Book on the Eclipses of the Moon and the Sun
Māshāʼallāh
8th Century
The original Arabic text of Māshāʼallāh’s Book on the Eclipses of the Moon and the Sun has been lost, but it survives in Latin and Hebrew translations that proved immensely popular in medieval and early modern Europe. Māshāʼallāh identifies the influences that the planets have on weather, politics, and prophets. Eclipses play a particularly important role in his system. Some have suggested that the Hebrew translation from the Arabic, from which this excerpt is drawn, was done by Abraham Ibn Ezra and that he used the Latin translation, produced by John of Seville in the twelfth century, as a reference.
Related Guide
Intellectual Culture in the Early Medieval World
Creator Bio
Māshāʼallāh
Māshāʼallāh Ibn Atharī, active in Baghdad, is the earliest known Jewish astrologer of the Islamic world. His Hebrew name was either Manasseh or Misha, and in one manuscript, he is called by the Persian name Yazdān Khwāst. Māshāʼallāh was decisive in bringing Sasanian (Persian) and Pahlavi-language material into the courts of the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. Arabic book lists preserve the titles of many of his works, and his writings were also translated into Latin. These include a commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, a work on the astrolabe, and works on astrology, the last of which were popular among Abbasid elites.
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