The ''Book of the Zodiac'' ( myz, ࡎࡐࡀࡓ ࡌࡀࡋࡅࡀࡔࡉࡀ, translit=Sfar Malwašia) is a

Mandaean Mandaeans ( ar, المندائيون ), also known as Mandaean Sabians ( ) or simply as Sabians ( ), are an ethnoreligious group who are followers of Mandaeism. They believe that John the Baptist was the final and most important prophet. They ...

text. It covers Mandaean

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, 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 o ...

in great detail. The book is used to obtain a Mandaean's baptismal name (''malwasha'').

Manuscripts and translations

An English translation of the text, based on Manuscript 31 of the

Drower Collection This article contains a list of Mandaean texts (Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic). Well-known texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā'') and the '' Qolastā''. Texts for Mandaean priests include ...

(DC 31), was published by E. S. Drower in 1949. The manuscript is a ''kurasa'', or unbound manuscript consisting of loose sheets.

Buckley Buckley may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Buckley's, a Canadian pharmaceutical corporation * Buckley Aircraft, an American aircraft manufacturer * Buckley Broadcasting, an American broadcasting company * Buckley School (California), ...

has also located a privately held copy of the ''Book of the Zodiac'' dating from 1919, which belonged to

Lamea Abbas Amara Lamia Abbas Amara ( ar, لميعة عباس عمارة, also sometimes spelled Lamea Abbas Amara; 1929 – 18 June 2021) was an Iraqi poet. She was a pioneer of modern Arabic poetry and an important figure in contemporary poetry in Iraq. Name La ...

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

. There is also a manuscript of the ''Book of the Zodiac'' from 1789 CE that is currently held at the

Bibliothèque National A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

in Paris, which was used by Drower and may have also been used by

Nicolas Siouffi Nicolas Siouffi (1829 (Damascus) – 1901 (unknown)) was a Syriac Christianity, Syrian Christian, and later French citizen and vice-consul at Mosul, remembered for his study of Mandaeism. Mandaeans were known locally in Arabic as ''Ṣubba'', ...

Drower's manuscript (DC 31) consists of 289 pages in Mandaic. There are 20 individual books or sections, which are: *Book 1: ''The Book of the Signs of the Zodiac for Men'' *Book 2: ''The Book of the Signs of the Zodiac for Women'' *Book 3: ''The Book of Stars'' *Book 4: lists of astrological terms and calculations *Book 5: ''The Book of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

'' *Book 6: charms against evil spirits *Book 7: charms against evil spirits *Book 8: ''The Days of the Month'' *Book 9: illnesses *Book 10: astrological information *Book 11: selecting days for certain activities *Book 12: ''The Opening of a Door'' *Book 13: predictions *Book 14: predictions *Book 15: predictions *Book 16: predictions *Book 17: geographical regions governed by the planets and zodiac signs *Book 18: predictions *Book 19: transits of

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

, halos of the

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, meteors and comets, and rainfall *Book 20: meteorology There is also an appendix (labeled as ''Part II'' in Drower's text) that discusses omens, predictions, remedies, eclipses, and other topics.

References

External links

Sfar Mulwasha
(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network)

(Mandaic text from the Mandaean Network)
Sfar Mulwasha
(English translation) {{Authority control Mandaean texts Astrological texts

Manuscripts and translations

Contents

See also

References

External links