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The Great Introduction to Astrology by Abū Maʿšar (2 vols.)
Series:
AbÅ« MaâÍÅ¡arâs Great Introduction to Astrology (mid-ninth century) is the most comprehensive and influential text on astrology in the Middle Ages. In addition to presenting astrological doctrine, it provides a detailed justification for the validity of astrology and establishes its basis within the natural sciences of the philosophers. These two volumes provide a critical edition of the Arabic text; a facing English translation, which includes references to the divergences in the twelfth-century Latin translations of John of Seville and Hermann of Carinthia (Volume 1); and the large fragment of a Greek translation (edited by David Pingree). Comprehensive Arabic, English, Greek and Latin glossaries enable one to trace changes in vocabulary and terminology as the text passed from one culture to another. (Volume 2.)
Keiji Yamamoto â was Associate Professor at Kyoto Sangyo University, Institute for World Affairs and Cultures. He edited and translated several Arabic astrology texts into English and Japanese, including AbÅ« MaâÍÅ¡arâs Book of Religions and Dynasties (with Charles Burnett, Leiden, 2000).
Charles Burnett is Professor of the History of Arabic/Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centres on the transmission of texts from the Arab world to the West in the Middle Ages.
Charles Burnett is Professor of the History of Arabic/Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute, University of London. His research centres on the transmission of texts from the Arab world to the West in the Middle Ages.
"Editors K. Yamamoto & Charles Burnett enable one to trace changes in vocabulary and terminology as the text passed from one culture to another. There lies the significant contribution of the edition: to the early history of science and intercultural exchanges between Islamic-Arabian and Latin West." Nicholas A. E. Kalospyros, in Journal of Oriental and African Studies
"It is an enormous and very complete book of vast knowledge about this great learned man Abū Ma῾šar in an indispensable text edition, made by three distinguished scholars." Lourus S. Filius, in Bibliotheca Orientalis 78/1-2 (Januari-April 2021)
"It is an enormous and very complete book of vast knowledge about this great learned man Abū Ma῾šar in an indispensable text edition, made by three distinguished scholars." Lourus S. Filius, in Bibliotheca Orientalis 78/1-2 (Januari-April 2021)
Preface Acknowledgements
Introduction â1âThe Life and Works of AbÅ« MaÊ¿Å¡ar â2âThe Great Introduction to Astrology â3âThe Manuscripts â4âEditorial Principles â5âBibliography and Abbreviations
Part I â1âOn the starting-point of the book and the seven headings â2âOn the existence of the science of astrology â3âOn the modality of the action of the stars in this world â4âOn the forms, ânaturesâ (elements), composition, and ânaturedâ (products of the elements) â5âOn giving arguments concerning the confirmation of astrology and the refutation of everyone who claims that the starsâ movements have no power, and they have no indication for the things coming to be in this world â6âOn the benefit of the science of astrology, and that foreknowledge of things coming to be in this world from the power of the movements of the stars is very beneficial
Part II â1âOn the number of the stars of the sphere which have rapid or slow movement â2âOn why twelve constellations are considered more suitable for indication than the other constellations of the sphere â3âOn the reason for the number of the signs and that they are twelve, no less and nor more â4âOn the arrangement of the ânaturesâ of the signs â5âOn why one begins with Aries, not the other signs â6âOn the reason for the tropical, fixed, and bicorporeal signs â7âOn the knowledge of the quadrants of the sphere â8âOn the knowledge of the masculine and feminine signs â9âOn the diurnal and nocturnal signs
Part III â1âOn the reason for the astrologersâ use of the seven planets in the indication of general things â2âOn the definition of âastrologyâ and âastrologerâ â3âOn the indication proper to the Sun for moderating atmospheric conditions â4âOn the indication proper to the Moon for the ebb and flow â5âOn the cause of the ebb and flow â6âOn the strength and weakness of the flow â7âThat the Moon is the cause of the ebb and flow â8âOn the difference between the conditions of the seas â9âOn the indication of the Moon for animals, plants, and minerals according to the increase and decrease of its light
Part IV â1âOn the natures of the seven planets, swift in motion, according to Ptolemyâs account â2âOn the natures of the planets and the benefics and malefics among them, according to the account of most of the astrologers â3âOn our refutation of those who claimed that the natures of the planets are known only from their colours â4âOn our establishment of finding the benefics and malefics according to the method of the philosophers â5âOn knowing which planet is benefic and which is malefic â6âOn the difference of the conditions of benefics and malefics, and the change of one of them to the nature of another â7âOn the natures of the planets, their change from one nature to another, and the strength or weakness of their nature which is inherent in them â8âOn the masculinity and femininity of the planets â9âOn the diurnal and nocturnal planets
