Mubtazz (Almuten)

moob-TAZZ

arabic: المبتز (Al-Mubtazz)

Definition

The mubtazz is the planet that holds the most essential dignity at a given point of the zodiac — al-mubtazz in Arabic, "the victor." Essential dignity is the strength a planet draws from where it sits, scored across five categories. The sources use two scoring schemes: a one-point method, where each of the five dignities counts as a single point (followed by Ptolemy, and apparently by 'Umar al-Tabari and Masha'allah), and a weighted scheme — domicile 5, exaltation 4, triplicity 3, term 2, face 1 — which took over in later Arabic practice and was Latinized as almuten, or almutes.

In Tradition

In Arabic-Persian astrology the mubtazz is the chief planetary stand-in for any chosen place, lot, or topic — the planet with enough authority to be its leading significator. Which one you build depends on the chapter: the mubtazz of the Ascendant for the overall direction of a life; the mubtazz over the death complex (the eighth and fourth houses, the Lot of Death, and their lords) for what signifies death; and the mubtazz of any topical lot for the affairs that lot governs.

In Practice

You gather the relevant set of dignity-rulers — the five dignity-lords of a single point, or several points combined for a compound topic — tally each planet's share under whichever scheme you are using, and the planet with the highest total is the mubtazz. You then read that planet's sign, house, condition, aspects, and house-rulerships as the main testimony for the topic. Ties are usually settled by which planet is more angular, or by which one aspects the original point most closely. Abu 'Ali al-Khayyāt's On the Judgments of Nativities (Persian Nativities Vol I) sets out the chapter-by-chapter "mubtazz of place X" technique most clearly; 'Umar al-Tabari and Abu Bakr, in Persian Nativities Vol II, show the one-point and weighted versions side by side.

Historical Origin

Al-mubtazz is attested in 9th-century Arabic natal handbooks, including 'Umar al-Tabari's Three Books on Nativities and Abu 'Ali al-Khayyāt's On the Judgments of Nativities. Dykes argues (Persian Nativities Vol II Introduction §1) that the weighted 5-4-3-2-1 form was systematized c. 815-844 CE by Abu al-'Anbas al-Saimari and spread by al-Kindi (Forty Chapters §137), al-Qabisi (I.77), Bonatti, Ibn Ezra, and Lilly. Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae keeps the Latinized form Almutes — closer to the Arabic original — following Alchabitius, and gives worked examples.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading