Nobakht Ahvazi ( fa, نوبخت اهوازى), also spelled Naubakht Ahvaz and Naubakht, along with his sons were
astrologers
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
from
Ahvaz
Ahvaz ( fa, اهواز, Ahvâz ) is a city in the southwest of Iran and the capital of Khuzestan province. Ahvaz's population is about 1,300,000 and its built-up area with the nearby town of Sheybani is home to 1,136,989 inhabitants. It is hom ...
(in the present-day
Khuzestan Province
Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
) who lived in the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
Nobakht was particularly famous for having led a group of astrologers who picked an auspicious
electional chart for the founding of
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
. His family also helped design the city. Originally
Zoroastrians,
[Islam's Contribution to Science
By Husain Muzzafar, S. Muzaffar Husain, pg. 31] Nobakht and his sons converted to
Islam and were employed as
Pahlavi translators of the
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
court.
Life as a court astrologer
Nawbakht was the most prominent among
'Abbasid caliph
al-Mansur's court astrologers. He rose to this position after having successfully predicted al-Mansur's rise to power as a caliph.
[Labarta, Ana, “Nawbakht”, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE'', Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Consulted online on 15 November 2020] There were other astrologers retained at the court, including Mashallah (d. ''ca''. 199/815 or 204/820) who aided Nawbakht in his analysis of the stars in determining ”the most auspicious date and time for the foundation of the new capital, the round city of Madīnat al-Salām (“The City of Peace”)”, historically known as Baghdad.
While part of al-Mansur’s court, Nawbakht is said to have correctly predicted the caliph’s victory over Ibrahim b. ‘Abdallah who, along with his brother, had rebelled against the ‘Abbasid rule.
[Anthony, Sean, "Nawbakti Family", in ''Encyclopaedia Iranica,'' online edition, 2013, available at: https://iranicaonline.org/articles/nawbakti-family] In addition to al-Mansur’s victory, Nawbakht predicted the death of Ibrahim as well. Reportedly, Nawbakht was so confident in the accuracy of his calculations that he volunteered to be imprisoned until the outcome of the encounter between Ibrahim and the ‘Abbasid army was reported, and agreed to being executed should he had been mistaken.
It’s suspected that part of Nawbakht’s career included translating scientific works from Pahlavi into Arabic, and the ''Risāla fī sarāʾir aḥkām al-nujūm'' (“A treatise on the secrets of astrology”, an unpublished manuscript) is attributed to him although this attribution remains unconfirmed.
Al-Mansur gifted the astrologer with 2,000 ''
jerib
The jerib or djerib ( fa, جریب; tr, cerip) is a traditional unit of land measurement in the Middle East and southwestern Asia. It is a unit of area used to measure land holdings (real property) in much the way that an acre or hectare are. ...
s'' of land south of Baghdad as an (grants of land given by a caliph in exchange for service).
Descendants
In addition to being known as an influential 'Abbasid astrologer, Nawbakht is known as a father and ancestor to a very successful family under 'Abbasid rule and as part of the court - various sources refer to Nawbakht as the progenitor of a lineage of court astrologers, thus successfully elevating his family's position in the 'Abbasid court.
According to Sean Anthony, Nawbakht’s accumulation of wealth and social status placed his family in such a position that they would go on to become notorious for patronizing and entertaining intellectuals of ‘Abbasid society.
Some notable members of this family are:
*
Abū Sahl al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakht – Nawbakht’s immediate successor as a court astrologer for al-Mansur, Abu Sahl is known to have also worked as a translator in the ''Ḵezānat al-ḥekma'' (Treasury of wisdom) of one of al-Mansur’s successors, Hārun al-Rašid. Three of Abu Sahl’s sons, ‘Abdallah, Esma’il, and Abu’l-Abbas Fazl, all also served as court astrologers for al-Ma’mun and were patrons of the poet Abu Nowas and it was the Nawbakhti family that preserved much of his poetry.
*
Abū Sahl Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī – the first of Nawbakht’s descendants that can decisively be determined as contributing to Shi’ite doctrine. Abu Sahl was a prominent theologian of
Imami Shi’ism, and while the family is known for their loyalty to and influence on Twelver Shi’ism, the family’s relationship to the sect are difficult to discern prior to Abu Sahl’s contributions.
*
al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā – nephew of Abu Sahl, also a Shi’ite theologian as well as a philosopher and astronomer.
*
Abu’l-Qāsem Ḥosayn ibn Ruḥ ibn Abi Baḥr Nawbaḵti – perhaps the most politically prominent member of the Nawbakhti family, ibn Ruh became the third
''safir'' or deputy of the
twelfth Imam
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī ( ar, محمد بن الحسن المهدي) is believed by the Twelver Shia to be the last of the Twelve Imams and the eschatological Mahdi, who will emerge in the end of time to establish peace and justi ...
.
References
Sources
*
* ''The Golden Age of Persia'', by
Richard Nelson Frye
Richard Nelson Frye (January 10, 1920 – March 27, 2014) was an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asian studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest were Irania ...
, p. 163.
* ''Khandan-i Naubakhti'', by
Abbas Iqbal,
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
, 1933, pp 2–3 & 13.
* ''Islamic Science and Engineering'', by
Donald Hill
Donald Routledge Hill (6 August 1922 – 30 May 1994)D. A. King, “In Memoriam: Donald Routledge Hill (1922-1994)”, ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy,'' Volume 5 / Issue 02 / September 1995, pp 297-302 was a British engineer and historian of sc ...
, p. 10.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naubakht
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
Medieval Iranian astrologers
Converts to Islam from Zoroastrianism
Astronomers from the Abbasid Caliphate
8th-century Iranian astronomers
9th-century Iranian astronomers
8th-century astrologers
9th-century astrologers
People from Ahvaz
8th-century translators
8th-century Arabic writers
9th-century Arabic writers
8th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate