Thread by @aaolomi

Tomorrow is Epiphany an important Christian holiday which for many mark the occasion of the three wise men visiting Jesus. In these accounts the wise men follow a star, later called the Star of Bethlehem

Some Muslim scientists & astrologers would attempt to identify the star

The 8th century Jewish astrologer, Mash’allah would propose a theory in which all of human history is shaped and organized by a conjunction of the two superior planets, Jupiter and Saturn.

The two greats would meet in a predictable pattern through the signs of the zodiac.

Mash’allah, drawing heavily from his Persian teachers like Nawbakht, situated religious history into these planetary cycles arguing they predicted the coming of new religions and the rise of prophets.

According to Mash’allah, Jesus was born on one such conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Leo, though an alternate theory would place it in Sagittarius.

Mash’allah would make a similar claim about the birth of Muhammad.

He would also cast horoscopes both figures.

In the 9th century, Abu Ma’shar would pick up and greatly expand this theory.

While accepting the basic structure of conjunctionalism, Abu Ma’shar would situate Jesus’ birth with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in Pisces.

Like Mash’allah he too would cast a horoscope for Jesus’ birth setting the first decan of Virgo as his ascendant.

Jewish astrologers on the whole would accept many of these theories in their own formulations, though would interpret it differently.

In the 12th century, Ibn Ezra would agree with Abu Ma’shar’s theory of a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction preceding the birth of Jesus.

Bar Hiyyah would disagree saying Jesus was born before the conjunction and thus was rejected by his own people.

European translators in particular were deeply interested in these theories.

While many rejected the astronomical and astrological explanation for the Star of Bethlehem, preferring the more miraculous explanation of a new star or angel, others co-opted the theory.

According to Kauntze, Hermann who translated Abu Ma’shar explicitly invokes the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions and the Virgo ascendant in his attempt to use astrology to explain Jesus’ birth.

By the 16th century, Johannes Kepler would attempt to blend the conjunctionalism of Islamic astrologers with the miracle theory.

In this Mysterium Cosmographicum, he would set a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in 7 BCE to the birth of Jesus.

According to Adair, Kepler tried to explain the conjunction as the final degrees of Pisces and at the edges of Aries as an astronomical event, but the actual Star of Bethlehem was a miraculous appearance of a new star between this conjunction of the superior planets.

Kepler was fascinated with the conjunctionalism of the astrologers of the Islamic world.

Here are diagrams of the great conjunctions from his De Stella Nova (1606) and Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596) from Linda Hall Library

In the Star of Bethlehem, we see how astrological and astronomical theories from the Islamic world were fused with Christian thought to explain the star the wise kings followed

In the imagination of both Muslims and later Christian theorists, the wise men were kings and astrologers following a clear sign among the stars.

We can also see the intersection of religion and science in these theories and the transmission of knowledge from the Islamic world to the later Renaissance.

I’ve also covered the Jupiter Saturn conjunctions and their relationship to religion, messianism, and apocalypticism in a whole podcast on my patreon and in several posts patreon.com/headonhistory

I’ll cover more on Islamic history and science and religion in future threads.