Māshā'allāh ibn Atharī

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Frontispiece from De scientia mutus orbis 1504 (engraving by Albrecht Dürer )

Māshā'allāh ibn Atharī ( Arabic ماشاءالله بن أثري, DMG Māšā'a llāh ibn Aṯarī , * before 762; † approx. 815) was an Iraqi astronomer and astrologer . In Western European sources the Abbasid Jew was called Messahala (with the variants Messahalla , Messala , Macellama , Macelarma and Messahalah ).

Live and act

Māschā'allāh (the Jewish name was Manasseh) lived and worked in the Abbasid Empire in the city of Basra in what is now Iraq . His exact life dates are not known. He was involved in the astrological investigations concerning the date of the founding of the new imperial capital Baghdad on July 30th, 762. Horoscopes handed down in his works date between 762 and 809. At the time of al-Ma'mūn , who became caliph in 813 , he is said to have followed Ibn an-Nadīm were still alive, which is why his death is believed to have been around 815.

Ibn Atharī wrote numerous astrological works in which he took up concepts from Greek astrology, astronomy and philosophy, as well as processed Sassanid and Indian astrological sources. His works were viewed as authoritative in the Islamic world and, in Latin translation, were also received intensively in the West.

The lunar crater Messala is named after Māschā'allāh ibn Atharī.

Works

List of works by Ibn an-Nadīm

A list with Arabic titles of his works is given by Ibn an-Nadīm in his Fihrist . The following titles are mentioned:

  • Kitā al-mawālid al-kabir ("Great Book of Nativities ")
  • Fi al-qirānāt wa 'l-adyān wa' l-milal ("On conjunctions , peoples and religions")
  • Kitāb matrah al-shu'ā '("Book on the projection of rays")
  • Kitāb al-ma'ānī ("Book of Definitions")
  • Kitāb sana'at al-asturlāb wa 'l-'amal bihā ( book on the construction and use of the astrolabe )
  • Kitāb dhāt al-halaq ("Book on the Armillary Sphere ")
  • Kitā al-amtār wa 'l-riyāh ("Book of Rain and Wind")
  • Kitaāb alsahmayn ("Book about Two Fates")
  • Kitāb al-ma'rūf bi 'wa' l-'shrīn ("Book known as the 27")
  • Kitāb al-̣hurūf ("About letters")
  • Kitāb al-suḷtān ("About Government")
  • Kitāb al-safar ("About Travel")
  • Kitāb al-as'ār ("About Prices")
  • Kitāb al-mawālid ("About Nativities")
  • Kitāb tạhwīl sinī al-mawālīd ("About the annual courses of the nativities")
  • Kitāb al-duwal wa 'l-milal ("On Dynasties and Religions")
  • Kitaāb al-̣hukm 'alā' l-ijtimā'āt wa 'l-istiqbālāt ("On evaluations according to the conjunctions and oppositions [of the sun and the moon]")
  • Al-Kitāb al-murdī ("The Joyful Book")
  • Kitāb al-şuwar wa 'l-̣hukm' alāyhā ("On constellations and their evaluations")

Translations

  • De revolutionibus annorum mund i (translation of a lost work)
  • Epistola de rebus eclipsium or De ratione circuli et stellarum (translation by Johannes Hispalensis ); Hebrew translation by Abraham ibn Esra from 1148
  • Super significationibus planetarum in nativitate (translation by Johannes Hispalensis)
  • De septem planetis
  • De receptione (translation by Johannes Hispalensis)
  • De scientia motus orbis or De elementis et orbibus coelestibus (translation by Gerhard von Cremona )
  • De electionibus (doubtful attribution)

The following translations presumably go back to parts of the Kitāb al-ma'rūf bi 'wa' l-'shrīn ("Book known as the 27"):

  • De cogitationibus or De interrogationibus
  • De occultis
  • Liber iudiciorum
  • De interpretationibus

expenditure

  • Works of Sahl and Masha'allah. Translation by Benjamin Dykes. Cazimi Press, Golden Valley, MN, 2008.
  • Masha'allah: On Reception . Translation by Robert Hand. ARHAT Publications, Reston, VA, 1998.

literature

  • David Pingree: Māshā 'Allāh. In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. 9. Charles Scribner's Sons, Detroit 2008, pp. 159-162.
  • J. Samsó: Māshāʾ Allāh. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam , 2nd ed. 2012, sv
  • FJ Carmody: Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation. Berkeley-Los Angeles 1956, pp. 23-38.
  • Lynn Thorndike: The Latin Translations of Astrological Works by Messahala. In: Osiris , 12 (1956), pp. 49-72.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Journal of Near Eastern Studies , Vol. 29 (1970), p. 104
  2. ↑ G. Flügel, ed. Leipzig 1871, pp. 273–274
  3. ↑ a b c Printed by Bonetus Locatellus, Venice 1493, 1519 and I. Heller, Nuremberg 1549
  4. ^ English translation by B. Goldstein: The Book on Eclipses of Masha'allah. In: Physis 6 (1964), pp. 205-213
  5. ^ Print by I. Heller, Nuremberg 1549
  6. ^ Prints I. Stabius, Nürnberg 1504 and I. Heller, Nürnberg 1549
personal data
SURNAME Māshā'allāh ibn Atharī
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Māšā'allāh ibn Sāriya; Messahalla; Messahallach; Mā Shā Allāh, al-Miṣrī; Māshā'allāh; Ibn-Aṯarī, Māšā'allāh; Mesehella; Māšā'allāh ibn Aṯarī; Manasseh; Pseudo-messahalla; Messehalath; Messahalah
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jewish astronomer and astrologer
DATE OF BIRTH before 762
DATE OF DEATH at 815