Part V â1âOn the shares of the planets in the signs â2âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what some astrologers have claimed â3âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what agrees with what Ptolemy says â4âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what agrees with what Hermes says from GÌ£ÄṯīdÄ«mÅ«n â5âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what some astrologers have claimed â6âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what Ptolemy claimed â7âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what Hermes says â8âOn the differences in the terms of the planets and their conditions â9âOn the terms of the Egyptians â10âOn the terms of Ptolemy â11âOn the terms of the Chaldeans â12âOn the terms of Asá¹raá¹Å« â13âOn the terms of the Indians â14âOn the lords of the triplicities â15âOn the decans and their lords, according to what agrees with what the scholars of Persia, Babylon, and Egypt say â16âOn the decans and their lords, according to what the Indians said â17âOn the nawbahr of the signs, i.e. a ninth, according to what agrees with what the Indians say â18âOn the dodecatemoria of the signs and the lords of each degree of each sign â19âOn the masculine and feminine degrees â20âOn the bright, dusky, dark, and empty degrees â21âOn the wells of the planets in the signs â22âOn the degrees increasing good fortune
Part VI â1âOn the natures and conditions of the signs, and figures that ascend in their decans â2âOn the rising times of the signs on the equator and in the seven climes according to what Theon maintained â3âOn the aspecting of the degrees of the sphere â4âOn the signs that love each other, that hate each other, that are hostile to each other, that are straight and crooked in rising, and that are obedient and disobedient to each other â5âOn the signs that agree with each other in zone, rising-times, power, and path â6âOn the signs that agree with each other in natural opposition and sextile, and â¨those thatâ© do not aspect each other â7âOn the signs that agree with each other in quartile â8âOn the years, months, days, and hours of the signs â9âOn the indications of the signs for every country and region of the earth â10âOn the signs indicating motion and rest â11âOn the voiced signs, which indicate the nature and conditions of people â12âOn the division of the members of the human body among the signs â13âOn the signs indicating grace and beauty; the signs indicating generosity and liberality; the signs which are united and filled; those which give wealth; those which pour out; and those which seize and take â14âOn the signs indicating lust and diseases â15âOn the signs indicating the chastity and virtue of women â16âOn the signs having many children, twins, few children, and barrenness â17âOn the signs whose members are cut and on the signs having plenty of violence and anger â18âOn the signs indicating the conditions of voices â19âOn the signs indicating mange, leprosy, spots, itching, head scurf, deafness, dumbness, baldness, thinness of beard, beardlessness, and one who has no beard â20âOn the signs indicating faults in the eye â21âOn the signs indicating culture, cajolement, deception, and cunning, the signs of worry, and the dark signs â22âOn the signs indicating the species of birds, and all quadrupeds, beasts of prey, vermin, insects, and aquatic animals â23âOn the signs indicating trees and plants â24âOn the signs indicating different kinds of water and the signs indicating what is produced by fire â25âOn the directions of the signs â26âOn the cardines of the sphere, its quadrants and twelve places, summarizing their indications, and the reason for that â27âOn the quadrants of the sphere related to corporality, spirituality, and other things â28âOn the mixture of the ânaturesâ of the cardines of the horoscope â29âOn the colours of the quadrants of the sphere and of the twelve places â30âOn ascending, descending, long, and short quadrants of the sphere â31âOn the division of the four ânaturesâ among things â32âOn the reason for the quarters of one day and one night and their twenty-four hours â33âOn the lords of the days and the hours
Part VII â1âOn the conditions of the planets in themselves â2âOn the conditions of the planets in respect to the Sun, being in front of it and behind it â3âOn the conditions of the planets in respect to the quarters of the sphere and their places, and the range of the power of their bodies â4âOn the conjunction of the planets with each other and the mixture of their qualities, and which is strongest and weakest among them â5âOn the aspect of the planets to each other and their application and separation, and their other similar conditions that follow that â6âOn the good fortune of the planets and their strength, weakness, and bad fortune, and the corruption of the Moon â7âOn the casting of the rays of the planets according to Ptolemyâs practice â8âOn the knowledge of the years of the fardÄrs of the planets and their greatest, great, middle, and small years â9âOn the natures of the seven planets and their proper indications for existing things
