by phases of the Moon. Another example of the use of the Islamic calendar to find a movable date in the Christian ecclesiastical tradition is Brns method to define the starting date of the pre-Easter fasting period.2 I was unable, however, to attribute the Beiza-i Srh formula to any specific author. Among the admittedly limited number of ruznames and takvims that could be consulted, this formula is mentioned only in the Hamburg manuscript. This could allow two opposite interpretations: Either the formula was too well known to be included in every takvim or takvim authors in general had no knowledge of it. In the latter case the mneccim must have consulted the Greek Orthodox Church or else have applied directly the methods used by the Church. But even if the formula was general knowledge, its application for fixing the Easter date in the takvims remains doubtful for reasons given below.

See entry for 9.2./20.2.1741 below.

55

An Ottoman Calendar

To apply the formula correctly, the following criteria have to be observed: 1) Wednesday on or following the 15th of the Arabic month, a natural rule for premodern societies that included both start and end date in the computation of time. 2) An Islamic day will always begin at sunset of the day preceding its equivalent in the Christian calendar. 1 A span of 101 years (1700-1800) was chosen to check if Easter Sunday of the Greek Orthodox Church can be determined by applying the Beiza-i Srh calculation. Conversion tables as well as an astronomical programme were used for the data input.

Before using conversion tables a further decision has to be made as to which of two possible dates to apply as the epoch of the Islamic calendar, Thursday 15.7.622 or Friday 16.7.622, both of which are recorded in historical sources. The purely arithmetic calendar carries this difference of one day ad infinitum into later periods. Ottoman calendar makers favoured Thursday 15.7.622 as the start of the Islamic Era2, which is, therefore, taken as the base for the arithmetic conversion, not Friday 16.7.622, which is more common in modern conversion tables/programmes. The case is of course different for astronomical calculations that make the one day difference for the epoch irrelevant for later periods. The outcome of the 101years check was surprisingly good. The arithmetic conversion tables defined Easter Sunday correctly in 99 of the 101 years, while its results for 1780 and 1800 gave a date one week too early. The astronomical programme got correct results for the whole century, including 1780 and 1800, with wrong Easter dates for 1717, 1736 and 1755, however.

There is no need, therefore, to change Wednesday into Thursday in the Beiza-i Srh formula, as Br&Rettelbach propose ( op.cit., pp.151-2).

Navoni, op.cit., p.270 Wrschmidt. op.cit., p.99.

2

J.

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An Ottoman Calendar

This common error rate of 2-3% makes it impossible to decide which is the correct method to be applied in the Beiza-i Srh formula. But as outlined above, we must assume that astronomical, not arithmetic, calculations were used to find the Wednesday following the 15th of the Arabic month that starts in March., just like for other data entries. One might still doubt the value of this formula in spite of its relatively good performance in statistical terms. Even with a smaller error margin a conscientious calendar maker would still have needed to rely on the orthodox and rather complicated methods of fixing the Easter date, if only to make sure that he got not only a highly probable date for Easter, but the correct one. As the formula only needs two common calendars that were at everybodys reach, it has still an undeniable value as a rule of thumb, however, for the non-specialists to determine Easter with high probability and without the need to apply the complicated calculation methods of both Eastern and Western churches that only as late as 1800 were cast into a mathematical equation created by the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss.

Friday 1./12.8.1740 [Evvel Savm- Meryem] Start of Marys Fast A two week fast, the Dormition Fast, before the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (see: Friday 15./26.8.1740) Wednesday 6./17.8.1740 [d-i Nasra] Tecelli

Feast of Radiance of the Christians (Transfiguratio Domini) The feast commemorates the day, when Jesus was transfigured or became radiant on Mount Tabor, was called Son by God and spoke with Moses and Elijah, thus being elevated above both prominent prophets of Judaism.1 One of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Friday 26 8./6.9.1740 [Veldet-i Meryem] Birth of Mary

Albrn, Chronology, p. 297.

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An Ottoman Calendar

While the takvim for 1831/32 has the same date for this feast, two of the five Egyptian calendars published by Charles Pellat1 mention the following Julian dates for feasts associated with the birth of Maryam: Ibn Mammt 2.9 [mld al-sayyida Maryam alayh al-salm]; anonymous 8.9. [mld Maryam wlida s alayhi al-salm]. The salname of 1895 also mentions 8/20.9.1895 as Marys birthday. Both the modern salname and the anonymous Egyptian calendar conform to the date accepted in the Eastern Orthodox Church for the nativity of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, on 8./19. September. Our takvim for 1740/41 and the takvim for 1831/32 are both wrong (as well as Ibn Mammts calendar), but having made an identical error they copied probably from the same source, that was either mistaken or based like the Annunciation date (see next page) on a later forgotten tradition. One of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Friday 15./26.8.1740 [Vefat-i Meryem] Death of Mary

This day is known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Assumption and in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Dormition of the Theotokos (Falling Asleep of the Mother of God), the orthodox Christian version of the Death of Mariam, the Ottoman Turkish term. One of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Saturday 13./24.9.1740 [Arabic: d alalb] Feast of the Cross Holy Cross Feast (Exaltatio Sancti Crucis). The date marks the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335, nine years after St.Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine I., rediscovered the true cross during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 13.9.335, the date mentioned in the takvim, corresponds to the feast day in the Nestorian church, while the other Christians celebrate one day later on 14.9./24.9., when the cross is brought out of the church.2 One of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Monday 1./12.12.1740 [d-i Bearet-i Meryem] Annunciation to Mary
2

1vid.

C. Pellat, Cinq Egyptiens, Cairo 1986.

Calendris Albrn, Chronology, p. 307.

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The generally accepted date (at least in the Western and the Greek Orthodox Churches) is 25 March which tallies biologically with the universally accepted date for Christmas on 25 December (or equivalent date according to the calendar style used). Yet the takvim, together with Egyptian calendars published by Charles Pellat1 (probably among others as well) and also Ulugh Begs introduction to his zj2 define the Julian date 1 December as the day of the Annunciation [bishra] 3..

