The Book of Akbar 52.2

52.2

The third was made by Fathu-l-lah of Shiraz and could not have been drawn earlier than 991 (1583), for this astronomer did not come to Akbar’s Court till that year. Indeed A. F. tells us that it was in the first year of Fathu-l-lah’s service that he asked him to compare the horoscopes and reconcile their discrepancies. Both Maulana Cand and Maulana Alyas put the birth under Virgo and there is no doubt this is correct,—if correctness can be predicated of such matters. The Indian astrologers probably put the birth in Leo because that Sign is the House of the Sun, between whom and Akbar there was supposed to be a mysterious connection. Possibly however, the earlier date of their Tables warranted them in putting the birth under Leo, as A. F. has explained in his chapter on the discrepancies. But granting that this was so, we are not told why their Tables should be preferred to those of Nasiru-d-din and Ulugh Beg. And indeed Abu-l-fazl does not prefer them. He tells us that Indian Tables agree with the observations of those philosophers who not aware that there was a movement of the Fixed Stars. In other words, he admits that they are wrong.