Part VIII â1âOn the reason for extracting the lots â2âOn the classification of the lots and their names â3âOn the lots of the seven planets â4âOn the lots of the twelve places â5âOn the account of the lots which are not mentioned with the seven planets, nor with the lots of the twelve places â6âOn the account of all the lots in summary â7âOn the coincidence of the lots in one position â8âOn the knowledge of the general indications of the lots â9âOn the knowledge of the position of some indications from others
Introduction
Contents
Part I â1âOn that power is distributed from the celestial bodies onto the earth â2âOn that the Moon has 28 places â3âOn that farmers also know the suitable times â¨of actionâ© â4âOn what kind of child the woman gives birth to after the first birth: male or female â5âOn that shepherds have signs concerning the birth of domestic animals
Part II â6âOn that the figure of the heaven is spherical â7âOn the place of the fixed stars and the kind of thing observed from them and from the planets â8âOn the reason why they are called fixed, tropical, and bicorporeal signs â9âOn the reasons for the masculine and feminine signs
Part III â10âOn that the Sun is responsible for generation and corruption â11âOn why the Sun was assigned to the middle belt â12âOn that the Moon participates with the Sun in generations and corruptions â13âOn the actions of the Moon
Part IV â14âOn the natures of the seven planets âAâOn natures of the planets and their fortune and misfortune âBâOn their mixture âCâOn the diurnal and nocturnal planets
Part V âDâOn the reason for the planets having lordship over the signs âEâOn exaltations â15âOn terms â16âOn masculine and feminine degrees â17âOn bright, dusky, dark, and empty degrees â18âOn fortunate degrees
Part VI â19âOn the signs that love or hate each other, are straight-rising and crooked, and are commanding and obeying â20âOn the signs that have sympathy for each other, if it happens that they are quartile to each other â21âOn the signs rising with each one of decans â22âOn the climates assigned to each one of the signs â23âOn the signs that move and are at rest â24âOn the signs indicating the conditions of men â25âOn the signs assigned to each part of the body â26âOn the ugly signs, and on the signs showing generosity and large gifts, and those collecting, filling and depleting, those rich and giving and taking â27âOn the signs showing desires of love and diseases â28âOn the signs showing their judgement and moderation â29âOn the signs bearing many children, bearing twins, and being barren â30âOn the voiced, half-voiced, and voiceless signs â31âOn the signs indicating mange, leprosy, spots, itching, baldness, thin beard, and beardlessness â32âOn the signs that bring pains to the eyes and limbs â33âOn the signs that deceive, and are subject to sufferings and worries, and the dark signs â34âOn the signs indicating birds, quadrupeds, fish, and reptiles â35âOn the signs indicating trees and plants â36âOn all the watery and fiery signs, and on the indications of the twelve places â37âOn the fortunate, incorporeal, corporeal, animate and inanimate signs â38âOn the colours of the signs â39âOn the ascending and descending signs, and the long and short signs â40âOn the cause of those â¨planetsâ© that preside over and manage â¨days and hoursâ©
Part VII â41âOn the condition of the planets â42âOn the configuration of the planets toward the Sun â43âOn the places of the horoscope in which the planets have strength â44âOn the latitude of the planets â45âOn the conjunction of the planets â46âOn the configurations of the planets â47âOn the strength and weakness of the planets â48âOn besi
Introduction â1âThe Life and Works of AbÅ« MaÊ¿Å¡ar â2âThe Great Introduction to Astrology â3âThe Manuscripts â4âEditorial Principles â5âBibliography and Abbreviations
Arabic Text and English Translation
Part I â1âOn the starting-point of the book and the seven headings â2âOn the existence of the science of astrology â3âOn the modality of the action of the stars in this world â4âOn the forms, ânaturesâ (elements), composition, and ânaturedâ (products of the elements) â5âOn giving arguments concerning the confirmation of astrology and the refutation of everyone who claims that the starsâ movements have no power, and they have no indication for the things coming to be in this world â6âOn the benefit of the science of astrology, and that foreknowledge of things coming to be in this world from the power of the movements of the stars is very beneficial
Part II â1âOn the number of the stars of the sphere which have rapid or slow movement â2âOn why twelve constellations are considered more suitable for indication than the other constellations of the sphere â3âOn the reason for the number of the signs and that they are twelve, no less and nor more â4âOn the arrangement of the ânaturesâ of the signs â5âOn why one begins with Aries, not the other signs â6âOn the reason for the tropical, fixed, and bicorporeal signs â7âOn the knowledge of the quadrants of the sphere â8âOn the knowledge of the masculine and feminine signs â9âOn the diurnal and nocturnal signs