Ibn Mammt, in one of the calendars presented by Charles Pellat, furthermore mentions that the pregnancy of Mary became apparent [ahara aml Maryam], on 5 (Coptic) beh = 1. January OE, which would have been the case, when she did not have her period one month after the conception on 1.December OE. The date of the appearance of the pregnancy makes it perfectly clear again that 1.December OE was in fact understood in several takvims, including the one under study here, as the day of the Annunciation. The Ottoman takvim for 1831/32, trying to please both traditions, not only includes d-i Bearet-i Meryem for 1./13. December 1831, but adds another feast with the similar, but more explicit wording of Annunciation of the Pregnancy of St. Mary [d-i haml bearet-i 1vid. C. Pellat, op.cit. for calendars of Meryem] for 25. March/6. April following authors: Ibn Mammt: bishra Maryam bi-s on 1831, as if its author wanted to 5 (Coptic) Kiyahk = 1.12. (pp. 28-9); show his doubts about the first Maqrz: bishra Maryam bi-aml date. Maqrz likewise manages s alayhim al-salm on 6 (Coptic) Kiyahk = 2.12. . (pp.108- to include both dates for the 09) and d al-bishra on 22 same Annunciation in his (Coptic) Kiyahk = 18.12.. Khia.4 2
3

Sdillot, op.cit., vol.1, p./vol2,p. The annunciation is also mentioned in the Koran (III:37-8; XXIII:52; LXVI:12) and according to a Muslim tradition took place on the longest day of the year (approx. 21.6. NE), the third date given for this event: A.J.Wensinck [P. Johnstone], Maryam, EI2 !

Kitb al-maw i wa l-i tibr bidhikr al-khia wa l-thr, vol. 1 (Blq 1270/1853). He explains both dates p.264 d al-bishra on 29 (Coptic) Baramhat = 25.3. vs.

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An Ottoman Calendar

That the Annunciation at the beginning of December would mean that Christ was born at the beginning of September, does not seem to have troubled the authors of our takvims and the Egyptian calendars nor even Charles Pellat, who simply records the undeniable fact that the Annunciation now est clbre le 29 baramht = 25 mars.1 The December-date for the Annunciation may possibly have had its roots in a different and now forgotten tradition in the Eastern (not Greek) churches as opposed to that now generally accepted. The division of the ecclesiastical year in the Nestorian church into nine sections (shawua), of which the first one - beginning on 1st December - is called the section of the Annunciation2, could point in that direction. Accordingly, Brn writes that the annunciation date of 25.3. is that of the Melkites (followers of the Byzantine Church), 3 while the Nestorians celebrated either on the last Sunday in November
p.270: bishra Maryam bi-aml s alayhim al-salm on 6 (Coptic) Kiyahk = 2.12 as the annunciation to Mary of her conception with Jesus! 1 C.Pellat, op.cit., p.28 n.4. 2 A.S. Atiya, A History of Eastern Christianity, University of Notre Dame 1968 (reprint 1980), p. 296. 3 Albrn, Chronology, p. 290.

or the first Sunday in 4 December. Arguing with reason as usual, Brn agrees with the Melkites, citing the human nature of Christ who was subject to the laws of childbearing5, whereas he reports without further comment the dissident view, that the Messiah, being different from mankind, stayed only 25 days in his mothers womb (it could have been 390 days as well, if he had been born on Christmas day of the next year!) or that the annunciation may have occurred while Christ had already been conceived. That a mysterious pregnancy of 25 days could be rooted in Nestorian beliefs is surprising, because Nestorianism is normally understood to stress the partly human nature of Christ against the teachings of the Byzantine and mainly the Monophysite churches.

details in Albrn, Chronology, pp..307. According to a table on p. 313 the Sunday of Annunciation could be between 27.11.and 3.12. Also according to some Muslim traditions Jesus was born immediately or soon after the Annunciation: A.J.Wensinck [P. Johnstone], op.cit.

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An Ottoman Calendar

Even the Jacobite Syrian Church according to a tradition which is also apparently forgotten now, dated the Annunciation on a Sunday in December.1 It could also be possible, that the mysterious Annunciation date beginning of December was originally understood as the date, when Mary herself was conceived, although the terms clearly denote the conception of Jesus. The wrong Julian date for Marys birthday in the two takvims for 1740/41 and 1831/322, viz. 26 8., would more or less confirm a conception date on 1.12.

The whole confusion about the Annunciation date would merit special attention by theologians with expert knowledge in Western and Eastern Christian liturgy. Although Muslim historians and chronologists like Brn 3, Maqrz4 and Ulugh Beg were usually quite well informed about Christian feasts, it is not surprising, therefore, that they, like the later Ottoman calendars, had some difficulty finding their way in the intricate maze of contradictory Christian traditions, which are not easy to trace even today.

11st

Sunday in December: C. Slis, Les Syriens orthodoxes et catholiques, Brussels 1974 (reprint 1988), p. 188; 2nd Sunday before Christmas: A. Baumstark, Festjahr und Kirchenjahr der Syrischen Jakobiter, Paderborn 1901, p.169. Biruni (Chronology, p. 307) was told that the Jacobites celebrate the Annunciation on 10 Nisan of the Jewish calendar (in 1000AD on 18.3.), i.e. a date in March, but he adds (p. 312) that - not having met a Jacobite Christian - he was not acquainted with their system. see 26 8./6.9.1740 [Veldet-i Meryem] above.

3 4

Albrn, Chronology, pp. 282-302 Maqrz, op.cit., pp. 264-9.

