In the early years of the 7 
century A.D., a pagan wizard or sahir of
the Arabian peninsula called Qays ibn Nushbah foretold the birth of a
great Prophet and a new religion which would change the world. Soon
after, Mohammed was born and the scattered sahir and Djinn of the
peninsula followed his life with great interest. Some, like Ibn
Nushbah, aided the young Prophet's cause, while others sought to
hinder its growth. As Islam gained complete mastery of the land and
peoples of Arabia, the sahir and Djinn could sense a change of the old
ways. The desert life gave way to learning, conquest and exploration
of the world beyond the surrounding sands and seas.
The magic of Ibn Nushbah was born amid wandering tribes in the pagan mountains and deserts of the Arabian peninsula, influenced heavily by Djinn, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions. These influences combined to produce a form of magic or sihr very different from those practiced by the Order of Hermes, though equally as powerful in its own right. The tribes relied on the sky for navigation, divination, and life-giving rain, and individuals arose who had the gift of controlling the influence of the stars on the earth's behavior and inhabitants. These first kahana or diviners gradually grew in understanding and skill of the magic known the far trading Greeks as Astra, meaning `of the stars'. These magi were also the first humans to deal with the Djinn, a supernatural race similar to Faeries inhabiting Arabia and the Near East.
The Astral magic of the tribes matured as magi gained access to the
magic works and studies of the Greeks and Persians during the
conquests of Islam in the 7 , 8 and 9 centuries. Perhaps the most
influential works on Astral magic translated by the sahir were
Ptolemy's Almagest which provides theories on predicting astral
phenomena, and its companion, the Tetrabiblos, which discusses the
mystical effect of these phenomena on the earth and that the European
Order of Hermes could pose to the Sahireen and set about to creating a
formal Arabic theory of magic, as Bonisagus did for the Order. He
choose to utilize only the power of the two strongest of the seven
planets through the guidance of the stars. He was unable to unify the
Sahireen into a formal order, but his theory has become generally
accepted and helps to maintain a loose association between the
sahir. The power of Astral magic grows still, as the observatories in
Islamic lands scan the heavens and yet provide places of safety for
the sahir to gather and study their art.