A manuscript on fortune-telling including Ikhtiyarat al-ayyam (A treatise on hemerology, from the sayings of Ja'far al-Sadiq and the Prophet Daniel), commissioned for Catholic Maronite Khawaja Yusuf ibn Khawaja Antoine Andrea, copied by Gabriel son of Michael Asfour, probably Northern Lebanon, 1 Tammuz (July) 1778 AD

Sotheby's, London, 11 October 1991, lot 960

This sophisticated manuscript on fortune-telling integrates astrology, numerology and poetic authority. It incorporates sixty questions over wide-ranging topics including personal, financial, entrepreneurial, medicinal, religious and state matters. After selecting a question, the user progresses through the wheels which in turn relate the matter in question to a seasonal condition, a number, and a celestial entity. This guides the user to consult a poetic table whose couplets act as a final interpretive layer, offering insights on a metaphorical and symbolic level. Poetry is central to the interpretation of the questions posed in this manuscript. The poets referenced include important literary figures of the pre-Islamic to Abbasid eras such as Al-Khansa, Al-Hariri, and Al-Buhturi. For a detailed account of how to use the present manuscript, please see below.

The manuscript is an important document of a pluralistic and cross-cultural milieu in the eighteenth century. Its contents incorporate classical Arabic poetry, questions that include matters related to the Islamic pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, followed by Ikhtiyarat al-ayyam, a Shi’a hemerological treatise that assigns auspicious or inauspicious attributes to the days of the lunar month. The heading in thuluth above the Ikhtiyarat al-ayyam, also references the Prophet Daniel, a pivotal Jewish figure in the field of celestial divination. Daniel was empowered as an authorial figure whose knowledge crossed linguistic and cultural boundaries, and the malhamat Daniel is the earliest recorded text in Islamic history on the subject of divination derived from natural phenomena. In Lucia Raggeti's study of his impact in this fluid Arabo-Islamic divinatory tradition, she notes that he is venerated in Islamic thought, but that "he brings with him from the stories about the prophets, a consistent number of narrative elements that strengthens his authority in the eyes of the readership," and with that comes the influence of the Late Antique world (2018, pp.443-4).

The floral decorative scheme further relates to a provincial Ottoman style. Its scribal context and patronage, however, are Christian, and one of the poets referenced, al-Akhtal, is a prominent Christian poet of the Umayyad period. Despite being produced under Christian direction, the decorative scheme lacks figural depictions that were prominent in European iterations of divination texts.

Within one manuscript, one therefore witnesses classical Arab poetry, with Sunni, Shi’a and Christian references, a hemerological treatise attributed to Shi'a Muslim and Jewish figures, Christian workmanship, and Maronite patronage. These cross-cultural influences underscore the degree of permeability in the practice of divination and the divinatory sciences that appears to have crossed sectarian and religious boundaries. 

How to use this manuscript:

1. Select your question.

The first part comprises 60 questions on various topics, each assigned a number between 1-60.

2. The Initial Wheels

By locating the question on the wheels on f. 3a and f.4b, the user will be assigned a wind or season, and a number. The wind/season (sayf ‘summer’, shita’ ‘winter’, saba ‘east wind’, dabur ‘west wind’, shamal ‘north wind’, janub ‘south wind’) assign symbolic and elemental conditions to the question.

3. The Master Wheel

The wind/season and number direct the user on the master wheel on the following bifolio. The outermost ring is divided into sections numbered 1-10, beneath this is a ring is divided into sections labelled with the winds and seasons.

Once the user has located their corresponding number and wind/season, the innermost ring directs them to consult a zodiac sign, lunar mansion, star or planet.

4. The Zodiac, Lunar Mansion, and Star Tables

The following pages comprise tables and each column is labelled with one of the 60 zodiac signs, lunar mansions, stars or planets referenced in the master wheel. The user must locate the column that corresponds with the zodiac sign, lunar mansion, star or planet that they were assigned in the previous step.

Once the column is located, the user must use a dice or cast lots to direct them to one of the 10 rows in the column. Each cell instructs the user to consult a named figure within one of 10 categories (caliphs, princes, tribes, men, women, Turks, animals, trees, birds, cities) in the casting wheels that follow.

5. The Casting Wheels

In this step, the user must first find the wheel that corresponds with the category they were assigned above (caliphs, princes, tribes…), before finding the corresponding figure on the outer segment of the wheel. The inner segment directs the user to the name of a poet. The poets are then listed in the following index which leads the user to the poetic tables.

6. The Poetic Tables

This is the final step of the manuscript where the user rolls and dice or casts lots to lead them to the corresponding row which contains a poetic couplet. This couplet will serve as the interpretation and answer to the question selected in the first step. The user can then elect to consult the hemerological treatise that follows. 

The Poets:

1. al-Ṭaʾi

2. al-ʿAbbas

3. ʿArif ibn al-Tufayl

4. Ashjaʿ

5. Harir

6. Ziyad

7. Abu Tammam

8. al-Khansa’

9. al-Nabigah

10. Qays

11. Hassan

12. Imruʾ al-Qays

13. Hatim al-Taʾi

14. Tufayl

15. Zuhayr

16. al-Hariri

17. Sakhr

18. Ibn ʿAdiyah

19. Durayd ibn al-Ṣimmah

20. Labid

21. ʿAbd al-Rahman

22. al-Hutayʾah

23. Ibn Maʿdi

24. al-Kuwayyis

25. Majnun Bani ʿAmir

26. Kathir

27. Abu Firas

28. Karb

29. Abu Nuwas

30. ʿImarah

31. al-Farazdaq

32. Shaddad

33. Ibn Nabahan

34. Jamil

35. Abu Dhuyayb

36. al-ʿUnawi

37. al-Samul

38. Ibrahim ibn Ghaylan

39.ʿAmr

40. Ibn al-Ward

41. ʿUrwah ibn al-Ward 

42. ʿAntarah

43. Dhu al-Rummah

44. Aba Dhulf

45. Majnun Layla

46. Nasr al-Mawsili

47. Bashshar

48. Tarafah

49. al-Aʿsha

50. Hasan

51. al-Ahwas

52. al-Buhturi

53. Nasib

54. Muʿammar

55. Ibn al-Simmah

56. Muhammad al-ʿUnawi

57. al-Akhtal

58. al-Tirmah

59. Ibn Hamdan

60. al-Mutanabbi