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A salname (year book) for 1895/61 records even three pregnancy dates that can be easily explained, however: bearet-i haml- Meryem Annunciation of the Pregnancy of Mary on 25.March/6.April 1895 - the generally accepted date besides haml-i Meryem on 8. December 1895 Julian calendar for the Greek Orthodox [rumi] and on 8.12.1895 Gregorian calendar for the Western churches [efrenci]. But in spite of the ambiguous term haml-i Meryem, the Decemberdates obviously point to a date recognised in all churches, when Mary herself not Jesus - was conceived. We only have to translate haml-i Meryem with Pregnancy with Mary instead of Pregnancy of Mary. This feast is much more important for the Catholics than for the Greek Orthodox, though, after Pope Pius IX in his constitution Ineffabilis Deus had declared the immaculate conception of Mary to be understood as the conception of a sinless being, not as one without sexual intercourse like in the case of Jesus as a dogma. It is not one of the tenets of the Greek Orthodox church, though, and this conception date does not even constitute one of their
Mehmet Selaheddin, Hediye-i sal, sene-i kamriyye 1312/13, sene-i emsiyye 1273/4, Constantinople.
1

feasts. The inclusion of that feast in the salname of 1895 and not in earlier takvims could have been the result of increased Western, especially Catholic influence. Thursday 25.12.1740/5.1.1741 [eb Milad-i Isa] Birthnight of Jesus. Christmas. One of the twelve Great Feasts of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. Tuesday 6/17. 1. 1741 [Arabic: al-alb f l-M ] The Cross in the Water: The baptism of Jesus, celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Churches together with Epiphany, when a priest during an open air ceremony tosses a cross into the water. Monday 9.2./20.2.1741 [Savm Kebir Nasra] Great Fast of Christians

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Clean Monday or Ash Monday is the day starting the seven week Great Lent fasting period for the Churches of the Eastern liturgy, two days before Ash Wednesday for the Western Church. Beiza-i Srh, the Orthodox Easter, (vid. entry for 6./17.4.1740 above) in 1741 was Sunday 29.3 OE, i.e. seven weeks later, which agrees with the takvims date for Ash Monday. Brn presents a method based on the Hijri calendar to date this moving feast by calculating the days from the fixed date of Epiphany - a very early (indirect) Islamic formula for Easter, which is comparable to the Beiza-i Srh algorithm1.

10 Muharram is much more important for the Sh a, however, as on this day in 61AH/680AD their third imam, usayn b. Al, had been martyred in the battle of Karbal an event of mourning , celebrated annually in Iran with processions and religious plays. When the staunchly Sunni Ayyubids ousted the Sh a Fatimids from Egypt in 1171, they declared Ashura a feast of rejoicing in order to spite the hated Sh followers3. It is remarkable that the date of this feast is recorded in a calendar of predominantly Sunni Ottoman Turkey. Tuesday 12 Rabi I. 1153 [Leyle-i Mevlud alNab] b) M Birthnight of the uslim (dated according to the Prophet Lunar Hijri calendar). Friday 1 Rajab 1153 [Leyle-i Regaib] Thursday 10 Night of Wishes Muharram 1153 [Yevm A feast particularly Aura] popular in Sufi circles in Turkey, Day of Ashura where the holy night starting at A holy day for both sunset on Thursday before the Sunnites and the Sh a, first Friday in Rajab, a holy although with different month in general, is celebrated connotations. For the Sunnites it by the Regaibiyye ceremonial, is a day of commended fasting. characterised by prayers and the Traditionally the door of the lighting of candles.4 Ka was opened for visitors.2 ba
Maqrz , Kitb al-maw i , vol.2, p.592. 4 M. Uzun, Regibiyye, Islam Ansiklopedisi, Istanbul 2007.
3

Biruni, Kitb al-tafhm, no.295 and note.

1 2

A.J.Wensinck, shr, EI2

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Leyle-i Regaib is regarded in one popular tradition as the date of marriage of the Prophets parents, Abdallh and Amna. As the Prophets birthday is celebrated on 12 Rabi I. the Prophet must consequently have been born approx. eight solar months after the wedding night, a surprising parallel to the even more mysterious 25 days of pregnancy of Mary (see above).1 Wednesday 27 Rajab 1153 [Leyle-i Mirac al-Nabi] Night of Heavenly Journey of the Prophet

The night, when Prophet Muhammad made a miraculous journey to the Masjid al-Aq, which according to one older tradition is a place in Heaven, whereas it is now generally understood to be the mosque bearing this name on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.2 Saturday 15 Shaban 1153 [Leyle-i Berat]3 Night of Salvation A day when the believers hope for forgiveness and absolution from their sins (Arabic: bara = innocence). According to one tradition it also commemorates the day, when the qibla, the prayer direction, was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca. 4 Saturday 9 Dhu lHijja 1153 [Yevm-i Arafa] Day of Arafa The day, when the pilgrims stay at Mount Arafat as prescribed in the Hajj ritual.5 Saturday 27 Ramadan 1153 [Leyle-i Kadr] Night of Destiny

vid. H.Tekeli, Regaib Gecesi, Islam Ansiklopedisi, Istanbul 2007, with a full account of the traditions concerning this day, including without further comment (just like M.Uzun, supra) - the story about the conception of the Prophet. It must be mentioned that many of the traditions are doubted by Islamic theologians, who tend to regard this feast as a bida, an unorthodox addition to Islam. Turkish religious websites often relate the marriage of the Prophets parents in Rajab without further questioning. In one instance, however, the author explains the slightly embarrassing birth date by a mistake in dating the marriage that, according to him (without any further reference), was contracted one month earlier, i.e. in Jumada I: http://www.bibilgi.com/REGAIBGECESI.

B.Schrieke-(J.Horovitz), Mirdj, EI2 3 H. nal, Berat Gecesi, Islam Ansiklopedisi, vol. 5, Istanbul 1992. 4 Albrn, Chronology, p. 329. 5 for more memorable events on this day, vid. Albrn, Chronology, p. 333.
2

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The night, when the Koran was revealed (Koran LXXXVII: 5).1 Although 27 Ramadan is the commonly accepted date, according to other traditions Leyle-i Kadr is a Friday within a date range from 17th to 27th Ramadan2. According to a codex ruzname of 1210AH/1795AD this Friday can be found as a function of the weekday, when Ramadan started3. This ruzname includes the following grid:

1st Ramadan on: Leyle-i Kadr in Ramadan:

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

29

21

27

19

25

17

23

1 2 3

Albrn, Chronology, p. 330-1. S.zervarl, Kadir Gecesi, Islam Ansiklopedisi , vol. 24, Istanbul 2001. Khalili collection MS 164, which is based on a tradition [ruwiya an] by Shaykh al- al-Andalus, according to his Maghrib nisba perhaps a Maliki scholar.

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None of the takvims consulted follows this rule, however, but date Leyle-i Kadr invariably on 27 Ramadan, without regard to the day of the week.

