The Library

Albumasar in Sadan
​c. 890 CE

NOTE

The medieval text conventionally known as Albumasar in Sadan, but more properly the Mudhākarāt Abī Maʿshar fī asrār ʿilm al-nujūm or Sayings of Abū Maʿshar on the Secrets of Astrology, composed in the second half of the ninth century CE, with tenth century additions, is presented as a collection of answers that the great astrologer Abū Maʿshar (787-886 CE) gave to various questions, as recorded by his student Abū Sa‘īd Shādhān ibn Baḥr. The text exists in three versions: Arabic, Greek, and Latin, each in several variants. None is complete in itself, with the two Arabic recensions differing in length and content, the surviving Greek representing only about half the text, and the two Latin translations (one fragmentary) made from different source texts, one Greek and the other possibly a Hebrew intermediary, as Charles Burnett suggested. But together they overlap sufficiently to provide the (presumably) complete original account.
 
David Pingree explored the complexities of the texts’ interrelationships in 2003, but this is beyond my scope here. Within all three versions of the text is an unusual passage in which Abū Maʿshar presents a list of astrological texts that the common people cannot read. In the Arabic version, he says they are to be “found in the libraries of kings and in the possession of great men,” and are different from the everyday astrological texts “generally known and found in the hands of the people” (trans. Franz Rosenthal). However, when the Arabic was translated into Greek, they were incorrectly translated as “forbidden” books kept hidden in a palace. Consequently, the mistranslation helped give rise to the notion of forbidden mystical texts and dangerous occult volumes that were unsafe to read.
 
Franz Cumont, who published the Greek text, did not have access to the Arabic and therefore concluded, likely incorrectly, that list referred to the occult collection of the Byzantine imperial library in Constantinople, which seems manifestly incorrect given that most of the texts are Islamic. David Pingree, who worked first from the Latin text and later the Arabic, suggested at one point that the list was an index of tomes in Baghdad’s famed House of Wisdom, and at another point that they may have been a catalog of astrology books from a Persian or Syriac index. Nearly all of the books listed are either lost, unknown, or possibly invented.
 
Below, I present the three versions of the text, including my translations of the Greek text and the Latin text, as well as Franz Rosenthal’s list of the Arabic books mentioned. 

THE ARABIC TEXT

Because his 1963 article is still under copyright, I have listed only the book titles and authors Franz Rosenthal provided, without the scholarly apparatus that accompanied his article. He did not provide a translation of the introductory paragraph, only the excerpts quoted above. David Pingree had promised a full critical edition of the Arabic text, but this was not completed at the time of his death, and no complete edition has yet been published.

1. The Book of Alexander.
2. The Book of Stephanos.
3. The Book of Aristotle.
4. The Book of Theophilos, the son of Thomas.
5. The Book of al-Balkhî the Dragoman.
6. The Book of Jâmâsp.
7. A book by Khâlid al-Umawî
8. The book [by] Isḥâq b. Sulaymân, that is the Abû Qumâsh.
9. The Book of Experiences (al-Tajârib) by Yaḥyâ b. Khâlid b. Barmak.
10. The Book of Retrogression and Dejection (ar-RujIû‘ wa-l-hubûṭ) by Yaḥyâ b. Abî Manṣûr.
11. The Book of Ibn Musâfir al-Yamanî.
12. The Book of the Uses of the Stars with respect to Talismans (Manâfi‘ an-nujûm fî ṭ-ṭilasmât), an anonymous work of the Bâbakites (?).
13. The Book of Zoroaster (Zarâdusht) on The Paranatellonta of the Various Degrees of the Firmament (Fî Ṣuwar daraj al-falak), a big and correct work.
14. The Book of the Secrets (al-Asrâr) by Hermes.
15. The Book of al-Ḥarrânî, which is found in the possession of the Jews.
16. The Book of (Hip)parchos the Babylonian, on The Secrets of the Stars (Asrâr an-nujûm), dealing with dynasties, royal authority (?), kings, and predictions (malâḥim).
17. The Book of the Commentary by the Persians.
18. The Book of Good Qualities (al-Maḥâsin [?]) by Muḥammad b. ‘Abdallâh b. Ṭâhir, which contains many lies.
19. The Paranatellonta (aṣ-Ṣuwar) by Valens (Wâlîs).
20. The Book of the 860 Paranatellonta by the Persians.
21. The Book of the Evil and Auspicious Constellations (al-Manâḥis wa-s-sa‘âdât) by Sind b. ‘Alî.
22. The Book of the Exposition of the Hidden and Concealed (Istikhrâj al-khafî wa-ḍ-ḍamir) by Mâshâllâh.
23. The Book of Statements (al-Maqâlât) by Ibn Ṭâriq, which contains the horoscopes (ma- wâlîd) of caliphs and kings as well as the ascendants (ṭawâlî‘) for the time of the installation in office (qu‘ûd) of those whose birthday is not known.

