Description

This is a late 19th century Ottoman text with instructions on making personal horoscopes, based on the date of individual’s birth date. The first part of the book describes astrological signs and the last part contains various calculations and star charts in Ottoman.

Horoscopes, mostly in shapes of portable talismans, very commonly in forms or rolled or folded papers preserved in small leather sleeves, were exceedingly popular in the late Ottoman empire. Pamphlets such as ours in various versions were printed for numberless fortune tellers.

The religious text in Arabic language in margins was allegedly written by a Muslim scholar Imam Jaʿfar al-Sādiq (c. 702 – 765) and creates connection between the populistic central text, based on superstition, and official Islamic faith.

We could trace example of the pamphlet in Turkish libraries (also under title: Kur’anâme-i İmam Cafer-i Sadık), but not on Worldcat.