The reason for this omission could be that the precise date for fast breaking is still primarily defined not by the cyclical calendar nor even by astronomic calculations, but by the actual vision of the new Sunday 10 Dhu lHijja crescent moon (unlike other [d-i Adha] Feast of Adha months, where this rule is no more observed in practice). It is Also known as the Great true that the same rule applies Feast (d-i Kebir) and in Turkey to the beginning as well as to the as Kurban Bayram, the feast that end of Ramadan that are both marks the end of the hjj defined in the takvims. But pilgrimage, celebrated by the whereas a calendar is by definition a collection of dates, sacrifice of sheep. where the month of Ramadan The d-i Ftr or Lesser could not have been left out, the Feast (d-i Sagir) that marks the associated feast could have been end of the Ramadan fasting is omitted for the sake of not mentioned in the takvims, orthodoxy. however, in spite of being at least as popular as a general festival occasion than the Kurban Bayram.

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c) ther feasts (dated according to the Julian/Gregorian calendars)

Whereas O this new observation caused the Persians to advance their New Year date by five days, the Iranians in Transoxania did not follow and Thursday from then on, therefore, 27.3../7.4.1740 [Nevruz celebrated New Year five days Horezmah] later.2 This difference remained the same, of course, after the Nauruz Khorezmshah beginning of the year had shifted New Year in Khorezm from the summer-solstice to the (called Nausarji in the spring equinox. Khorezmian language) was originally the sixth day that All of this still does not followed the Persian Nauruz.1 explain why Nauruz The Persians added the Khorezmshah is 13 not only Epagonema (the five days five days later than the Persian needed to complete the 12 Nauruz. months of 30 days each to a nearly - full solar year) originally This particular feast is, within the year after the end of however, qualified by the title of Abanmah, the 8th month of their a ruler, implying that he calendar, whereas in Khorezm modified the existing calendar.3 they were added to the last Brn in fact mentions a month. calendar reform made by a That alone would not Khorezmshah, Ab Abdallh have postponed the New Year Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Irq date in Khorezm. But according who reigned from ca. 958 to ca. to Brn the Persians had found 975.4 out in the time of Zoroaster that the summer-solstice, the original start of their years, had been calculated five days too late.

called Nausarji, identical with the Great Nauruz or Second Nauruz of the Persians on 6 Ferverdin: Albrn, Chronology, p.223 in connection with pp. 82, 201,222. Also F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1., p.307.

Albrn, Chronology, p.220. Similar to the common Nauruz sultani, a term probably associated with the Seljuk Sultan Malikshah, who also initiated a calendar reform.. 4 Albrn, Chronology , pp. 229/30
2 3

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According to his reform made in 959 after a period of confusion about the correct dating method, the first of Nausarji should fall on the third of the Syrian Nisan, a month in the Seleucid calendar. As this calendar had already in Roman times been aligned with the Roman (Julian) calendar, its rules had become identical to that of the Julian calendar, except for its Syrian month names in this case Nisan for April - and the years being counted from 312 BC with the year starting on 1 Teshrinevvel/October. The Khorezmshah, obviously under the impression that the Julian/Seleucid calendar was seasonally correct and therefore capable of bringing some order into the previous confusion about feast dates in Khorezm, ordered to apply its rules, including those for intercalation.

If this had been carried out to the letter, Nauruz Khorezmshah would each year invariably be on 3 April/Nisan of the Julian calendar. Both the Julian and as a consequence the romanised Seleucid calendars suffer from the same imprecision, however, viz. having an excess of three days in 400 years. It seems, therefore, that for the calculation of the feast of Nauruz Khorezmshah in the following years, a correct solar calendar was used just like for the standard Nauruz (Sultani), a correction preceding by many centuries the Gregorian reform of the Julian calendar that aimed at the correct solar dating of Easter. With the necessary solar corrections applied to the Julian/Seleucid calendars, a feast originating on 3 April/Nisan 959 would in 1740AD have had to be celebrated on 27 March. This is in fact the same date as the one marked Nauruz Khorezmshah in our takvim! That the dates for a feast in remembrance of the original Nauruz Khorezmshah were computed according to a true solar calendar is in principle also evident in a ruzname of Sheikh Vefa type . It dates Nauruz Sultani, on 11.3., i.e. two days after the date in 1740, and Nauruz Khorezmshah on 28.3., i.e. one day later than in 1740.

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The comparison of these dates shows once more that not only the equinox feast of Nauruz Sultani, but also Nauruz Khorezmshah was defined astronomically and therefore had to recede gradually in the Julian calendar. How could late Ottoman calendars remember such an obscure feast that dates back many centuries to an equally obscure Central Asian monarch, about which even Brn seems not to have been too sure (vid note 1 p.59), although he was born in Khorezm during or shortly after the reign of this Khorezmshah?

Moreover, the calendar reform initiated by the Khorezmshah had been discarded already during Brn s lifetime, which made Nauruz Khorezmshah irrelevant quite early. The above mentioned Sheykh Vefa ruzname brings us already several centuries closer to the origin of that feast. It is quite probable, therefore, that the knowledge about it had been transmitted through all the years at least among calendar authors , although it is equally probable, that its meaning was early forgotten. It could not have been remembered as a date for taxation comparable to the Nauruz Mutadid, the new year of a new calendar introduced by the Abbasid caliph al- Mutadid in order to adjust tax payments to the harvesting seasons. Nauruz Khorezmshah is only 18 days later than Nauruz Sultani and therefore not really an alternative for tax collection. After Brn only ruznames and takvims continued to mention Nauruz Khorezmshah and this without any further explanation.Perhaps this mysterious date and the equally mysterious Annunciation dates in the Christian liturgy are both proof that Ottoman calendars faithfully kept trace of old traditions that had ceased to be understood for some time.

