Introducing and Analyzing the History of Tankalucha Manuscript 1074 A.H.

According to the ancient sources¡ Tankalucha manuscript is one of the oldest works related to astronomy which has been written in Sassanid era based on Iranian astronomy and stories of the time it was written. According to astronomical literature¡ after being written in middle Persian (Pahlavi)¡ Tankalucha has been translated into Syriac and later into Arabic in Islamic era. This work has been an information resource for the large number of other works related to astrological literature. Although¡ there is no evidence of its Syriac translation¡ there are some manuscripts of its Arabic and Farsi translations¡ and Tankalucha 1074 H.A. is one of its Farsi translations. Tankalucha 1074 A.H. was rewritten by “Mohammad Taghi-ibn-e-Haji Mohammad Mashadi” in Nastaliq by the command of the king. Subject of the manuscript is foretelling and explanation of the fortune in 360 degrees in ecliptic circle. The unique characteristic of the manuscript which makes it different from the former and latter manuscripts is its motifs. In fact the motifs are visual interpretations of the foretelling texts. No significant difference is observed in any of the other manuscripts except for “the style of calligraphy” and “the date of writing”. This article has two goals. First¡ it answers the question that whether Tankalucha 1074 A.H. was the only manuscript containing motifs. According to the description of the illustrated Tankalucha in the poems of the two poets of the 6th (hijri) (Khaqani and Nizami) illustrated Tankalucha (11th century) goes back to 6th century¡ and this rejects its uniqueness. On the other hand¡ in historical resources¡ Tankalucha goes back to pre-Islam era. The main goal of this article is learning about the history of the book¡ and finding the answer to the question that Tankalucha expresses the beliefs of which group of people. According to some external old resources and focusing on some of the elements in Tankalucha 1074 A.H. text¡ and its representation in motifs lead us to Citation to the beliefs of Sabian religion.