Hemerology, Menology, Ophiomancy, Astral omens, and Lapidary of Sacred Stones (their Magical and Medicinal Powers), bird oracles, etc.
rōznāmag, māhnāmag, mārnāmag, axtarnāmag, nišān ī muhragīhā, ud cē
murvnīšīh
rōznāmag, māhnāmag, mārnāmag, axtarnāmag, nišān ī muhragīhā, ud cē
murvnīšīh
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rōznāmag/ hemerology
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The Treatise of Thirty Days
In the Vizargird dēnīg, there is a hemerology in which each of the thirty days of the month and each of the five days of the epact is given a number of activities to be undertaken or avoided: mādayān ī sīh rōzag (MSR). اختيار ِ روزها
The “Choice of Days” is a Persian hemerology that determines the propitiousness or lack of it for each day of the month with regard to a specific activity. The text is found in two manuscripts. Tables of Choices
Bērōnī says, in his Chronology, that: “The Persians divide all the days of the year into elected and fortunate days and into unfortunate and abominable ones. Besides they have other days, bearing names which are common to them in every month, which are festival days for one class of the people to the exclusion of the other.” And then he gives the table of elections thus : From the Book of Choices
The first part of the Book of Choices of Majlisī is about “the choices of the days of a month”; in this chapter he gives among others the hemerology of the Pārsīs. |
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The Lapidary of Sacred Stones and their Magical and Medicinal Powers
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A fragment in Turkic runic script from Toyok
About the virtues of the seven planetary bodies and the five kinds of amulets and stones There exists a fragmentary text concerning the terrestrial properties and patronages of the planets, found in Toyok (Turfan), from the ninth century. It describes the colour of stones corresponding to the planets, and the colour of the “water” of these stones. The order of the planets is not the order in the “Chaldaean” model, but that of the planetary week. However, two planetary bodies, Sun and Mars, are lacking. |
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Book of Omens from the Moon
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A Zodiacal Sign Book
Burjnāma The Burjnāma, (lit. ‘Zodiacal Sign Book’, Pers. axtar-nāmag*), is a small metrical composition in Persian. This form of elections (“hemerologies”) describes what the first appearance of the new <light of> the moon portends in each sign of the zodiac. In the Persian Rivāyats it immediately follows the Mārnāma. حکايت در باب ِ ديدن ِ ماه ِ نو اندرون ِ هر يک برج که می آيد In the book of Aḥmad on astrology we find chapters about decisions during the appearance of the new moon in each sign of the zodiac and in each lunar mansion. فصل در بيان اختيارات در وقت آمدن ِ ماه در بروج |
Snake-calendars
A significant evidence for snake divination comes from the Hittites: Snake oracles appear in the form of question-answer, and the answer would be auspicious (SIG5) or inauspicious (NU.SIG5) according to the movement of a water-snake through a basin divided into parts filled with water. We find also different sort of snake omens in the Akkadian texts, for example, in the Šumma ālu . According to Bērōnī “the Persians … have certain judgements regarding the appearance of snakes on the different days of the month”; he also gives an Arabic translation of a Pārsīg snake-calendar. In the Persian Rivāyats is found a similar text of snake-omens called Mārnāma, ‘The Book of Snakes’. Two other texts of snake-omens are contained in a Pārsī manuscript: One, according to the seven days of the week (corresponding to the seven planets); and the other, according to the twelve signs of the zodiac. One. From the Vestiges of the Past اسماء ايّام احکام الحيّة ورؤيتها فی ايّام الشهر Two. Mārnāma The Persian Mārnāma is a small metrical composition which enumerates the thirty days of the month and describes what the sight of a snake will portend on those days. مارنامه Three. The sight of a snake according to the good and evil of the week ديدن ِ مار از خوب و بد هفته Four. The sight of a snake according to the good and evil of the twelve signs of the zodiac, according to what moon it is ديدن ِ مار از خوب و بد ِ دوازده برج که ماه باشد |
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The manuscript LXI contains four texts belonging to the Pārsī divinatory literature.
1. The first text is about presaging through sneezing, and belongs to the cledonomantic art : In which side or under which circumstance, sneezing is considered as portentous of good or evil.
2. The second text gives the effect of the barking of dogs in different sides.
3. The third text is about presaging through the cries of black crows or ravens, and belongs to the ornithomantic art : From which side the cries are heard, also at which moment, and how is the cawing of those ravens, and how many times they have crowed.
This text could be compared to similar texts in the Akkadian literature. For example, a fragmentary text belonging to the Medio-Babylonian period gives a list of prognoses by the sound behavior of the crows or ravens. Another text from Uruk belonging to the late Achaemenian period is about taking omens from the croaking of ravens. 
4. The fourth text is about taking auguries from the sound of black little birds (or, black sparrows).
Notice that the last two texts belong to the bird oracles. In the Persian court there was an office for the divination by the flight or other tokens of the birds. Pārsīg murv-nīš, lit. ‘bird-observer’, refers to a diviner who predicts the future by birds. An old evidence for bird divination comes from the Hittites. The Pārsīg term murvnīš corresponds to the Hittite term LÚIGI.MUŠEN ‘who observes birds’ (there was also another Hittite term: LÚMUŠEN.DÙ) . The responsible for observing the behavior of the birds in the Persian court was called murvnīšān sālār ‘chief of the bird watchers’. Āvāz i zāγ
Raven Augury Here is a Persian text in verse which includes prognostications based on the direction of the cries of the raven and the four watches of the day. It corresponds to the first part of the Indian Kākajariti ‘on the sounds of the crow’ –one Tibetan version in Tanjur carries this Sanskrit title. There exists also another Persian version in prose of the same Indian text. آواز ِ زاغ |