EḴTĪĀRĀT (choices, elections), a term used in Islamic divination
and astrology in at least four principle meanings: 1. It refers
to hemerologies in which each of the thirty days of a month,
either synodic or conventional (e.g., the Persian hemerology),
is characterized as being good (saʿd) or bad (naḥs) for
undertaking specified activities. 2. The goodness or badness of
the time for activities depends on the lunar station (manzel al-
qamar) occupied by the moon. 3. The goodness or badness of the
time for activities depends on the zodiacal sign occupied by the
moon. 4. The type of astrology usually denominated catarchic
(ḥokm al-nojūm) is often associated with the word eḵtīārāt; in
Islamic astrology, following a Sasanian precedent, this is
confounded with interrogations (masāʾel). 1. The earliest
hemerologies are those of Mesopotamia, in which each day of each
month is usually given a religious significance as well as a
number of activities to be undertaken or avoided (Labat, 1939).
There also exists a far simp