ISLAMIC Astrology And Astronomy

Iranian Astrologers

Iranian Astrology predates Islam and flourished as early as the Achaemenian times.

The Bible makes references to the three wise Magi from the east who are thought to have been Iranian.

The Iranians made significant contribution to astronomy and astrology.

Al Khwarizmi was the most famous of these. He was a great mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and geographer. He is considered to be the father of algebra and the algorithm , and introduced the concept of the number zero to the Western world.

The calendar calculated 1000 years ago by Omar Khayyam Neyshabouri, Mathematician, Astronomer, Poet and Philosopher, is still in effect in Iran as the official Persian calendar. This is virtually the only calendar in the world which is based on classical horoscope system; means 1st if Aries is the first day of new year at spring equinox or on March 21, the beginning of Persian new year or Nowrooz. He is also the inventor of decimal system and believed to be the father of Algebra.[citation needed]

Another famous Iranians astrologer and astronomer was Qutb al-Din al Shirazi (1236 - 1311). He wrote critiques of the Almagest, the famous Arabic translation of the work of Ptolemy. The Almagest was the means by which Ptolemy's work was re-introduced into Europe, as the original European copies had been lost. He produced two prominent works on astronomy: 'The Limit of Accomplishment Concerning Knowledge of the Heavens' in 1281 and 'The Royal Present' in 1284, both of which commented upon and improved on Ptolemy's work, particularly in the field of planetary motion. Al-Shirazi was also the first person to give the correct scientific explanation for the formation of a rainbow.

Ulugh Beyg was a fifteenth-century Sultan of Iran and another notable Iranian mathematician and astronomer. He built an observatory in 1428 and produced the first original star map since Ptolemy, which corrected the position of many stars, and included many new ones.