Episode 295 features an interview with Ali A Olomi about the 9th century Queen Buran, who was the first woman to practice astrology.
Earlier in Episode 86 I discussed historical references women who practice astrology as early as the 1st century AD, the 5th century philosopher discussed Hypatia as a candidate for the oldest person.
In this episode, we focus on the famous Queen Buran of 9th-century Baghdad, and talk about how she’s a pretty strong candidate for possibly the oldest woman in history to have trained and practiced as an astrologer.
Buran was the wife of Caliph Al-Ma’mun, who ruled from 813-833, the first Islamic Golden Age. Their wedding was so lavish that it became a legend for centuries.
Buran came from a famous family of astrologers, and his grandfather, Nawbakht al-Farisi, was the leader of the group of astrologers who chose the election schedule for the founder of Baghdad.
A legend survives that Buran himself made predictions using astrology that helped prevent the assassination of Caliph al-Mu’tasim.
We spent much of the episode contextualizing Buron’s life in 9th-century Baghdad, discussing the history of early medieval Persian and Arabic astrological traditions, and discussing Buron’s contemporaries such as Masha’Allah, Sahl ibn Bishr, and Abu Ma’shar.
Ali is a historian of the Middle East and Islam, with a particular focus on esotericism, astrology, and folklore. He is also a host Go to the History Podcastand publishes weekly topics on astrology and esotericism through its page Twitter @aaolomi.
This episode is available in audio and video versions below.
Show episode outline and notes
You can download the episode here:
This is the version of the show that Chris prepared before the interview.
Bibliography
Here is a bibliography of some works:
Kenneth Johnson, “Buran of Baghdad: an astrological woman in the early Middle Ages,” in National Council for Geospatial Research (NCGR) Geospatial Journaled. Leigh Westin and Demetra George, Fall 2006, pp. 29–33.
George Saliba, “The Role of Astrology in Medieval Islamic Society” Oriental Studies BulletinVol. 44, 1992, pp. 45–67.
Ibn al-Sa’i, Consorts of the Caliphs: Women and the Court of Baghdaded. Shawkat M. Toorawa, NYU Press, 2015.
Time signs
Here are some timestamps for the topics covered at various points in the episode:
00:00:00 Login
00:01:12 Ali and his work
00:07:57 Early Women in Astrology
00:12:12 Transfer of knowledge through family genealogy
00:17:49 Buran’s name
00:20:07 Conflicting reports about his birth year
00:22:40 Possible schedule for Buran
00:24:05 Whole sign houses used in Arabic horoscope
00:35:00 Birth chart of Ali ibn Abi Talib 14th century
00:43:07 12th century solar return chart
00:45:02 Origin of Buran in the 9th century
00:46:20 Baghdad as a cultural center
00:49:50 Baghdad election schedule
00:57:49 Election astrology in Baghdad
01:03:00 Mars on the map of Baghdad
01:09:00 Baghdad city design
01:11:38 Translations of astrology texts
01:15:48 Alexandria
01:19:26 Ethnic origin and ancient sources
01:22:09 House of Wisdom in Baghdad
01:28:53 Buran’s family
01:34:00 Persian astrological tradition
01:40:57 Persian Navbakht (ca. 679-777)
01:44:51 Buran’s training in astrology
01:48:50 Buron’s husband Al-Ma’mun
01:56:29 Buran and Al-Ma’mum’s lavish wedding
02:01:10 Communication with the astrologer Sahl ibn Bishr
02:04:50 Sahl’s influence as an astrologer
02:08:02 Sahl works for Buran’s father
02:14:50 Importance of Dorothy
02:17:29 Death of Al-Ma’mum
02:19:00 Buran’s poem of mourning her husband
02:20:48 Buran’s afterlife
02:24:38 Legend of Buran’s astrological prediction
02:27:33 Other women are astrologers
02:30:25 Social stratification of astrologers
02:33:20 Al-Qabisi’s astrological test
02:36:25 Astrolabe technology
02:40:20 Buran’s advanced technique
02:52:20 Afterlife and legends of Buran
03:02:25 Ali’s podcast, Patreon and Twitter
03:08:33 Shoutout to artist Matias Del Carmine
03:09:00 Closing remarks
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Transcription
Here is the full transcript of this episode: Episode 295 Transcript
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