Part III â1âOn the reason for the astrologersâ use of the seven planets in the indication of general things â2âOn the definition of âastrologyâ and âastrologerâ â3âOn the indication proper to the Sun for moderating atmospheric conditions â4âOn the indication proper to the Moon for the ebb and flow â5âOn the cause of the ebb and flow â6âOn the strength and weakness of the flow â7âThat the Moon is the cause of the ebb and flow â8âOn the difference between the conditions of the seas â9âOn the indication of the Moon for animals, plants, and minerals according to the increase and decrease of its light
Part IV â1âOn the natures of the seven planets, swift in motion, according to Ptolemyâs account â2âOn the natures of the planets and the benefics and malefics among them, according to the account of most of the astrologers â3âOn our refutation of those who claimed that the natures of the planets are known only from their colours â4âOn our establishment of finding the benefics and malefics according to the method of the philosophers â5âOn knowing which planet is benefic and which is malefic â6âOn the difference of the conditions of benefics and malefics, and the change of one of them to the nature of another â7âOn the natures of the planets, their change from one nature to another, and the strength or weakness of their nature which is inherent in them â8âOn the masculinity and femininity of the planets â9âOn the diurnal and nocturnal planets
Part V â1âOn the shares of the planets in the signs â2âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what some astrologers have claimed â3âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what agrees with what Ptolemy says â4âOn the reason for the houses of the planets, according to what agrees with what Hermes says from GÌ£ÄṯīdÄ«mÅ«n â5âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what some astrologers have claimed â6âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what Ptolemy claimed â7âOn the reason for the exaltations of the planets, according to what Hermes says â8âOn the differences in the terms of the planets and their conditions â9âOn the terms of the Egyptians â10âOn the terms of Ptolemy â11âOn the terms of the Chaldeans â12âOn the terms of Asá¹raá¹Å« â13âOn the terms of the Indians â14âOn the lords of the triplicities â15âOn the decans and their lords, according to what agrees with what the scholars of Persia, Babylon, and Egypt say â16âOn the decans and their lords, according to what the Indians said â17âOn the nawbahr of the signs, i.e. a ninth, according to what agrees with what the Indians say â18âOn the dodecatemoria of the signs and the lords of each degree of each sign â19âOn the masculine and feminine degrees â20âOn the bright, dusky, dark, and empty degrees â21âOn the wells of the planets in the signs â22âOn the degrees increasing good fortune
Part VI â1âOn the natures and conditions of the signs, and figures that ascend in their decans â2âOn the rising times of the signs on the equator and in the seven climes according to what Theon maintained â3âOn the aspecting of the degrees of the sphere â4âOn the signs that love each other, that hate each other, that are hostile to each other, that are straight and crooked in rising, and that are obedient and disobedient to each other â5âOn the signs that agree with each other in zone, rising-times, power, and path â6âOn the signs that agree with each other in natural opposition and sextile, and â¨those thatâ© do not aspect each other â7âOn the signs that agree with each other in quartile â8âOn the years, months, days, and hours of the signs â9âOn the indications of the signs for every country and region of the earth â10âOn the signs indicating motion and rest â11âOn the voiced signs, which indicate the nature and conditions of people â12âOn the division of the members of the human body among the signs â13âOn the signs indicating grace and beauty; the signs indicating generosity and liberality; the signs which are united and filled; those which give wealth; those which pour out; and those which seize and take â14âOn the signs indicating lust and diseases â15âOn the signs indicating the chastity and virtue of women â16âOn the signs having many children, twins, few children, and barrenness â17âOn the signs whose members are cut and on the signs having plenty of violence and anger â18âOn the signs indicating the conditions of voices â19âOn the signs indicating mange, leprosy, spots, itching, head scurf, deafness, dumbness, baldness, thinness of beard, beardlessness, and one who has no beard â20âOn the signs indicating faults in the eye â21âOn the signs indicating culture, cajolement, deception, and cunning, the signs of worry, and the dark signs â22âOn the signs indicating the species of birds, and all quadrupeds, beasts of prey, vermin, insects, and aquatic animals â23âOn the signs indicating trees and plants â24âOn the signs indicating different kinds of water and the signs indicating what is produced by fire â25âOn the directions of the signs â26âOn the cardines of the sphere, its quadrants and twelve places, summarizing their indications, and the reason for that â27âOn the quadrants of the sphere related to corporality, spirituality, and other things â28âOn the mixture of the ânaturesâ of the cardines of the horoscope â29âOn the colours of the quadrants of the sphere and of the twelve places â30âOn ascending, descending, long, and short quadrants of the sphere â31âOn the division of the four ânaturesâ among things â32âOn the reason for the quarters of one day and one night and their twenty-four hours â33âOn the lords of the days and the hours
