Qatar Digital Library

Sahl ibn Bishr and the Rise of Astrology in Abbasid Times

Author

Prof. Julio Samso

Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, The University of Barcelona

Themes

Arabic Manuscripts
Sciences and Medicine
Astrology was considered a scientific discipline in the Middle Ages, when political powers patronised astronomical research
that was considered necessary for obtaining scientific astrological predictions.

Sahl ibn Bishr (fl. 205 AH/AD 821235 AH/AD 850) was an astrologer and mathematician at the service of the governor of
the Khursn hir ibn al-usayn al-Awar (205/821207/822) and who later served al-asan ibn Sahl (died 236/ 8501)
secretary and governor of caliph al-Mamn (198/813218/833). This implies that he was in Baghdad during the great
programme of astronomical research patronised by al-Mamn and when the interest in astrology, which had begun under al-
Manr (136/754158/775), reached its apex.
 Horoscope with planetary positions corresponding to about 3am, 4 July 824 in Baghdad (Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library, Yale University, Arabic MSS 523, f. 50a)

Sahl ibn Bishr

Little information about Sahl survives; we only know that he was a Jew who converted to Islam. All his extant works are
astrological and, according to a list provided by Ibn al-Nadm in 377/977-78, they dealt with all branches of astrology:
nativity horoscopes (Kitb al-mawld al-kabr and al-aghr), anniversaries of nativities (Kitb tawl sin al-mawld),
elections (Kitb al-ikhtiyrt), interrogations (Kitb al-masil al-kabr), world astrology (Kitb tawl sin al-lam),
astrological meteorology (Kitb al-amr wa l-riy) and so on. These materials were probably summarised in his Kitb al-
madkhal al-kabr and al-aghr. We know his works reached al-Andalus around 338/950 because they are quoted in the
Ghyat al-akm (Picatrix), and they were translated into Latin by an anonymous translator of the twelfth century, as well as
into Byzantine Greek. A Latin corpus of his writings, in which his name appears as Zael/Zahel/Zahel Benbriz, is extant in
about fifty-five manuscripts and in seven printed editions dated between AD 1484 and 1551.

Sahls Treatise on Interrogations (masil)

The work preserved in the British Library manuscript Or. 12802 bears no title, although another copy at Yale (Arabic MSS
523) is entitled Kitb f ilm al-falak wa l-burj wa l-akm al falakiyya al l-tamm wa l-kaml (a book which deals
exhaustively with astronomy, the zodiacal signs and astrological predictions). This kind of astrological book would have
been designed for the upper classes of society, and differed from the more popular kind of texts used by astrologers who
worked in the city markets.
 Beginning of technical data relating to the horoscope in the previous image, without the diagram. Or. 12802, f.
14r

It has two clear parts: the first is an introduction dealing with the zodiacal signs (the twelve houses of the horoscope) and
sixteen lt, which analyse the conditions of a planet in relation to the others in the same horoscope. These horoscopes are
often related to the second part, on interrogations. An interrogation (masla), is an astrological technique consisting of
casting a horoscope of the moment, in which a question is addressed to the astrologer who will try to answer it. The
moment is important because a horoscope depends on two variables: time (the moment for which the horoscope is cast) and
place (the local latitude). Interrogations formed the main topic of the rest of the book and they are classified according to the
twelve houses of the horoscope, each one of them having a specialised field of interest. There is also an appendix dealing
with topics unrelated to the houses. These kind of texts as well as treatises on elections (ikhtiyrt), which try to choose a
propitious moment for undertaking a particular activity have an obvious interest for social historians because they give
information about the kind of problems that concerned people of that time.
 The same horoscope as in the first image, from the Latin translation of Sahl ibn Bishrs text, De
interrogationibus. Harley MS 5402, f. 28v

Sahls Legacy
The work of Sahl ibn Bishr is a clear example of the interest shown in astrology during part of the Abbasid period
(second/eighthfourth/tenth centuries), probably due to Persian influence. His treatise on interrogations only mentions by
name the authority of another Jewish astrologer, Mshallh (died c. 200/8156), but it has been proven that it uses the
Pentateuch of Dorotheus of Sidon, translated from Pahlevi by Umar ibn Farrukhn al-abar (died 200/ 8156). The
patronage of the Abbasid rulers reveals that they were keenly interested in knowing the future, and Sahl is representative of
the astrologers who worked in the circles of power at that time. Sahls works were later translated into Latin and underwent
a remarkable diffusion in Western Europe.

Primary Sources
Sahl ibn Bishr, Kitb al-akm al al-nisbah al-falakyah (British Library, Or. 12802)
Sahl ibn Bishr, De interrogationibus (British Library, Harley MS 5402, ff. 26v-54v)
Sahl ibn Bishr, Kitb f ilm al-falak wa l-burj wa l-akm al falakiyya al l-tamm wa l-kaml (Yale University
Library, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Arabic MSS 523, ff. 16r-121v)
Muammad ibn Isq al-Nadm, Fihrist, ed. By Gustav Flgel. 2 vols (Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, 1871-72), p. 274

Secondary Sources
Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabischen Schrifttums. Band VII: Astrologie Meteorologie und Verwandtes bis ca. 430
H. (Leiden: Brill, 1979), pp. 125-128
Victor Stegemann, Dorotheos von Sidon und das sogennante Introductorium des Sahl ibn Bir [With selected passages
from the Introductorium in Arabic, a German translation, and the corresponding parts in the Latin and Byzantine
translations]. (Prag: Druckerei des Protektorates Bhmen und Mhren in Prag, 1942), pp. 15-16
Francis James Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation. A Critical Bibliography
(Berkeley-Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1956), p. 41

Astrology--Early works to 1800 Treaties

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