Source: Franz Rosenthal, “From Arabic Books and Manuscripts X,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 83, no. 4 (1963): 455-456.

THE GREEK TEXT

The Arabic text was translated into Greek by an unknown hand around 1000 CE. That this was a full translation is attested by the second Latin translation, which was evidently made from a version of the Greek text closely related to the surviving sections. Unfortunately, only half of the Greek edition remains. Fortunately, it contains the section on the astrological books. In the Greek translation, the list of books has become “forbidden,” and the translator has changed the text to suggest they are kept hidden in an unnamed palace. The editor of the Greek text, Franz Cumont, writing in 1898, wrongly concluded that these were secret books locked in the Teradision, the legendary academic center of the early Byzantine Empire. Cumont’s introduction and the Greek text are below, along with a selection of Cumont’s notes. Following Greek convention, Abū Maʿshar is rendered as Apomasar, and his book is described as apotelesmatic, an antiquated term for the casting of horoscopes.

From the apotelesmatic book of Apomasar (885 A.D.)

If I am not mistaken, we have here a fragment of the index of prohibited books from the Byzantine age, namely, of books preserved in the imperial palace library at Constantinople (cf. Richter, Quellen der byz. Kunstgesch., 1897, p. 411).* It is scarcely to be thought that this comes from the library of the Caliphs of Baghdad, for this apotelesmatic collection that bears the name of Apomasar is partly of later compilation among the Greeks. For if one were to believe this book, Apomasar wrote wondrous things of future divination of astrologers who lived after his death, naming them beforehand.
 
Accordingly, from the codices that were extant in the palace at Constantinople, some (the “common” ones, τὰ κοινά) were lent out to anyone who asked, but others (the “forbidden” ones, τὰ κωλυόμενα) could not be read. From the catalog of these works, the titles that pertain to his discipline were excerpted by a certain soothsayer of that time. What time that was cannot be precisely defined, and since many works are attributed to Apomasar, it is better to refrain from conjecture until they have been published with an interpreter. The latest possible limit, however, is the tenth century in which Isaac ben Solomon lived, and the year 1388, when the Angevin codex was copied.
 
It is nonetheless remarkable—if the matter really stands so—that many works translated from Oriental languages, or at least attributed to Eastern writers, should have been found in the emperors’ palace; and it is possible that this index pertains to a certain Arabic library, where writings of Stephanus Alexandrinus, Pseudo-Aristotle, Palchus, Hermes, Valens, translated into Greek and into the vernacular, were preserved. For names which were otherwise known to us, we have added a note, in order to compare at least something from the most ancient catalogue of manuscripts rightly judged, and we commend the rest to those more skilled in Semitic letters.

—Franz Cumont

On the books once kept in the palace, mathematical and not given out.

The same man (i.e. Apomasar) says that the apotelesmatic books kept in the palace and not given out for anyone’s reading, but forbidden, are these:

• The apotelesmatic book of Stephen of Alexandria.
• [That] of Aristotle. [1]
• [That] of Theophilus the son of Thomas. [2]
• The book of the interpreter Palchos. [3]
• The book of Chamāsou. [4]
• The book of Chalek.
• The book of Isaac son of Solomon. [5]
• The book of John son of Khalet.
• The book on commerce.
• The book of John son of Mousour concerning retrogradations and depressions.
• The book from Arabia Felix.
• The book containing the influences of the stars, in the verses of a certain Babylonian, unnamed.
• The book of Arṭāseph (Ardaseph), containing the co-risings of each degree, and found true through experiments.
• The book of the Mysteries of Hermes. [6]
• The book of Charanitus, which is found among the Hebrews. [7]
• The book of Phares the Babylonian.
• The book concerning the mysteries of astronomy.
• The book of Valens on the co-risings of each degree. [8]
• The book of Massalla on exact meditations. [9]

These are the forbidden books. The rest of the apotelesmatic ones are common.

