Maimonides in His World. Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker

146 CHAPTER FIVE

association of hadhayan with non- Aristotelian systems of thought and to
its use as a pointer to such systems.
I have found no clear instances of a similar use of the term in the writ-
ings of Maimonides’ pre decessors. Avicenna’s Epistle Against Astrology
is a case in point.^102 He presents the epistle as an innovative work that he
decided to write because “no one had written anything of the sort, that is
to say, a refutation of astrology.”^103 For Avicenna, astrology is one of the
pseudo-sciences, among which he counts divination of all sorts and al-
chemy of the kind that he explicitly associates with the names of Jabir b.
Hayyan and Abu Bakr al- Razi.^104 He regards these “sciences” as unde-
serving of refutation, because their futility should be obvious to anyone
with a modicum of intelligence and scientifi c education (man lahu adna
ma
rifa bil-
ulum). As Avicenna repeatedly states, what characterizes
such a pseudo- science is the fact that it is not based on any evidence.
He says:

The proponents of astrology composed many books about it, but

there is no evidence to prove what they wrote, and no logical argu-

ment testifi es to its soundness.... Neither their books nor the books

which serve as their sources contain any proof (hujja) whatsoever

for their claim. Rather, this is a senseless saying (qawl khuraf) which

they invented out of their own heads, and they adopted it blindly,

without any logical argument (min ghayr burhan wa- la qiyas).^105

Avicenna repeats this evaluation: “All the things on which they rely and
which they state have no sound basis, nor does this have any proof or
evidence. Rather, it is a senseless^106 statement. One should know that
everything they say about the decree of the stars resembles what women
say about divination by casting lots.”^107 Avicenna insists on the differ-
ence between this kind of book and truly scientifi c books like Ptolemy’s
Almagest, which is based on experimental observation and geometrical
proofs.^108
According to Avicenna, the inclination of human beings to astrology is
to be explained chiefl y by their natural laziness and desire to achievethings
without toil. People may wish to see distant places, but they are loath to
undertake the diffi cult journey that this would require. Therefore, he says,

(^102) Ibn Sina,Risala fi ibtal ahkam al- nujum, Rasail Ibn Sina, ed. Hilmi Ziya Ülken (Istan-
bul, 1953), ii, 49– 67; Y. Michot, Avicenne, Réfutation de l’astrologie (Beirut, 2006).
(^103) Ibid., 50.
(^104) Ibid., 50:16 and 51:15.
(^105) Ibid., 52:8– 20.
(^106) Readingkhuraf instead of juraf.
(^107) Ibid., 61:20– 23.
(^108) Ibid., 60.