Mashallah ibn Athari
Masha'allah ibn Athari | |
---|---|
Born | 740 |
Died | 815 (aged 75) Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
Occupation | Astronomer |
Māshāʾallāh ibn Atharī (
The Arabic phrase mā shā’ Allāh indicates a believer's acceptance of God's ordainment of good or ill fortune. His name is probably an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew Shiluh. Al-Nadim writes Mashallah's name as Mīshā ("Yithru" or "Jethro").[1][4][note 1]
The crater Messala on the Moon is named after Mashallah.
Biography
As a young man Mashallah participated in the founding of
Philosophy
Mashallah postulated a ten-orb universe rather than the eight-orb model offered by Aristotle and the nine-orb model that was popular in his time. In all Mashallah's planetary model ascribes 26 orbs to the universe, which account for the relative positioning and motion of the seven planets. Of the ten orbs, the first seven contain the planets and the eighth contain the fixed stars. The ninth and tenth orbs were named by Mashallah the "Orb of Signs" and the "Great Orb", respectively. Both of these orbs are starless and move with the diurnal motion, but the tenth orb moves in the plane of the celestial equator while the ninth orb moves around poles that are inclined 24° with respect to the poles of the tenth orb. The ninth is also divided into twelve parts which are named after the zodiacal constellations that can be seen beneath them in the eighth orb. The eight and ninth orbs move around the same poles, but with different motion. The ninth orb moves with daily motion, so that the 12 signs are static with respect to the equinoxes, the eighth Orb of the Fixed Stars moves 1° in 100 years, so that the 12 zodiacal constellations are mobile with respect to the equinoxes. The eight and ninth orbs moving around the same poles also guarantees that the 12 stationary signs and the 12 mobile zodiacal constellations overlap. By describing the universe in such a manner, Mashallah was attempting to demonstrate the natural reality of the 12 signs by stressing that the stars are located with respect to the signs and that fundamental natural phenomena, such as the beginning of the seasons, changes of weather, and the passage of the months, take place in the sublunar domain when the sun enters the signs of the ninth orb.[3]
Mashallah was an advocate of the idea that the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter dictate the timing of important events on Earth. These conjunctions, which occur about every twenty years, take place in the same triplicity for about two hundred years, and special significance is attached to a shift to another triplicity.[7]
Works
The Big Book of Births (كتاب المواليد الكبير) (14vols); The Twenty-One On Conjunctions, Religions and Sects (الواحد والعشرين في قرانات والأديان والملل); The Projection of [Astrological] Rays (مطرح الشعاع); The Meaning (المعاني); Construction and Operation of Astrolabes (صنعة الإسطرلابات والعمل بها); The Armillary Sphere (ذات الحلق); Rains and Winds (الأمطار والرياح); The Two Arrows (السهمين); Book known as The Seventh & Decimal (Ch.1 – The Beginning of Actions (ابتداء الأعمال); Ch.2 – Averting What Is Predestined (على دفع التدبير); Ch.3 – On Questions (في المسائل); Ch.4 – Testimonies of the Stars (شهادات الكواكب); Ch.5 – Happenings (الحدوث); Ch.6 Movement and Indications of the Two Luminaries [sun & moon]) (تسيير النيرين وما يدلان عليه); The Letters (الحروف); The Sultan (السلطان); The Journey (السفر); Preceptions (الأسعار) Mashallah's treatise De mercibus (On Prices) is the oldest known scientific work extant in Arabic,[9] and the only work of his extant in its original Arabic.[citation needed]
One of Mashallah's most popular works in the
, in 1504 and 1549, respectively. This work is commonly abbreviated to De orbe.Texts & Translations
- On Conjunctions, Religions, and People was an astrological world history based on conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.[1] A few fragments are extant as quotations by the Christian astrologer Ibn Hibinta.[7]
- Liber Messahallaede revoltione liber annorum mundi, a work on revolutions, and De rebus eclipsium et de conjunctionibus planetarum in revolutionibus annorm mundi, a work on eclipses.
- Nativities under its Arabic title Kitab al – Mawalid, has been partially translated into English from a Latin translation of the Arabic
- On Reception is available in English from the Latin edition by Joachim Heller of Nuremberg in 1549.
Other astronomical and astrological writings are quoted by Suter and Steinschneider.
The Irish Astronomical Tract [10] appears based in part on a medieval Latin version of Mashallah. Two-thirds of tract are part-paraphrase part-translation.
The 12th-century scholar and astrologer Abraham ibn Ezra translated two of Mashallah's astrological treatises into Hebrew: She'elot and Ḳadrut (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers." pp. 600–603).