Franz Cumont’s notes

1. Many Pseudo-Aristotelian fragments were preserved in Latin translation in a book edited by Peter Lichtenstein, entitled Judicium in indicis astrorum novem liber, Basel 1571, printed together with Albohazen and published separately. (note from Franz Boll.)
2. Theophilus of Edessa, son of Thomas.
3. The Book of Palchos is the same one, without doubt, which is preserved in cod. 11, fol. 193 ff. Why he is called its ἐρμηνευτής (interpreter), I do not quite understand. [Cumont was likely wrong, as the Arabic is al-Balkhî.]
4. “Chamasus” seems to be no other than Hamza of Isfahan (Hamza ibn al-Hasan al-Isfahani), who around the year 961 A.D. wrote a very well-known history (Hamzae Ispahanensis annalium libri V, ed. Gottwaldt 1844, etc.). For he was also an investigator and expert in astronomy and in reckoning of times (cf. al-Bīrūnī, Chronology of Ancient Nations, ed. Sachau, 1879, p. 61 ff. and passim).​
5. Isaac ben Solomon Israeli, philosopher and physician, died around A.D. 950, and in the Middle Ages was also very celebrated among Western peoples (cf. Steinschneider, Die hebräischen Übersetzer des Mittelalters, I, p. 223 s. [p. 338], and p. 479 s. [§ 755 ff.]). Although he did not shy away from mystical doctrines (Steinschneider, § 227), nevertheless he does not appear to have pursued astrology. [Rosenthal identifies him instead as the governor of Hijaz under Hārūn al-Rāshīd a century earlier.]
6. Which book of Hermes Trismegistus is meant by this designation is uncertain.
7. Perhaps it concerns some astrological book of the Sabians of Harran, translated into Hebrew (cf. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, I, p. 715; II, p. 464: “Book of the Harranites”). 
8. About the astrologer Vettius Valens (120-c. 175 CE) we will not say much further.
9. Masala, or rather Mashallah al-Misri, who lived in the times of the caliphs al-Mansur and al-Ma’mun.

Source: Alexander Olivieri (ed.), Codices Florentinos (Brussels: Henri Lamertin, 1898), 83-84.

Notes
* The passage is a translation of an anonymous Greek manuscript in the collection published by Anselmo Banduri, which I give here in English: “The Tetradision is an octagon, in which there are eight halls or vaulted chambers, and there the sages of the world assembled, and the emperors of the time allowed themselves to be advised by them and did nothing without them. From among them came forth the patriarchs and the bishops. But it was located near the basilica and existed for 414 years, until the 10th year of Leo the Isaurian, the Kaballinos (727 CE). … Because the monks did not approve of his foolish command … he burned it down together with the 16 monks who were inside” (translated from Jean-Paul Richter, Quellen der byzantinischen kunstgeschichte [Vienna: Verlag von Carl Graeser, 1897], 411).

THE LATIN TEXT

The text was twice translated into Latin, once in the twelfth century, possibly from a Hebrew version, and then again in the fourteenth century, from the Greek version. The first translation survives only in fragments, while the latter survives in full across manuscripts copied into the fifteenth century, though with the usual corruptions and errors over time. Graziella Federici Vescovini published a critical edition based on a survey of the manuscripts in 1998, where this passage is numbered 25. Below, I have translated the specific manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France used by the infamous French astrologer Simon de Phares in his defense of astrology, the Recueil des plus célèbres astrologues et quelques hommes doctes, published in the 1490s and representative of the late version of the text known to and used by occult writers in the Renaissance and after. In Latin, Abū Maʿshar is rendered as Albumasar.

25. He (i.e. Albumasar) says likewise that the books of judicial astrology kept in the palace, which are not given to anyone to read but are concealed, are these: the books of Alexander the astronomer, Stephen, Aristotle, Theophilus son of Thomas, and the books* of the expositor Philehi, and the books of Damasi, and the books of Chaleg, and another book,** and the books of John Mansur—the first on retrogradations and depressions, and his book which in Arabic is called Aselcot--and the book containing the influences of the stars in the verses of a certain unnamed Babylonian, and the book of Arcaseph, containing the co-risings degree by degree and proved true through experiments, and the Book of the Secrets of Hermes, and the book Caromonce, which is found among the Hebrews, the book of Phares [sic for Hipparchos] the Babylonian, the book on the Secrets of Astronomy, and the book of Valens on the influences degree by degree, and the book of Messehalac on Secrets and Meditations. These are the hidden books, but the rest of the judicial astrology ones are common.

Source: Paris (Parigi), BN lat. 7302, ff. 109ra-130vb (15th century) used by Simon de Phares, Recueil des plus célèbres astrologues et quelques hommes doctes (fol. 76), published by Ernest Wickersheimer (Paris: Librarie ancienne Honoré Champion, 1929), 125.

Notes
* Older manuscripts give the singular (and more correct) “book” throughout where the fifteenth century version used here gives the plural.
** In the 1998 critical edition, Graziella Federici Vescovini gives the list after Philehi as “the book of Clamasi, and the book of Chaleg, and the book of Isaac son of Solomon, the book of John the son of Chaleg” and then continues as given above, taken from the earliest Latin manuscript, which is closest to the Greek. Over time, some titles dropped out of the list.