Sources:
Leo, Alan. The Complete Dictionary of Astrology.Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1989.
Tester, Jim. A History of Western Astrology.New York: Ballantine, 1987.MASHA’ALLAH
Masha’allah (c. 740–815), known to the Latin writers of the Middle Ages under a
number of corruptions of that name, among which Messahalla is most common, was
an Egyptian Jew who lived and worked in Basra. He practiced the astrological art in
the context of Islamic society during the golden age of Arabic astrology. Because of
their superior astronomical and astrological skills, he and the Persian Al-Naubakht
were selected to elect the time for the founding of the new city of Baghdad in 762,
which the caliph Al-Mansur intended as a kind of Muslim Rome—the centerpiece of
Islamic high culture.
Masha’allah wrote the first treatise on the astrolabe in Arabic. It was later
translated into Latin as De Astrolabii Compositione et Utilitateand formed the basis for
Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise on the Astrolabe.Masha’allah’s astrological writings
include On Conjunctions, Religions and Peoples,which deals with mundane astrology
(i.e.,the astrology of world events). This treatise does not survive intact, but it has
been preserved in works of the Christian astrologer Ibn Hibinta (c. 900–950). The
influence of the Hellenistic/Phoenician astrologer Dorotheus (first century C.E.) on
Masha’allah was significant.
Masha’allah also wrote Liber Messahallae de revoltione liber annorum mundi,a
work on revolutions (the modern term is “Ingresses of the Sun into the cardinal
signs”), and De rebus eclipsium et de conjunctionibus planetarum in revolutionibus annorm
mundi,a work on eclipses. His work on nativities, with the Arabic title Kitab al-
Mawalid,has been partially translated into English from a Latin translation of the
Arabic by James H. Holden in his Abu ‘Ali al-Khayyat—The Judgment of Nativities.His
other works include Book of Astrological Questionsand On Conjunctions,which treats
the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions and their role in mundane (political, religious, mili-
tary, and meteorological) matters.
Apart from relying on Dorotheus, Masha’allah repeatedly quotes Hermes.
His astrology is wholly traditional and not scientific in the modern sense. For
instance, his work bears little similarity to that of the Persian Al-Biruni, whose
organization of material is orderly, rational, and pleasing to a modern mind. More-
over, Al-Biruni’s pedagogical approach is systematic. He gives a thorough outline of
the mathematics necessary for practicing astronomy and astrology. Masha’allah, like
most medieval astrological authors, regardless of their origin, does nothing more
than discuss the practical facts of astrological procedure. Nor does he provide the
reader with any theory of astrology as Ptolemy does in Tetrabiblos.It is likely that
Masha’allah, like Al-Kindi (who died c. 870) and Abu ̄ Ma‘shar (787–886), had
direct contact with the Hermetic cult at Harran (later known as the Sabaeans).
According to A. J. Festugière:
That Mashalla had at his disposal a great number of Hermetic or
pseudo-Hermetic works is ascertained by a short Greek extract con-Masha’allah
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