The location was perfect for a new capital city. There were, of
course, the standard prophecies that a great metropolis was destined
to arise there. Even more persuasive, perhaps, were the reports that
of all the districts along the Tigris River, the site was said to be
the least infested with mosquitoes. But the main reason the caliph Abu
Jafar al-Mansur chose to build his capital at Baghdad was that, with
the absorption of Persia into Dar al-Islam, the “abode of Islam” had
spread far to the east, and the place that would be Baghdad lay right
at its heart.

But what good is the right place if it’s not also the right time?
Accordingly, al-Mansur summoned his top astrologers—Nawbakht, a
Persian, and Masha’allah, a Jew—to determine the optimal moment to
inaugurate construction. Remarkably, the horoscope of Baghdad’s
foundation has been preserved in the writings of al-Biruni, one of the
foremost astronomers of a few centuries later. Baghdad’s founding can
therefore be dated with especially high confidence to the afternoon of
July 30 in the year 762. At that precise instant, Jupiter, the planet
of kingdoms and dynasties, was rising in the east, while Mars, the
planet of war, was setting in the west.

[www.atlasobscura.com]

Hermione
Director/Moderator - The Hall of Ma'at

Rules and Guidelines

hallofmaatforum@proton.me