There is not much information available about the level of astronomical knowledge in ancient Iran. In Iran, before the arrival of the Aryans, the patterns left on the pottery of the prehistoric era of Iran show the attention of the people of this land to the stars..
In many ancient hills of Iran, signs of the knowledge of Iranian astrology have been obtained before the 1st millennium BC.. Astronomical signs in the historical hills of Iran( such as Gyan Nahavand Hill, Damghan Hesar Hill and...) can be seen on some pieces of pottery and chips of stone tools obtained from them. But not much serious research has been done in this regard. In the Avesta, especially in the Yashta, there is a lot of information that shows that the Aryan astronomers were familiar with the stars and their rising and setting.. In ancient Iran, the new year started with the passing of the sun over the vernal equinox.
Probably, the Aryans were familiar with the constellations, perhaps not exactly in a Babylonian way. The calendar of the Achaemenid period, like the Babylonian and Elamite calendars, had twelve sections with different month names.
Some researchers consider the famous image of lion to cow in Persepolis, which can be seen on the outer wall of Apadana Palace, as an astronomical image.. During the Achaemenid rule over Babylon, the Mughals probably transferred the knowledge of Aryan astronomy to Babylon, and during this period, the knowledge of Babylonian and Aryan astronomy was linked together and reached perfection.. During this period, the ecliptic was divided into twelve 30-degree towers in Babylon.
Also, the movements of the moon, sun and planets were carefully studied. For example, during the rule of Kamboja in Babylon, accurate observation of the moon and planets began. The observation of the planet Jupiter, which began at this time, continued during the reign of Darius the Great, and the result was the formulation of the theory of the movement of the planet Jupiter, and the method of prostitution was created to create order in the lunar calendar during this period.. In this period, the planets were considered to be the same as the gods and they were given the names of the gods. Interestingly, the name of the side of the planet Saturn, Kevan, is derived from the Babylonian name Kimano, which indicates the connection between the gods, or perhaps Babylonian and Persian astrology.. Nothing remains from the astronomical texts of the Achaemenid period and the following periods. Some believe that many of these texts were lost in the Arab invasion of Iran.
At the end of the Sassanid era, Ziji was written under the name of Shahriar or Shah in Iran. This zij was translated into Arabic by Ali bin Ziyad Tamimi from an original Pahlavi text named Zik Shtrayar around the year 170 AD, and it had a great impact on the astronomy of the Islamic period.. The interesting thing is that in this zij, the beginning of day and night was calculated from midnight.
The word zij was imported from Persian to Arabic. The root of this word in Farsi is zik which means string or string, especially bow string. Later, this meaning was generalized and for the set of parallel threads that are close together in an astronomical table and the set of threads that are stretched in weaving, this term was also used for the set of astronomical tables of the Islamic period.. These tables, along with astronomical explanations and calculation methods, were later considered to be the most important basic books in Islamic period astronomy..
Taken from the book History of Astronomy in Iran
