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Astrology from the House of Wisdom

The stars that advised the caliphs, now in your hands

In the summer of 762, the astrologer Nawbakht chose the hour to found Baghdad for the caliph al-Manṣūr. For centuries afterwards, scholars such as Abū Maʿshar read the sky in the city of the Abbasids, building on the astrologers of the Persian kings before them. Lazward brings their methods back to life, for you to use every day.

See tonight's Moon station Find your birth mansion

Free. No sign-up. Everything is calculated on your device; nothing is stored.

Bahram Chubina meets a lady who foretells his fate, from a Shāhnāma. Probably Isfahan, c. 1330–40. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.290.41, public domain. Colours gently cleaned and parts of the original set in motion; nothing has been redrawn. See the full page.

Tonight

Tonight's Moon station

Your nightly almanac from Baghdad. One look tells you which of the Moon's 28 stations we are in, and what the old astrologers thought tonight was good for.

What it is

The Moon circles the sky in about 27 days. Arab astronomers split its path into 28 stations, the manāzil al-qamar, roughly one per night, each named after the stars it passes.

Why people used it

For a thousand years, from Baghdad to Córdoba, people checked the Moon's station the way we check a forecast: to pick a night for travel, trade, a wedding or a new start.

How you can use it

Look before you plan. Use it as a prompt, not a rule. Come back each evening and you will meet all 28 stations in a month.

Turning the heavens…

Drag the wheel to visit any station.

Calculating…

Reading the sky

This needs JavaScript to compute the Moon's position on your device.

In the tradition, a night for

    Better left for another night

      Your birth mansion

      Which station was the Moon in when you were born?

      Medieval astrologers began every birth chart here. Enter your birth date and, if you know it, the time. The wheel will turn to your mansion.

      We work out the time zone for you, including old daylight-saving rules. Nothing you enter leaves this page.

      Three skies

      Same sky, three measuring sticks

      Western astrology counts the signs from the spring equinox. Indian (Vedic) astrology counts them from the fixed stars. Baghdad knew both: Indian astronomy reached the city in the 770s, and al-Bīrūnī later compared the two traditions in his book on India. Enter your birth date above and see your birth sky measured all three ways.

      Western

      tropical zodiac

      Sun signWhere the Sun stood when you were born. This is the "sign" most people mean.
      —
      Moon signWhere the Moon stood. It changes sign every two or three days.
      —

      Indian (Vedic)

      sidereal zodiac, Lahiri

      Sun signThe same Sun, counted from the fixed stars.
      —
      Moon signIn India, the Moon sign matters more than the Sun sign.
      —
      Birth nakshatraIndia's 27 star stations of the Moon, cousins of the 28 mansions.
      —

      Baghdad

      the 28 mansions of the Moon

      Birth mansionWhich of the Moon's 28 stations it was passing through.
      —
      Meaning
      —

      The nakshatra and mansion readings are modern ones, drawn from each station's traditional name and meaning. They describe tendencies, not events.

      Plan ahead

      Pick a plan. See which of the next seven nights the tradition favoured.

      Choose what you have in mind. The Moon changes station about once a day, so where a day holds two stations we show both, with the time of the change in your time zone.

      ✓ Favoured✕ Best avoidedNeutral: the tradition says nothing either way

        Premium · in the app Plan a whole month, or start from a date. Pick any day and see everything the tradition favoured and warned against, with the nights matched to your own birth chart. See what's coming →

        The method

        Astrology that shows its work

        CALCULATED

        From the real sky

        Positions come from a modern astronomical ephemeris, accurate to about one arc-minute. Nothing is invented, nothing is generic.

        SOURCED

        From the books themselves

        Each rule comes from the scholars themselves: Abū Maʿshar, al-Bīrūnī, al-Qabīṣī, Māshāʾallāh.

        COMPARED

        Three skies, one chart

        See your sign as the West reads it, as India reads it, and your mansion as Baghdad read it, with the reason they differ. Coming soon.

        Coming in 2027 · iPhone and Android

        The Lazward app: your whole chart, read the Baghdad way

        The website stays free. The app goes further, with readings built from your full birth chart.

        Free, here and in the app

        • Tonight's Moon station, every night
        • Your birth mansion
        • Three skies: your Western and Vedic signs and your nakshatra
        • A compatibility card for two people
        • The Library of essays

        Premium

        Lazward Premium

        • Your birth chart, read as Abū Maʿshar would read it
        • Your year ahead: the planet that rules it and the time lords of your life
        • A daily message: each day, a short note on the Moon's station read against your own chart. One a day, never more.
        • Three skies in full: your rising sign and whole chart, with a full Vedic reading beside the Western and Baghdad ones
        • Plan ahead a whole month, or pick a date and see everything the tradition favoured and warned against
        • The full relationship reading
        • Your album of the 28 mansions
        In Baghdad, astrology was taught beside astronomy, mathematics and medicine. We read it the way they did: with the working shown.

        The Baghdad Library

        Essays on the stars, the scholars and the stories

        A new essay every week, illustrated with manuscripts from museum collections.

        Ink drawing of a chained demon led by two men, in the Siyah Qalam style

        Coming soon

        Siyah Qalam: the mysterious demons of the albums

        Who drew the strangest creatures in Islamic art, and why nobody is sure.

        Demon in chains, c. 1453. Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.63. CC0.

        Mughal painting of King Solomon enthroned among angels, demons, birds and animals

        Coming soon

        Solomon, the jinn and the limits of foresight

        An old story in which even the jinn could not see what was coming.

        Allahabad, 1602. Walters Art Museum, W.650.157A. CC0.