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7/18.9.1740 [Hamsa-i Msteraka-i Kadim] Five stolen (days) in the old (Persian calendar) The start date of the additional period of five days (normally known as Enderghs) that is added to the last of the twelve 30-day months of the (in the takvim:old) Persian (Yezdegerd) calendar in order to align it with the solar year. 7/18.9.1740 is equivalent to 1. Endergah 1109 of the Yezdegerd Era. Wednesday, 23.4./4.5.1740 [Ruz-i Hzr] Hzr day and Sunday, 26.10./6.11.1740 [Ruz-i Kasm] Kasm day

The two key seasonal dates in Ottoman calendars are: Ruz-i Kasm, corresponding to St. Demetrius day, and Ruz-i Hzr, corresponding to St.Georges day. Ruz-i Kasim lent its name to the neo-Turkish term Kasm for November, which replaced the old Terinievvel. Hzr is a legendary character associated with so many names known in Islamic and folklore tradition that they cannot be enumerated here. Ruz-i Hzr is the day of a popular spring festival (khair, meaning green in Arabic), that is known in modern Turkish as Hdrellez, a combination of Hzr with Ilyas, one of the many legendary figures connected with Hzr. Even in modern Turkish calendars the year is divided into two half-years, Hzr and Kasm (counting the days from Ruz-i Hzr and Ruz-i Kasm, which correspond in the 20th and 21st centuries to 23.4./6.5. and 26.10./8.11., respectively). Saturday, 6/17.12.1740 [Evvel-i eb-i Yelda] first night yelda and Sunday 14/25.12.1740 [Aher-i eb-i Yelda] last night yelda

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eb-i Yelda is originally an Iranian feast day on the eve of the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, to celebrate the return of longer days or their rebirth, as implied by the original Syriac word yelda that is derived from the Semitic root w-l-d in the sense of birth. The takvim, however, mentions a whole festive week between a first and a last day of yelda, with the winter solstice 10/21.12.1750 being in the middle of it. The same entries in takvim of 1831/32 place the yelda period between 6./18.12. and 15./27.12, i.e. with a start on the same day but lasting one day longer.

Wednesday 10./21.12.1740 [Evvel-i Erbain] start of arba n (=40) and Sunday 18/29.1.1741 [Aher-i Erbain] end of arba n(=40). End of the first winter period (11/22.12.-18/29.1.), calculated as 40 days from the winter solstice on 10./21.12. Monday 19/30.1.1741[Evvel-i Hamsin] start of khamsn (=50)

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Start of a second (late) winter period, lasting 50 days until the arrival of spring on the vernal equinox on 9/20.3.1742. The zodiac signs of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces (10/21.12.8/19.3) together represent the 90-days winter season, divided into arban with 40 days and khamsn with 50 days. Meteorological data (1st column from right) (dated according to the Julian/Gregorian calendar) The reason for including meteorological data such as winds, temperature, floods etc. in an almanac based on astronomical phenomena that are used for horoscopes and similar predictions is not immediately clear for a modern reader for whom astronomy does nothing to explain why, for instance, a northern wind starts to blow on a special calendar date.

characteristically uses an alleged astronomical/meteorological connection for one of his sarcastic anti-Arab comments: Since the Arabs attribute all meteorological changes to the influence of the rising and setting of the stars, in consequence of their ignorance of physical sciences, thinking that all changes of the kind depend on the bodies of the stars and their rising, not upon certain parts of the celestial globe and the suns marching therein...etc. 1. It is not quite clear if the criteria for fixing meteorological data in the takvim were still based on an alleged stellar influence or according to Brn s opinion on the influence of certain parts of the celestial globe and the sun . While the latter view is undoubtedly correct, it did not prevent the general belief that calendar makers were able to predict storms, heat waves etc. with an exactitude that even modern meteorologists can only dream of.

Brn

Albrn, Chronology, in his chapter on lunar stations, pp. 335ss.

1

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The choice of memorable weather dates and their terminology used in the takvim is so similar to Brn s Chronology of Nations, that we can clearly affirm a common meteorological tradition reaching back from the relatively modern Ottoman almanacs to the 10th century author Brn and beyond to the Greeks, Hindus and also the illiterate Arabs. Just to quote a few examples: Thursday 5./16.6.1740 [Suq- Nuqa bi-Nl] Drop in Nile and Monday 16./27.6.1740 [Ibtida-i Fezune-i Nil] Start of Nile Flood

The first date, known in Egypt as the Night of the Drop [layla al-nuqa], is a fixed day in the Coptic calendar, 11. Bauna, equivalent to 5./16. June, which marks the day, when a miraculous drop falls into the Nile, causing it to rise. On the second date, three to nine days after the summer solstice, the Nile high waters are supposed to have reached the southern border of Egypt, thereby starting the flood.1 This is consistent with the summer solstice date on 10./21.6.1740 (see next page).2 In the 19th century the rise of the flood was daily proclaimed in the streets of Cairo on and following 27 Bauna (21.6./3.7.).3 The takvim for 1831/32, in addition to both Nile dates, also mentions First flood of Euphrates on 22.4.4 The high water in both rivers has of course completely different causes, which Brn tries to explain, although not very clearly.5

Albrn , Chronology, p. 258: People say that on this date, i.e. 16.6., the Nile begins to rise. 2 F.K.Ginzel, op.cit., vol.1, pp. 154-6. 3 for the Nile feasts in Egypt see E.W.Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London 1836 (reprinted 1978), pp. 483-4. 4 Albrn, Chronology, p. 251: Euphrates begins to rise on 24.4. 5 Albrn, Chronology, p. 252.
1

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Saturday 19./30.7.1740 [Evvel-i Ayyam-i Bahur] Start of Dog Days and Saturday 26.7./6.8.1740 [Aher-i Ayyam-i Bahur] End of Dog Days1 A hot weather period from 24.7. to 24.8. was known to the Romans as caniculares dies, because it started originally with the heliacal rising of Sirius, the Dog Star, which is no more the case now due to the precession of the equinoxes. The takvim mentions a much shorter period, one week only. Brn , who dates this period in the week 18.7.-24.7., explicitly refutes the idea that the heat during this period was caused by the great mass of the rising Sirius2 and that the dates should, therefore, have changed according to the change in the heliacal rising of the star. He also makes an attempt to explain the etymology of bahur without committing himself too much, because he traces the term to either Greek or Syriac or Arabic origin (with not too many other choices left, of course).

