The Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Islamic Astrology
When Jupiter and Saturn align in their celestial dance, medieval Islamic astrologers saw far more than a simple astronomical event. They witnessed the birth of empires, the rise of prophets, and the turning of history's great wheel. The Great Conjunction—as this rare planetary meeting was known—became one of Islamic astrology's most profound and politically charged doctrines.
The Mechanics of Celestial Change
Great conjunctions occur approximately every 20 years when Jupiter "overtakes" Saturn in its orbit. But this wasn't merely mathematical precision to medieval Islamic scholars—it was divine clockwork. According to doctrines that medieval European astrologers learned from Arabic astrologers, whose works—translated into Latin in the twelfth century—formed the basis of medieval and Renaissance astrology, it's when Saturn and Jupiter are found in the same area of the zodiac—in other words when they are in conjunction—that there are profound effects on Earth.
The system possessed elegant mathematical beauty. Successive conjunctions form a roughly triangular pattern plotted against a diagram of the zodiac, meaning that three successive conjunctions will appear in the three zodiacal signs that form one of the trigons or triplicities—that is, the fiery signs, watery signs, earthy signs, or airy signs. Then, after approximately 12 conjunctions, the pattern will move into a new triplicity or trigon.
This shift—which appears around every 240 years—was considered to be of great importance, bringing about changes in kingdoms, or in what medieval astrologers called "laws and sects."
Abu Ma'shar's Revolutionary Doctrine
The towering figure behind this theory was Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787-886 CE), the Persian astrologer who became the most influential stargazer of the medieval Islamic world. Initially a student of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammed, Abu Ma'shar went from prominent skeptic to one of Islam's greatest Medieval astrologers and was responsible for preserving and synthesizing both Persian and Hellenistic techniques and philosophies.
Abu Ma'shar's genius lay in systematising what had been scattered observations into a coherent historical doctrine. In his now lost work, Book of the Thousands, Abu Ma'shar used a system of conjunctions, Aries Ingresses, and profections to explain the course of history. He attributed the greatest importance to the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn, the slowest-moving Hellenistic planets.
Their conjunctions, spaced 120 degrees apart on the zodiac, occurred every 20 years, and every 260 years they moved into a new triplicity.
This wasn't abstract theorising. Abu Ma'shar applied his conjunction theory to actual history with breathtaking ambition. He calculated that a greatest conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter had preceded the Flood, another had preceded the birth of Christ, and yet another signalled the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
Remarkable.
Political Revolution Through Stellar Calculation
The political implications were explosive. In the Ketāb al-olūf (Book of the Thousands), Abū Maʿšar also dealt with a branch of astrology that had been much cultivated in Sasanian Iran. This involves the interpretation of history on the basis of conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter and the rotations through the zodiac of various imaginary points.
In this astrological history, dynasties and religious sects are assigned fixed terms. A transfer of power from one people to another should occur once every 240 or 480 years, and a new prophet should arise in every millennium.
Persian nationalists (of whom Abū Maʿšar was one) based numerous predictions on this theory. In the early 9th century they predicted the imminent collapse of the rule of the Arabs and the restoration of the domination of Iran.
This was revolutionary stuff. Imagine predicting the fall of your own patrons based on stellar calculations!
The Auspicious Conjunction and Political Legitimacy
The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction acquired a specific political title: "the Auspicious Conjunction." But where a great variety of star constellations and planetary conjunctions were believed to bring good fortune to rulers and their subjects, it was the planetary conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn – called 'the Auspicious Conjunction' – that had the most political resonance in the medieval and early modern world.
The concept became crucial for rulers seeking legitimacy. In a fragmented and crisis-ridden world in which the universal empires of the Abbasids and Mongols no longer existed, Turkmen rulers searched for ideologies other than Abbasid and Chinggisid lineage to legitimise their rule as auspicious and divinely ordained.
From this point on, the title of Lord of the Auspicious conjunction, and all the connotations of divinely sanctioned, auspicious, saintly and messianic rule it carried, became an indispensable political concept for all Muslim rulers with universal pretensions.
The Foundation of Baghdad
The most famous practical application of conjunction theory was the founding of Baghdad itself. Similar considerations may also have prompted the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur (d.775) to consult Arab, Persian and Jewish astrologers as to what day and time would be most auspicious for the founding of his capital city Baghdad in 762.
