The Astrology Book

tained in the Vatican.... Mashalla says, “I have determined that the
ancient sages present ambiguities as to certain fundamental doc-
trines of astronomy and that these wisemen wrote a considerable
number of books. From this it follows that the mind of him who
reads them is quite confused. Therefore I have published this book
in which I have brought forward the uncontested points and the
best doctrines of these treatises, with the help of the books of Ptole-
my and Hermes, those great sages of an infinite science, and was
also assisted by books which my predecessors left as a heritage to
their sons.”
Those who published these books are the following: Hermes published
24 books: of these 16 are about genethliology; five on consultations;
two on the degrees; and one on the art of calculation. Then follows
Plato, Dorotheus, Democritus, Aristotle, Antiochus (of Athens), (Vet-
tius) Valens, Eratosthenes....
Mashalla concludes, “Such are the books which find themselves in our
hands today, and on the subject of which, as I have said, I have brought
forward (certain ones), in order that you may know that I have taken
great care in publishing this book, which you see here as I have made it
in four treatises, the synthesis of the aforementioned books.”
Masha’allah’s importance to astrologers consists in his having edited, and
therefore purged, and standardized the Hermetic astrological literature of his day. He
also established practical techniques that influenced subsequent astrologers. The Al-
Mudsakaret (or Memorabilia) of Abu Sa’id Schadsan, a student of Abu ̄ Ma‘shar’s who
recorded his teachers answers and astrological deeds, told of Abu ̄ Ma‘shar’s confession
to using a number of Masha’allah’s methods.

Masha’allah’s practices and theory of astrology greatly influenced Avraham Ibn
Ezra (1092–1167), the famous Jewish biblical exegete and astrologer whose astrologi-
cal works influenced Peter of Abano (1250–1316) and others. Ibn Ezra translated two
of Masha’allah’s astrological works, Book of Astrological Questionsand Eclipses,from
Arabic into Hebrew.

—Robert Zoller

Sources:
Al-Biruni. The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology.Trans. by R. Ramsay
Wright. London: Luzac & Co., 1934.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “Geoffrey Chaucer’s Treatise on the Astrolabe.” In The Works of Geoffrey
Chaucer.2d ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1933.
Dorotheus of Sidon. Dorothei Sidonii Carmen astrologicum: interpretationem Arabicam in linguam
Anglicam versam una cum Dorothei fragmentis et Graecis et Latinis.Edited by David Pingree.
Leipzig: BSB Teubner, 1976.
Festugière, A. J. L’Astrologie et La Science Occulte.3d ed. Paris: Librairie LeCoffre, 1950.
Ibn Ezra, Avraham. Abrahe Avenaris judei astrologi peritissimi in re iudiciali opera: ab excellentisimo
philosopho Petro de Abano post accuratem castigationem in latinem traducta.Venice: 1507.

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