Tuesday 10./21.6.1740 [Evvel-i Fasl-i Sayf] Start of Summer (summer solstice) Monday 7./18.2.1741 [Cemre-i ul be-Hava] First coal to air, Saturday 14.2./25.2.1741 [Cemre-i saniye be-b] Second coal to water, and Saturday 21.2./4.3.1741 [Cemre-i salise be-Hk] Third coal to earth These three days of the coal (better: glowing ash) occur in February with one week apart and were believed to be characterised by heat affecting consecutively air, water and earth.3 Although according to Brn rooted in Arab, viz. lunar, tradition, these weatherrelated days had to be fixed according to the seasonally correct solar calendar. Brn once more manages to castigate his usual suspects, the Arabs, for their confusion to remember the exact days for the reoccurrence of the coal dates.4 Still the three coal days continued to be mentioned also in modern Ottoman ruznames and takvims.

1 2

Albrn, Chronology, p. 259-62 according to other scholars, like alKind, weather was influenced by the heat that was caused by the friction of moving planets, vid. Burnett, C. Weather Forecasting in the Arabic World, in: Magic and Divination in early Islam (ed. Emilie Savage-

Smith), Aldershot 2004, pp. 201-216, p.206. 3 Albrn, Chronology, pp.242-4. 4 Albrn , Chronology., pp.243.

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Thursday 26.2./9.3.1741 [Evvel-i Berd al-Acuz] Start of cold of the old woman, and Wednesday 1153 4./15.3.1741 [Aher-i Berd al-Acuz] End of cold of the old woman Each of these seven days of the old woman, a cold and stormy period at the turn of February to March, carries its own Arab name.1 In this case it was according to Brn a mathematician in Bukhara, not an Arab of course, who dated the Arab days correctly by fixing them into his own seasonally correct solar calendar These days also commemorate the seven consecutive nights and eight days when God destroyed the unbelieving people of d and Thamd..2 Brn gives several versions to explain the strange name of the old woman.3 The term used in German for a late summer period equivalent to the Indian summer, Altweibersommer = summer of old women (also with uncertain etymology), bears no relation to the cold of the old woman.
Albrn , Chronology., pp.244. Koran, Sura LXIX, 4-8. 3 Albrn , Chronology., pp.245-6: 1st : Only one old woman was spared the fate of her people, the d and Thamd; 2nd : An old woman, thinking it was warm, threw off her garment and perished in the cold; 3rd: acuz is only the name for the last
1 2

Saturday, 25.6.1740 [Arabic: Awn Wal Waraq] Time of Grafting Leaf and Sunday 22.2./5.3.1741 [Arabic: Ayym Wal Qalam] Days of the Grafting Pen These days are related to two grafting [Arabic wal = combination] seasons. A takvim for 1938 translates the rather cryptic Arabic entries of our takvim into slightly clearer Turkish as yaprak s zaman for 13,/26.6.1938 and ba budama kalem s zaman for 23.2./8.3.1938. The last term means the start date for pruning [budama] in vineyards [ba] with an instrument [kalem] [Arabic: qalam] for grafting [] plants4. The first date marks the season [zaman] for grafting other unidentified leaves [Arabic: waraq; Turkish: yaprak].

part of winter [Arabic

ajuz =

backside vs. Arabic: ajz = old woman] 4 Apparently pruning and grafting at the same time.

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The author of the takvim for 1831/32, obviously having no inkling about the meaning of these agricultural terms, which he must have copied from earlier sources, interpreted wal = grafting as synonymous with wu l = arrival and moreover changed waraq into the somehow similar sounding1 barak = blessings and consequently made 14.6. of the Julian calendar the start day of a season of blessings! Friday, 15./26.9.1740 [Arabic: Bad Suq alAwrq] Leaves start falling Arab (Hijri) and Rumi calendar (2nd, 3rd and 4th columns from right) The Rumi and Hijra dates, called Arab in the takvim, for the Rumi year period from the end of 1739 until the beginning of 1741 are listed in these columns including the days of the week.

The Hijra year 1153 is correctly recognized as a full intercalary Islamic year of 355 days (as opposed to the normal year of 354 days) in both the takvim and the arithmetic (cyclical) calendar, but conforms to established practice in that the length of individual months in this and also in other takvims does not follow the strict alternating sequence of 30 and 29 days of the arithmetic calendar and conversion tables. As already mentioned in the introduction, the takvims apply a different set of rules, which can only have been obtained by astronomical calculation. This is reflected in the first row of the calendar pages that include a description of the appearance of the new moon for each start of a lunar month. According to the sample on page 38 the new moon will appear on 1st Muharram 1153 clearly visible on Tuesday night at a southern and elevated position [serenbih gecesi cenubi mrtefi ve mnceli grne], a prediction that can only have resulted from astronomically computing the phases of the Moon. The following table shows the Hijra dates for the first of the Julian months in 1740/41 according to the takvim, the arithmetic calendar and an astronomical program for

more so in Turkish than in the original Arabic.

1

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finding the start of Hijri months, adapted for the location of Istanbul.

The dates where the other calendars differ from the takvim are marked in bold.

Christian dates Takvim 1740/41 Sunday, 9./20..3.1740 Tuesday, 1./11.4. 1740 Thursday, 1./11..5.1740 Sunday, 1./11..6.1740 Tuesday, 1./11..7.1740 Friday, 1./11.8.1740 Monday, 1./11.9.1740 Wednesday,1./11.10.1740 Saturday, 1./11.11.1740 Monday, 1./11.12.1740 Thursday, 1./11.1.1741 Sunday, 1./11.2.1741 Sunday, 1./11..3.1741 Monday, 27.2./9.3.1741 21 Dhu l-Hijja 1152 15 Muharram 1153 15 Safar 1153 17 Rabi I. 1153 17 Rabi II.1153 19 Jumada I. 1153 20 Jumada II. 1153 20 Rajab 1153 22 Shaban 1153 22 Ramadan 1153 23 Shawwal 1153 25 Dhu l-Qada 1153 23 Dhu l-Hijja 1153 2 Muharram 1154

