Abstract:
In a recent issue of the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage I looked into two seventeenth
century Persian paintings depicting tailed objects (comets or possibly fireballs) in the sky (Kapoor, 2019). One of
these, the painting by Muhammad Zaman, has a date inscribed at the lower left as ‘sana 7’. Elsewhere, the date
has been interpreted as the seventh year of the reign of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (r. CE 1658–1707).
Two bright comets, one in December 1664 (C/1664 W1) and another in April 1665 (C/1665 F1), had appeared
during the Emperor’s seventh regnal year and it was suggested by others that the comet of December 1664
could be the one portrayed by Zaman. In my work, I had inadvertently considered that the seventh regnal year
ended on 24 July 1664, which therefore ruled out either of the comets, but since the recorded date of the
coronation was 1 Dhu l-Qa’da 1068 AH (31 July 1658 CE Greg), Aurangzeb’s seventh regnal year should be 1
Dhu l-Qa’da 1074–29 Shawwal 1075 A.H. (≡26 May 1664–15 May 1665), which revives the suggestion that the
comet of December 1664 or of April 1665 was the one portrayed by Zaman. The December 1664 comet rose in
the morning in the S-E during its best-view dates, while the April 1665 comet remained a morning object through
its visible phase. I have computed ephemerides of the comets and compared their positions in the sky with
respect to some bright stars that also were observed on the best-view dates. A late night or early morning skywatcher in Isfahan would have seen the comets rise in the S-E, or, in the N-E, but their respective orientations in
the sky would have been the opposite to that portrayed in Zaman’s painting where the tailed form is shown
headed S-W, suggestive of an evening apparition. While the period of Aurangzeb’s seventh regnal year stands
corrected, this does not affect the inferences and the conclusions drawn in Kapoor (2019).
