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- Al-Biruni, Abu'l-Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad, Trans. R.
Ramsay Wright The Book of Instruction in the Elements of
the Art of Astrology (London,1934).
The most complete text we have of arab astrology by a practicing
professional, who was also a distinguished, mathamatician,
geographer, geometer, ethnographer etc. Al-Biruni is the
Arabic equivalent of C. Ptolemy and knew a great deal about
the late hellenistic world, the worlds of Persia and India,
and especially Indian science; and dabbled in philosophy
in a serious way. The Book of Instruction is the most complete
arabic astrological manual that we have available in English.
See the various other entries on Al-Biruni for more information
about this man.
- Al-Biruni, India ed Edward Sachau, (Lahore, West Pakistan,
1962).
This is Al-Biruni's most celebrated work. It is a geographic,
historical, ethnographic, and scientific review of the condition
of India in Al-Biruni's time. There is a great deal of useful
astrological information in it, as well as other important
things. Al-Biruni's dates are given on the Library of Congress
card, as 973 A.D.-1048 A.D. This book is still used as a
reference book on Indian civilization.
- Al-Biruni,The Determination of the Co-ordinates of Cities,
Al-Biruni's Tahdid al Amakin, trans. Jamil Ali, (Beirut,Lebanon,
The American University of Beirut, 1967).
I have not seen this publication, but it is the work of
Al-Biruni on which E.S.Kennedy's Commentary is based.
- Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum ed David Pingree
(Leipzig, B.G.Teubner, 1967).
This is a publication of an arabic text of the Carmen Astrologicum
collated with the existing greek fragments, and translated
by David Pingree. As part of the Teubner Library it is probably
the authoritative text. Hellenistic astrology is my term
for what Tester calls Byzantine astrology. I like it because
it allows us to distinguish between the astrology of the
classical (stoic?) period (ie C. Ptolemy) and the somewhat
different astrologers of Syria, separated not so much in
time, as in cultural characteristics, less "scientific",
more inclined to pseudepigrapha, to "revelations", to post
neoplatonic mysticism and magic, and so forth. It is important
to note that Dorotheus of Sidon was an almost exact contemporary
of Jesus of Nazareth in the same part of the world. Beirut
is only about 147 miles from Jerusalem.
- Ibn Ezra, Abraham The Beginning of Wisdom, eds Raphael
Levy and Francisco Cantera, (Baltimore MD, The Johns Hopkins
Press, 1939).
A seminal work for Renaissance astrology. In some ways a
typical example, though far from the key one, of the transmission
of arabic astrological methods to medieval/renaissance europe.
Ibn Ezra was Jewish, and in another department of his life,
a distinguished commentator on the scriptures, who left
an enduring legacy as an exegete. He lived in Spain, an
example of "Moorish" transmission of arab culture to the
west.
- Kennedy, E. S. A Commentary upon Biruni's Kitab Tahdid
Al-Amakin (Beirut, Lebanoon, American University of Beirut,
1973).
A valuable commentary on a major geographic, mathematical,
and spherical trigonometric work by Al-Biruni. No direct,
or very little, direct relevance to astrology, but it explores
several collatereal areas of great importance. For pertinent
insight into how the arabic scientific mind worked, it is
very important. For text see Al-Biruni .
- Masha'allah The Astrological History: On Conjunctions,
Religions, and Peoples, in the version of Ibn Hibinta eds.
E.S.Kennedy and David Pingree, (Cambridge MA, Harvard University
Press, 1971).
No text of Masha'allah's work has survived, but the Ibn
Hibinta text is close, and for the general argument suffices.
This work comprises not only a text, and translation of
the Ibn Hibinta version, but also a most valuable commentary
on the whole subject of arabic (islamic cultural, Ibn Hibinta
was a Christian Arab, Masha'allah was Jewish) mundane astrololgical
contextural theories. Deals with such things as the development
of historical periodization, the attribution of astrological
knowledge to pre-deluge figures, or other pseudepigraphic
sorts of attributions. Very important for the transmission
of late hellenistic cultural phenomena into European and
Indian cultures, as well as an important source for various
occult theories in our own time. (ie Hermes Trismegistus
as the Ur-astrologer.) It also records many particular interpretive
methods of Islamic cluture area mundane astrology, particularly
an emphasis on the exhaltation of the plants in addition
to, or even instead of the usual rulerships.
- Nasr, Seyyed Hossein,An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological
Doctrines (Boulder, Colorado, Shambala, 1978).
This is a study of various arabic sources, from the peak
period of arabic scientific and mathamatical writing, which
explores not only the cosmological doctrines which were
held, but the philisophical and religious implications of
those doctrines. A valuable background study. Heavy focus
on Al-Biruni, and decent chapter on Astrology. Other arabic
savants discussed include, Ikhwan Al-Safa, and Ibn Sina.
- Pingree, David The Thousands of Abu Mashar (London, The
Warburg Institute,1968).
This is not a text of the Abu Mashar work, but rather a
commentary on its sources, and dating, by a most distinguished
historian of science. In the absence of an English translation
this will have to do. The work duplicates much of the subject
matter of the Astrological History of Masha'allah, with
same characteristics of transmitting late hellenistic ideas,
pseudepigraphic habits, and romanticizing rewrites of history
to fit into vast schemes of periodization, all of which
leads to India and the Yogas and other Indian mythological
perodizations. Given the Hellenistic background, some questions
about relations to the gnostics with their Aeons and so
forth should also be raised.
- Sphujidhavaja The Yavanajataka ,ed David Pingree 2 Vols,
(Cambridge, MA,Harvard University Press,1987).
The title means "The Horoscopy of the Greeks". This book
contains the text, a most excellent translation, and a superb
commentary on this seminal and transitional work of Hindu
Astrology. It demonstrates absolutly the origins of this
art in the teaching of the hellenistic astrologers of the
late classical period in the mediterranian basin. If we
take the Carmen Astrologicum of Dorotheus of Sidon as a
good example of where hellenistic astrology was at the beginning
of this cultural transmision, and perhaps Al-Biruni's Book
of Instruction as a central position on its trajectory,
the landing place has to be this work of Sphujidhavaja's.
Hence it is listed as contributing to our understanding
of arabic astrology as well as indian, simply because arabic
astrology occupies the middle of the arc of transmission.
The emblem Pingree has chosen for vol I nails down the intellectual
dependence. It is by Varahamihira, the father of Indian
Astrology, "For although the Greeks are barbarians, they
have brought this science to perfection, and so are honored
as sages; how much more honorable, then, is an astrologer
who is a Brahmana!" Brhatsamhita 2, 14
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