Hijra dates Astronomical 21 Dhu l-Hijja 1152 15 Muharram 1153 15 Safar 1153 17 Rabi I. 1153 17 Rabi II. 1153 19 Jumada I. 1153 20 Jumada II. 1153 20 Rajab 1153 22 Shaban 1153 22 Ramadan 1153 23 Shawwal 1153 25 Dhu l-Qada 1153 23 Dhu l-Hijja 1153 2 Muharram 1154 Arithmetic 21 Dhu lHijja 1152 15 Muharram 15 Safar 1153 17 Rabi I 1153 17 Rabi II. 1153 19 Jumada I. 1153 20 Jumada II. 1153 21 Rajab 1153 22 Shaban 23 1153 Ramadan 24 1153 Shawwal 26 Dhu l1153 Qada 24 Dhu lHijja 1153 2 Muharram 1154

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The differences show clearly once more that the arithmetic calendar is nothing more and nothing less than a useful and easily accessible tool for historians with approximate dates that have an error margin of one, sometimes even two days, which can only be corrected, when the weekday is known as well. It is noteworthy that there is no difference between the takvim and the astronomical programme. This is quite remarkable in view of the divergent opinions regarding the visibility of the new crescent. The takvim mentions for instance in its first row at the start of two months, Shawwal 1153 and Dhu l-Hijja 1153, that the new crescents visibility is not certain, i.e. hidden visibility probable [haf grnmek muhtemildir]. Other astronomers might have postponed the new month by one day in these cases.

In view of the diverging criteria for the visibility of the new crescent it is natural that both calendars can be in complete agreement only, when the astronomical programme uses the same data as the takvim. From altogether thirteen optional lunar tables of the programme this happens to be the case with the zj of Yaqb b.riq, an 8th century Persian astronomer.1 This does not mean, of course, that the author of the takvim has in fact consulted this zj, but only that it agrees with the table used for the takvim, which was most probably the zj of Ulugh Beg, as mentioned before.

D.A.King/J.Sams, Zdj, EI2

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Zodiac [burj] (5th column from right) The fifth column from right is entitled zodiac [alburj]. As each of the twelve zodiac signs is valid for two, sometimes three days only, they must obviously be read in connection with a planet that moves much faster than the Sun, which travels from one zodiac sign to the next one only once every month. This fast moving planet is the Moon that circles around the Earth in less than 30 days while the Suns orbit (in geocentric terms) takes more than 12 times longer. The Moon, therefore, appears in (or better: in front of) the zodiac signs in a much quicker sequence.

The days of the new crescent in Taurus during 1153 AH as defined in the zodiac column of the almanac shall serve for a clearer and more detailed explanation:

1) 1 Muharram 1153 2) 29 Muharram 1153 3) 26 Safar 1153 4) 24 Rabi I 1153 5) 22 Rabi II 1153 6) 20 Jumada I 1153

7) 17 Jumada II 1153 8) 15 Rajab 1153 9) 13 Shaban 1153 10) 10 Ramadan 1153 11) 9 Shawwal 1153 12) 6 Dhu l-Qada 1153

13) 1153 13) 4 Dhu l-HijjaDhu l-Qada 1153

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From the first appearance of the Moon in (in front of) the zodiac sign of Taurus on 1 Muharram 1153 until its 13th time on 4 Dhu l-Hijja 1153 it had travelled twelve times through the zodiac belt, with its position changing at similar intervals among the other eleven signs during the rest of the year. This cyclical period amounts to 328 days, which is 16 days less than the 354 days of the standard Islamic lunar year. The difference is easily explained. A lunar month according to the Islamic calendar is the time between one new crescent to the next one, in other words: the time between identical phases of the Moon.

During this period not only has the Moon to complete one full orbit of 360 around the Earth as measured in relation to the fixed stars and the zodiac. In the meantime the Earth moves as well, and for the same Moon phase to be visible from the Earth, the Moon has to travel a further distance to make up for the difference1. Twelve of these Moon-phase-related longer months known as synodical months - complete the common Islamic year of 354 days2, whereas twelve of the fixedstar/zodiac-related shorter Moon orbits the so-called sidereal months take only 328 days to complete.3 The difference between synodical and sidereal months is reflected in the zodiac column where the same zodiac sign reappears always two or three days earlier in the Islamic calendar months. Choices [Ikhtiyrt] (6th column) This column shows days suitable for a certain activity, written in verse.
The same phenomenon seen in geocentric view could be explained as follows: the new crescent appears later, because the Sun that influences its visibility has advanced on its orbit around the Earth. 2 exactly: 354 days, 4 hours, 24 minutes 3 exactly: 327days, 10hours, 19minutes.
1

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The advice as such is astrological humbug and can, therefore, safely be ignored. Another completely different matter with some importance for cultural history is whether it follows an established set of rules and/or is consistent with entries in other calendars or data tables. We must remember that religious commands like Ramadan fasting for the Muslims and pre-Easter fasting for Christians can only be dated precisely, because they emanate from an orthodox and generally acknowledged authority, such as the Koran and the Sunna for Muslims or the Bible and Ecumenical Councils like the Council of Nicaea for Christians. The question is, therefore: Does a similar orthodox and generally accepted set of rules exist in Islamic astrology, or more precisely judicial astrology to use a term of the Middle Ages1, which should then be reflected in the choices [Ikhtiyrt] of the takvim?

o According to 2 the ikhtiyrt depend Hofelich on the position of the Moon in the zodiac. This is definitely not the case in the takvim published here, however. In the sample page the following advice is offered for days when the Moon is in Capricorn: cultivation of land teaching of music (10./21.3.1740); forbidden (11./22.3.1740); digging of rivers fishing and hunting (6./17.4.1740); resting and retreat bid for absolution (7./18.4.1740). It is impossible to find any common denominator in this advice. This does not mean necessarily that Hoflichs opinion could not be true for other, more systematic takvims, although considerable doubts remain. o Navoni has listed 24 days of the Islamic calendar (two for each month) as days of mauvais augure [eyyam-i nahisat] in his ruzname.3 As the same table is included in the Hamburg ruzname4 and also other ruznames, there is no doubt that the ruznames adopt a certain canon of unlucky days based on the lunar year.

This branch is mainly concerned with personal horoscopes and is now generally understood as astrology per se, while medical and weather forecasts based on stellar observations formed other branches.

