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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;robinjojo, post: 7327058, member: 110226&quot;]Here&#039;s a centaur who is intent on shooting a dragon emerging from his tail.&nbsp; At least that&#039;s what it appears on the face of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, Spengler and Sayles have a more detailed interpretation of the obverse design.&nbsp; The figure shooting the arrow is the zodiacal sign for Sagittarius.&nbsp;&nbsp; The dragon tail is possibly a reference to the eclipse of AH 598.</p><p><br /></p><p>They go on. &quot;The meaning of the dragon&#039;s head has eluded numismatists, but Willy Hartner (see note 7) has provided the answer to this enigma. Hartner convincingly illustrates that the ascending and descending nodes of the moon&#039;s orbit were treated by Islamic astrologers as pseudo-planets.&nbsp; At the risk of over simplifying, we will try to summarize the essence of this phenomenon.&nbsp; The nodes themselves are the points of intersection of the great circle of the moon&#039;s orbit and the ecliptic or apparent orbit of the sun.&nbsp; The ascending node is referred to as the &quot;Dragon&#039;s Head&quot; and the descending node is referred to as the &quot;Dragon&#039;s Tail&quot;.&nbsp; They represent the invisible eighth and ninth planets respectively.&nbsp; The Dragon&#039;s Head is exalted in Gemini and the Dragon&#039;s Tail is exalted in Sagittarius. The combination of knotted Dragon and Sagittarius, in a planetary-like allusion, appears as the peculiar eighth panel of the astrological cycle reliefs on the Inlaid bridge Jazirat ibn&#039;Umar spanning the Tigris rivier south of Amid.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Dragon&#039;s Head is considered an unlucky &quot;planet&quot;, which may explain why the centaur-archer is depicted attacking, perhaps subduing, the beast.&nbsp; In any case, the likelihood of representing an eclipse in the Dragon&#039;s Head is remote, as it would have been perceived as a bad omen.&nbsp; Conversely, the Dragon&#039;s Tail is considered lucky.&nbsp; The eclipse of AH 598 occurred with the <i>descending</i> lunar node (Dragon&#039;s Tail) in Sagittarius. This explains the motivation for representing this event on Artuqid coinage, but also the complex inconography of this remarkable coin type.&nbsp; The presence of Jupiter in it day house represents the power of kingship, the <i>jawzahr </i>represents the nodes of the moon (eclipse); and the centaur Sagittarius (the exaltation of the Dragon&#039;s Tail) enhances the magnitude of the event.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>7 Hartner, &quot;The Pseudoplanetary Nodes of the Moon&#039;s Orbit in Hindu and Islamic Iconographies&quot;, p. 116.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1280297[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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