AL-MAJR?T? ABU ’L-Q?SIM MASLAMA IBN A?MAD AL-FARAD??

(b. Madrid, Spain, second half of the tenth century; d. Córdoba, Spain, ca. 1007)

astronomy.

Little is known of al-Majr?t??’s life. He must have been quite an important personality, for Ibn (Hazm d.1064) mentions him in his T?awq al-?am?ma (“The Ring of the Dove”). It would appear that he early settled in Córdoba where, as a very young man, he studied with a geometrician named ’Abd al-Gh?afir ibn Muhammad; it may also be assumed that he was connected with the group of hellenizing scholars patronized by the Umayyad caliph ‘Abd al-Rahm?an III (A.D. 912–l;961). It is known that he was engaged in making stronomical observations in about A.d. 979; in this period he must have revised the astronomical tables of al-Khw?rizm?. At some later date he also was responsible for making the Ras?’il of the Ikhw?an al-S?af?’ known to Andalusian astronomers. He may in addition have served as court astrologer.

Al-Majr?t?? had several important disciples, whose later dispersion into all the privinces of Spain made his work known throughout the peninsula. One of these, al-Kirm?an? (d. 1066), continued al-Majr?t?’s work in carrying Ikhw?an al-s?af?’s Ras?’il into Zaragoza and to the northern frontier. Another, Abul-Q?sim Asbagh, better known as Ibn al-Sam? (d. 1035), published a two-part treatise of 130 chapters on the construction and use of the astrolabe, as well as some astronomical tables constructed by the Indian methods, and a book, Libro de las láminas de los siete planetas, that was translated into Spanish and incorporated into the Libros del saber de astronomia. Others of al-Majr?t??’s followers were Ab? l’-Q?sim A?mad, nicknamed Ibn al-s?affår (d.1034), whose work on the astrolable is, in its Latin version, attributed to al-Majr?it?? the astrologer Ibn al-Khayy??t? (d. 1055), much praised in the Memoris of the zir?i king ’Abd All?h; al-Zahr?aw?; and Ab? Muslim ibn Khald?n of Seville. Thorugh these men al-Majr?t??i exercised a considerable influence on the work of later scientists.

Of al-Majr?t??’s own works, the actual number is in some dispute. In general, it may be assumed that the magical and alchemical works attributed to him are spurious, especially since Ibn s?å‘id does not refer ton them in his t?abaq?t. The works that may be considered genuine are the Commercial Artihmetic (Mu‘?mal?t), which, according to Ibn Khald?n, dealt with sales, cadaster, and taxes, using arithmetical, geometrical, and algebraic operations, all of which were apparently used without much distinction; the very brief Treatise on the Astrolabe(not to be confused with the longer work by Ibn al-s?aff?r), which treated both the construction and use of that instrument; his adaptation of al-Khw?rizm?’s astronomical tables to the longitude of Córdoba and to the Hijra calendar; his revision of some tables by al-Batt?n? some notes on the theorem of Menelaus; and the lost Tast?h bas?t al-kura,an Arabic translation of Ptolemy’s Planisphaerium, which survives in a Latin version drawn from the Arabic by Hermann of Dalmatia (1143) and in a Hebrew recension (al-Majr?t??’s annotaions to the original are also still extant).

Of the works often—but probably wrongly— attributed to al-Majr?t??, the Rutbat al-?ak?m (“The Rank of the Sage”) was composed after 1009; it is alchemical in nature, and gives formulas and instructions for the purification of precious metals and describes the preparation of mercuric oxide on a quantitative basis. Gh?yat al-?hakim (“The Aim of the wise”) was translated into Spanish in 1256 by order of Alfonso el Sabio; it was widely distributed throughout Europe under the title Picatrix (a corruption of Buq?t?is = Hippocrates), and is a compendium of magic, cosmology, astrological practice, and esoteric wisdom in general. As such, it provides the most complete picture of superstitions current in eleventh-century Islam. Also attributed to al-Majr?t? are various opuscules which are in fact extracts, including passages on zoology and alchemy, from the Ras?’il of the Ikhw?n al-Saf?’, or have a certain relationship with these Ras?’ (like the Ris?lat al j?m?’a).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Al-Majr?t??’s writings and those spurious works attributed to him are catalogued in Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, I (Weimar, 1898), 243, and supp. I (Leiden, 1937), 431.

Of the genuine works, theTreatise on the Astrolabe is edited and translated, with commentary, in J. Vernet and M.A. Catalá, “Las obras matemáticas de Maslama de Madrid,” in Al-Andalus, 30 (1965), 15–45; see ibid., pp. 46–47, an analysis of the position of the fixed stars by M. A. Catalá. Recent publications of the spurious works include Hellmut Ritter, ed.,Gh?yat al-hakim (Leipzig, 1933), and German trans. with Martin Plessner as “Picatrix.” Das Ziehl des Weisen von Pseudo-Mab`riti(London, 1962); and Jamil Saliba, ed., Ris?la al-jam?’a(Damascus, 1948), which provides a good illustration of eleventh-century Ism?’ili propaganda.

II. Secondary Literature. On al-Majr?t??’s revision of al-Kw?rizmi’s tables, see G. J. Toomer, in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, VII, 360–361; see also Axel Björnbo and H. Suter, Thabits Werke über den Transversalensatz (liber de figura sectore), (Erlangen, 1924), 23,79, and 83. On the works probably falsely attributed to him, see E. J. Holmyard, “Maslama al-Majr?t? and the Rutbat and bibliography related to it, see the index by Willy Hartner, Oriens, Occidens (Hildesheim, 1968).

Supplementary material may be found in J. A. Sánchez Pérez, Biografias de matemáticos á,rabes que florecieron en Espan¯a (Madrid, 1921), no.84; George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, I (Baltimore, 1927), 668–669; and H. Suter, Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber und ihre Werke (Leipzig, 1900), 176.

Juan Vernet