ASTROLOGIA MUNDA - Classical Astrologer Weblog

Book IV – Astrologia Munda
Appendix VIII
recovered a great deal of Māshā´allāh’s book, On Conjunctions, Religions and
Peoples embedded within the text of a Christian astrologer named Ibn Hibintā. 1
The text is the source of the material for the book by E.S. Kennedy and David
Pingree called, The Historical History of Māshā’allāh; in that text, 17 charts
and their delineation are given from Māshā´allāh. All of them are charts of the
Great Conjunctions indicating the rise and fall of dynasties and governments
but none of them are cast «in the hour of the conjunction». Every single one of
them is cast at the Sun's ingress into Aries for the year the Conjunction occurs!
Do you see the dilemma? Why is Māshā´allāh reported to have said one thing
in one text but demonstrates something quite contrary in another?
This obvious discrepancy is also a subject of Professor Benjamin Dykes in the
introduction to his translation of the Latin Text attributed to Abu Ma’shār
called, Flores Albumasaris. In that introduction he writes,
«We do not know who actually arranged the material for the Flores. It purports to consist of
excerpts from the works of the renowned medieval Arab astrologer, Abu Ma’shār (787 – 886). The
book opens with the introduction of an alleged quote (“Abu Ma’shār said…”), and in several
places, the text switches to the first person, even apparently alluding to other books Abu Ma’shār
wrote. The impression, then, is that one is reading the words of Abu Ma’shār’s own work on
mundane astrology, On the Great Conjunctions (OCG), or perhaps his so-called Greater
Introduction to Astrology.
But very few of the passages are Latin translations of Abu Ma’shār’s Arabic, and still less do they
replicate John of Spain’s own Latin translation of OCG (1133). There are close parallels, and
sometimes exact quotes; but some passages offer only a gist of their source passages; several
directly contradict them; others pick out some phrases but add additional ones; and some, like the
list of fixed stars and instructions on using them, bear no relation to OCG or the Great Introduction
at all. From this we can conclude that while the Flores faithfully reflects many of Abu Ma’shār’s
views, and perhaps consists partly of excerpts from his work on nativities (see §§ 5 – 6), it was at
least partly authored by someone else.» 2
Ben Dykes further concludes,
1
Ibn Hibintā was a Christian Astrologer who flourished in Baghdad shortly after the death of
Māshā´allāh in the 9th century (ca 852 C.E.) His account of what Māshā´allāh taught is therefore
current and Pingree is of the opinion very trustworthy.
2
The Author of Flores, from Benjamin Dykes introduction of the Latin translation of Flores
Albumasaris
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