Nayruz

Nawruz, according to al-Masudi, is the first day of Farwardin, the first month of the Persians. It lies one hundred and seventy-four days from Mihragan, and among the Persians it is a day of much gladness and festivity, as he describes. ²

Ibn al-Jawzi relates that in the year 282 AH al-Mu'tadid ordered that the officials be written to, to stop beginning the collection of the land tax at the Nawruz of the non-Arabs, and to delay it until the eleventh day of June. It was therefore called the Mu'tadidi Nawruz. He notes that the aim was to give people ease and to be gentle with them. ³

The cause, as they relate it, was that al-Mutawakkil saw green crops in a hunting ground of his, and was told that the Persians had asked permission to collect the tax while the crops had not yet been harvested. He ordered the Nawruz fixed, and appointed an astrologer to take charge of it, but al-Mutawakkil was killed before this was completed. When al-Mu'tadid came to power, he ordered the intercalation, and delayed Nawruz to the eleventh of June to fix it. ³