Eleven modern translations of Mashallah's astrological treatises have been translated out of Latin into English.[6]
Bibliography
- De cogitatione
- Epistola de rebus eclipsium et conjunctionibus planetarum (distinct from De magnis conjunctionibus by Abu Ma'shar al Balkhi; Latin translation : John of Sevilla Hispalenis et Limiensis
- De revolutionibus annorum mundi
- De significationibus planetarum in nativitate
- Liber receptioni
- Works of Sahl and Masha'allah, trans. Benjamin Dykes, Cazimi Press, Golden Valley, MN, 2008.
- Masha'Allah, On Reception, trans. Robert Hand, ARHAT Publications, Reston, VA, 1998.
Source for Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391)
Mashallah's
While Mark Harvey Liddell held that Chaucer drew on De Sphaera of
In 1981, Paul Kunitzsch argued that the treatise on the astrolabe long attributed to Mashallah is in fact written by
See also
- Liber de orbe
- Astrology in medieval Islam
- Jewish views of astrology
- List of Persian scientists and scholars
Notes
- ^ Latin translators called him many variants such as Messahala, Messahalla, Messala, Macellama, and Macelarma, Messahalah.[citation needed]
- ^ Dodge notes that the Arabic word written al-as’ār (الأسعار) “prices”, should probably be al-ash’ār (الأشعار) “perceptions”.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d Dodge 1970, pp. 650–651.
- ^ Hill 1994, p. 10.
- ^ a b c Sela 2012.
- ^ a b Belenkiy 2007, pp. 740–741.
- ^ Dykes 2008, p. vii.
- ^ a b Dykes 2008, p. viii.
- ^ a b Lorch 2013.
- ^ Dodge 1970, p. 651.
- ^ Durant 1950, p. 403.
- ^ Anonymous 2018, p. 194.
- ^ Selden, p.xliii
- ^ a b Skeat 1872, p. 88.
- ^ Gunther 1920.
- ^ Kunitzsch 1989.
- ^ Selin 1997, p. 135.
Sources
- Anonymous (2018) [14th century]. "An Irish Astronomical Tract". Translated by Power, Afaula. University College Cork. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
- Belenkiy, Ari (2007). "Māshāʾallāh ibn Atharī (Sāriya)" (PDF). In Hockey, Thomas; et al. (eds.). Springer Publishers.
- Durant, Will (1950). The Age of Faith: A History of Medieval Civilization – Christian, Islamic, and Judaic – from Constantine to Dante A.D. 325–1300. Vol. 4. New York: Simon and Schuster. OCLC 869431083.
- Dodge, Bayard (1970). The Fihrist of al-Nadim: a Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture (PDF). Vol. 2. New York: OCLC 59215780.
- Dykes, Benjamin N., ed. (2008). Works of Sahl and Masha'allah. Translated by Dykes, Benjamin N. Cazimi Press. ISBN 978-19345-8-602-0. Archived from the original(PDF) on 14 November 2009.
- OCLC 1042928106.
- Hill, Donald R. (1994). Islamic Science and Engineering. Edinburgh, UK: ISBN 978-0-7486-0457-9.
- Lorch, R.P. (2013). "The Astrological History of Māshā'allāh". S2CID 145491804.
- Kunitzsch, Paul (1989). "On the authenticity of the treatise on the composition and use of the astrolabe ascribed to Messahalla". The Arabs and the Stars. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-24134-0.
- Sela, Shlomo (2012). "Maimonides and Mashallah on the Ninth Orb of the Signs and Astrology". S2CID 170422340.
- Selin, Helaine (1997). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Berlin; New York: ISBN 978-1-4020-4960-6.
- OCLC 1129737770.
- Thomson, Ron B. (2022). Pseudo-Masha’allah, On the Astrolabe: A Critical Edition of the Latin Text with English Translation. Toronto: Volumes Publishing. ISBN 978-1-7782705-2-9
Further reading
- Holden, James (2006). A History of Horoscopic Astrology. American Federation of Astrologers, Tempe, Arizona. pp. xii, 103, 104, 108–111, 114, 118, 126, 128, 129, 178, 299. ISBN 978-0-86690-463-6.
- Qiftī (al-), Jamāl al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Yūsuf (1903), Lippert, Julius; Weicher, Theodor (eds.), Tarīkh al-Ḥukamā, Leipzig, p. 327
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - OCLC 1151783928.
- OCLC 1157182492.
- Singer, Isidore, ed. (1902). "Astronomy". The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. London; New York: Funk and Wagnall's Company. p. 249.
- OCLC 230703086.
- Thorndike, Lynn (1956). "The Latin Translations of Astrological Works by Messahala". S2CID 142988162.
External links
- Pseudo-Masha’allah, On the Astrolabe: A Critical Edition of the Latin Text with English Translation from SHAREOK (University of Oklahoma Libraries)
- A facsimile of the 1504 edition of Durer's De scientia motus orbis from the Bavarian State Library