M.Hofelich, Tawm, EI2 Table G of Navoni, op.cit. 4 M. Dahncke, Eine Osmanische Papierrolle, Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fr Vlkerkunde Hamburg, vol. 17, 1987, p. 65 (fig.6 left).
2 3

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o A Sheykh Vefa ruzname in the Khalili collection1 includes another list of days under the cryptic name forbidden Ms [ma dhr- Ms] two for each Julian month that are also marked in the margin for each of these days. The choice between lunar and solar years already shows an astrological dilemma, viz. which of the calendars solar or lunar - is the right one to define days of mauvais augure? The following table shows anyway that both the takvim for 1740/41 and takvim for 1831/32 completely ignore the ruznames warnings. (The more recent salname for 1895/96 no longer includes choices, although the frequent records of planetary positions must still have some astrological meaning).

An uncatalogued and undated manuscript in the Khalili collection with conversion tables starting in 1099AH/1687-8AD..

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unlucky days acc. Ruznames 3&7 Muharram trade, commerce, profit choices in Takvim 1740/41 choices in Takvim 1831/32

& mixed

lucky/purs uit of profit and wishes

2/20 Safar

marriage making, company/meeting saints, building castles and countries

mixed/mix ed appeal to judges/reci te Koran

4/15 Rabi I.

Uqd imarat (?),ibtida wa mubasharat (?)/buy riding animals, meeting friends

1/2 Rabi II.

organising kingdom, policy making/forbidden

lucky/arra nge order in house

1/5 Jumada I.

serving the sultan, asking favours/buying slaves, repair musical instruments

build fountain/s ell jewels

1/14 Jumada II.

repose and retreat, asking absolution and forgiveness/prayer, help, good favours

mixed/list en to advice

9/11 Rajab

mixed/travel, trade, sea journey, company

study poetics/sta rt organise things

2/15 Shaban

buy animals, appeal to saints/new clothes, reading book, ask favours from judges and saints

hunt birds/appe al to eremites

1/15 Ramadan 4/20 Shawwal

reciting Koran, buying birds/riding, travel, profit making buying jewellery, company, travel/making weapons, appeal to scholars

lucky/mix ed build solid building/a udience of

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kings 3/6 Dhu lQada trade, travel, buying jewellery, arrange instruments, buy riding animals/make cap and belt, beware of travel mixed/bod y cosmetics 2/25 Dhu l-Hijja travel, marriage, appeal to nobles/appeal to scholars; company of jurists lucky/plea sure and joy

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The takvim for 1831/32 regards the days that are marked as unlucky in the ruznames to be neutral, mixed or even lucky. The entries in the takvim for 1740/41, being all in verse form and often quite difficult to translate, seem to be chosen more for the rhyme than for their practical use. It is hard to believe that even an author, whose astrological credo implies the existence of benefic or malefic days, could have taken the choice for e.g. 15./26.3.1740 to drink medicine and dig channels very seriously. I only included the column Choices in the sample page for completeness sake, preferring the original Ottoman (Persian/Arabic) jargon to a translation and thereby preserving the questionable beauty of the verses at the cost of losing their precious content. Other records of lucky, unlucky or mixed days, like the Persian list in Brn and probably many others are not confirmed either in the Choices of the ruznames nor of the takvims.

If according to Toderini Ulug Beg considered the 13th, 14th and 15th of each month as favorables et heureux, this at least should have been reflected in the takvim because of his authority as the author of the official zij. But even that is not the case, with some of these days in the Julian as in the Hijra calendar - being listed as either forbidden [madhr] or unlucky [nas]. It is still possible that the calendar makers based their lists of lucky or unlucky days on some tradition unknown to us and were not arbitrary choices, although the takvim presented here gives enough reason to doubt even that. The above synopsis makes it quite clear on the contrary, that Islamic (and other) astrology could not establish commonly accepted rules of the way how people should behave or would fare on certain days. Astrology, however large the number of its believers was and is, has, unlike religions, no generally recognized canon or book of authority and remains very much the domain of individual astrologers whose advices and prognostics tend to be widely divergent.

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A)

Conclusion:

The takvim documents a quite admirable astronomical plus astrological, chronological, religious and even aesthetic tradition still alive in the late Ottoman Empire with roots in Greek, Persian, Islamic science and influences by Muslim and non-Muslim religion and folklore alike. Although the term Islamic astrology is often used here, mainly because Islamic authors are quoted, there is no substantial difference between the astrological traditions of the Greek, the Islamic and the modern world. To find similar concepts in all sources would be easy for anyone who has the stamina to deal at length with such an esoteric subject. The takvims data are mostly confirmed by modern astronomical databases although discrepancies that may be due to a variety of reasons cannot be ignored.

Even in modern computer programmes, theoretically precise data like the time of the equinoxes are not always consistently recorded. Some of the differences could be, therefore, within an acceptable margin of error shared by both Ottoman and modern authors. On the other hand, some other discrepancies are due to real mistakes either by the author or the copyist of the takvim. The partly unorthodox list of Christian feasts presents another problem. This could be the result of either ignorance or to the contrary a faithful recording of now forgotten traditions (just as in the case of Nauruz Khorezmshah), the latter being, in my opinion, a more plausible explanation. It is remarkable that the dates for both the Feast of the Annunciation and the Feast of the Cross seem to correspond to an old Nestorian liturgical calendar.

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It is still doubtful whether contemporary beliefs of this minority, represented in the Ottoman Empire by the Assyrians of Iraq1, could have prevailed over the tenets of the Greek Orthodox Church at the time, when the takvim was drafted and when the unorthodox tradition was probably already forgotten. It is possible, however, that the feast days recorded in this and other calendars go back to a much earlier - Iranian or Central Asian - Nestorian tradition that continued to influence even late Ottoman takvims.

Only professional astronomers and professional theologians, however, would be able to judge objectively the value of some of the more contentious astronomical and religious data included in the takvim. The Ottoman calendars ruznames and takvims are at any rate a valuable product of Islamic science as well as of popular culture. Together with their noble cousins, the astrolabes, they embody the fascination that stars, time and time measuring had for the Islamic society. Last but not least - their choice of religious feasts reveals a respectful attitude towards the traditions of minorities and their religions.

The Assyrian Church of our times rejects being identified with Nestorianism, however.
1

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