This wasn't superstition—it was sophisticated political theology. The Abbasids employed the services of Masha'allah ibn Athari (c.740–815 CE) Persian Jewish astrologer, to determine the propitious time for the founding of Baghdad which he determined was July 30, 762 CE.
The choice worked brilliantly. Within a generation, Baghdad would go on to become the center of the Islamic world, the heart of its intellectual, cultural, and political life.
Wilfred Hazelwood and Contemporary Understanding
Today, firms like Wilfred Hazelwood continue to recognise the sophisticated historical methods developed by Islamic astrologers, understanding that conjunction theory represented one of humanity's earliest attempts at systematic historical analysis using astronomical data.
The Prophetic Connection
Perhaps the most audacious aspect of Islamic conjunction theory was its application to prophetic history. Many ancient cultures judged the Saturn and Jupiter conjunction to be particularly auspicious or portentous, because they are the two 'greatest' planets in our solar system - and hence it is known as the 'Great Conjunction'.
Early medieval Muslim and non-Muslim astronomers recorded that the Prophet Muhammad was born under the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. Some astronomers – Muslim and non-Muslim - even said that the conjunction at the birth of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ marked a new age, being the birth of Islam.
This created a template that would be applied repeatedly. When Johannes Kepler studied the great conjunction of 1603, he thought that the Star of Bethlehem might have been the occurrence of a great conjunction, calculating that a triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 BC.
Mathematical Precision Meets Divine Order
What made Islamic conjunction astrology remarkable was its mathematical sophistication. The actual structure of Abu Ma'shar's astrology is precisely mathematical, derived from the Pythagorean strand within Platonism. Everything in the historical process can be reduced to numerical formulae: when Jupiter is moving towards Saturn but still has 120 degrees to travel, prophecies will appear; when it has 90 degrees to go, religious and political leaders' affairs will alter; and when there are 60 degrees left, conditions will be similar to those that prevailed when the 120 degree situation took place.
This wasn't vague mysticism—it was systematic historical analysis using astronomical data. The whole situation is mathematically regulated: social, political and religious developments unfold with unerring regularity.
Criticism and Controversy
Not everyone accepted conjunction theory. The number of medieval theologians, jurists, and philosophers who wrote anti-astrology tracts, however, indicates that it was controversial and not universally accepted as a scientific or ethical practice. Many believed it was against the tenets of Islam to suggest that forces other than God could determine human events.
The great Jewish philosopher Maimonides wrote scathingly about conjunction predictions in his Iggeret Teiman: "I note that you are inclined to believe in astrology and in the influence of the past and future conjunctions of the planets upon human affairs... For while the Gentiles believe that our nation will never constitute an independent state, nor will they even rise above their present condition, and all the astrologers, diviners, and augurs concur in this opinion, God will prove false their views and beliefs, and will order the advent of the Messiah."
Legacy and Influence
Despite theological opposition, conjunction theory proved remarkably persistent. It was repeated by Al-Biruni (c.973-1050), the most distinguished astrologer of the tenth and eleventh centuries, and by the fourteenth century Tunisian statesman and scholar, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) who, in other respects, was a bitter opponent of astrology.
The doctrine spread far beyond the Islamic world. Medieval European astrologers learned conjunction theory from Arabic sources, and it influenced Christian thought about historical cycles and prophecy. Pierre d'Ailly (1350-1420), a French cardinal, plotted great conjunctions throughout history, noting that they presaged important religious and political changes.
The 2020 Conjunction and Historical Perspective
The great conjunction of December 2020 offered a perfect moment to reflect on this rich tradition. At the close of a year marked by so much havoc and uncertainty in our own times (as well as hope that things might change for the better with the arrival of a Covid-19 vaccine), it is worth remembering how societies in the past attempted to read planetary conjunctions such as that of Jupiter and Saturn in order to predict the future and derive comfort and assurance in trying times.
Islamic conjunction astrology reminds us that humans have always sought patterns in chaos, meaning in uncertainty, and hope in the movement of celestial bodies. Whether we view it as sophisticated historical analysis or elaborate wishful thinking, it represents a remarkable intellectual achievement—the creation of a systematic method for understanding historical change through astronomical observation.
The Great Conjunction continues to inspire wonder, just as it did for those medieval Islamic astrologers who first glimpsed in the dance of Jupiter and Saturn the hidden rhythms of earthly power and divine purpose.
