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Astral Atlas
Wiki concept · Timing & comparison

Firdaria

Also called Firdar · Fardar · Fardārāt · Fardāriyyāt · Alfridaria

In Persian and medieval Arabic astrology, fixed periods of a life governed in turn by the seven planets and the two lunar nodes, in a 75-year cycle that starts with the Sun in a day birth and the Moon in a night birth. A planetary period is cut into seven equal parts: its lord rules the first part alone, and in each later part the next planet below it shares the rule.

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In this entry

Word origin · etymology

Persian fardār (also firdār), with the Arabic plural fardāriyyāt; in Latin texts alfridaria. The origin of the word is unclear.

The translation of al-Biruni records in a footnote to §395 that De Saumaise derived firdar from a Greek word for period, citing Bouché-Leclercq. Gansten (2018, p. 103, note 83) calls both the etymology and the origin of the technique unclear, reports that Kunitzsch (1979: 48 f.) judged the derivation from the Greek period word to be pure conjecture, and describes the system as probably of medieval Persian origin. Modern English writers use firdar, firdaria and fardārāt; this entry takes no position on which form reached English first.

al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (1029), translated by R. Ramsay Wright, 1934: footnote to §395 ↗Martin Gansten, Samarasiṃha and the Early Transmission of Tājika Astrology, Journal of South Asian Intellectual History 1 (2018) 79-132, p. 103 and note 83 ↗

How we know · epistemology

Medieval textual convention with documented variants

The period lengths and the day and night orders agree between al-Biruni’s table and Abu Ma’shar’s text, and both state the rule for sub-periods. Where the nodes fall in a night birth differs between Abu Ma’shar and a reading of Bonatti, and no text read here gives calendar dates, so any date is a convention of the calculating tool. That a period’s lord shapes a life is the tradition’s own premise and is not something these texts test.

al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (1029), translated by R. Ramsay Wright, 1934: table of §§438-439 ↗Steven Birchfield, The Fardārāt in Nativities (2020), Tables 1 to 3 and the quoted passages ↗

Connected concepts

Read alongside this entry

SectLord of the yearAnnual profectionNorth lunar node

Terms used in this explanation

AstrologySunMoonPlanet

Sources & provenance

Use the citations beside each section to distinguish a calculation convention, a historical teaching and an editorial example.

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  1. al-Biruni, The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (1029), translated by R. Ramsay Wright, 1934: table of §§438-439 ↗
  2. Steven Birchfield, The Fardārāt in Nativities (2020), Tables 1 to 3 and the quoted passages ↗
  3. Martin Gansten, Samarasiṃha and the Early Transmission of Tājika Astrology, Journal of South Asian Intellectual History 1 (2018) 79-132, p. 103 and note 83 ↗