Some of the Scientific and Historical Features of Qutb al-Din Shirazi’s Ikhtiyārāt-e Muzaffari, the Most Comprehensive Persian Book on Hay’a

Qutb al-Din Shirazi’s Ikhtiyārāt Muzaffari can be considered the most comprehensive hay’a book in Persian. According to the documents, Shirazi completed it only 4 months after the Nihāyat al-Idrāk fi Dirāyat al-Aflāk in 1281 dedicated to one of the rulers of Kastamonu. Although many sections of the Ikhtiyārāt are literal translations of Nihāya, the distribution and presentation of many subjects, especially the non-Ptolemaic planetary models, are completely different. While the language of Ikhtiyārāt is under the influence ofArabic structure, it maintains some signs of Persian identity. According to the introduction, the word “Ikhtiyarāt” does not mean “selection” in astrology, rather it refers to the author’s “preferences” or his new models to solve the difficulties of Ptolemaic models. There are some hints in the sources showing that the relationship between Shirazi and his master, Nasir al-Din Tusi, was not very friendly. Some new evidence is found in Nihāya and Ikhtiyārāt which may shed new light on the subject.