Part VII â1âOn the conditions of the planets in themselves â2âOn the conditions of the planets in respect to the Sun, being in front of it and behind it â3âOn the conditions of the planets in respect to the quarters of the sphere and their places, and the range of the power of their bodies â4âOn the conjunction of the planets with each other and the mixture of their qualities, and which is strongest and weakest among them â5âOn the aspect of the planets to each other and their application and separation, and their other similar conditions that follow that â6âOn the good fortune of the planets and their strength, weakness, and bad fortune, and the corruption of the Moon â7âOn the casting of the rays of the planets according to Ptolemyâs practice â8âOn the knowledge of the years of the fardÄrs of the planets and their greatest, great, middle, and small years â9âOn the natures of the seven planets and their proper indications for existing things
Part VIII â1âOn the reason for extracting the lots â2âOn the classification of the lots and their names â3âOn the lots of the seven planets â4âOn the lots of the twelve places â5âOn the account of the lots which are not mentioned with the seven planets, nor with the lots of the twelve places â6âOn the account of all the lots in summary â7âOn the coincidence of the lots in one position â8âOn the knowledge of the general indications of the lots â9âOn the knowledge of the position of some indications from others
Introduction
Greek Text
Contents
Part I â1âOn that power is distributed from the celestial bodies onto the earth â2âOn that the Moon has 28 places â3âOn that farmers also know the suitable times â¨of actionâ© â4âOn what kind of child the woman gives birth to after the first birth: male or female â5âOn that shepherds have signs concerning the birth of domestic animals
Part II â6âOn that the figure of the heaven is spherical â7âOn the place of the fixed stars and the kind of thing observed from them and from the planets â8âOn the reason why they are called fixed, tropical, and bicorporeal signs â9âOn the reasons for the masculine and feminine signs
Part III â10âOn that the Sun is responsible for generation and corruption â11âOn why the Sun was assigned to the middle belt â12âOn that the Moon participates with the Sun in generations and corruptions â13âOn the actions of the Moon
Part IV â14âOn the natures of the seven planets âAâOn natures of the planets and their fortune and misfortune âBâOn their mixture âCâOn the diurnal and nocturnal planets
Part V âDâOn the reason for the planets having lordship over the signs âEâOn exaltations â15âOn terms â16âOn masculine and feminine degrees â17âOn bright, dusky, dark, and empty degrees â18âOn fortunate degrees
Part VI â19âOn the signs that love or hate each other, are straight-rising and crooked, and are commanding and obeying â20âOn the signs that have sympathy for each other, if it happens that they are quartile to each other â21âOn the signs rising with each one of decans â22âOn the climates assigned to each one of the signs â23âOn the signs that move and are at rest â24âOn the signs indicating the conditions of men â25âOn the signs assigned to each part of the body â26âOn the ugly signs, and on the signs showing generosity and large gifts, and those collecting, filling and depleting, those rich and giving and taking â27âOn the signs showing desires of love and diseases â28âOn the signs showing their judgement and moderation â29âOn the signs bearing many children, bearing twins, and being barren â30âOn the voiced, half-voiced, and voiceless signs â31âOn the signs indicating mange, leprosy, spots, itching, baldness, thin beard, and beardlessness â32âOn the signs that bring pains to the eyes and limbs â33âOn the signs that deceive, and are subject to sufferings and worries, and the dark signs â34âOn the signs indicating birds, quadrupeds, fish, and reptiles â35âOn the signs indicating trees and plants â36âOn all the watery and fiery signs, and on the indications of the twelve places â37âOn the fortunate, incorporeal, corporeal, animate and inanimate signs â38âOn the colours of the signs â39âOn the ascending and descending signs, and the long and short signs â40âOn the cause of those â¨planetsâ© that preside over and manage â¨days and hoursâ©
Part VII â41âOn the condition of the planets â42âOn the configuration of the planets toward the Sun â43âOn the places of the horoscope in which the planets have strength â44âOn the latitude of the planets â45âOn the conjunction of the planets â46âOn the configurations of the planets â47âOn the strength and weakness of the planets â48âOn besi
Historians of astrology and astronomy, Arabic/Islamic science, the transmission of Arabic learning in Europe and the Byzantine Empire.