People
Who's who in the Baghdad tradition
The scholars, rulers and translators you will meet on Lazward. Names in our essays link here.
Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr
r. 754–775
The second Abbasid caliph and founder of Baghdad (762). He kept astrologers at court and had the city's founding timed by them. Indian astronomical works were translated into Arabic during his reign.
al-Maʾmūn
r. 813–833
Abbasid caliph and patron of the translation movement. He sponsored programmes of astronomical observation in Baghdad and near Damascus to check the older tables against the sky.
Nawbakht
died c. 777
A Persian astrologer at the court of al-Manṣūr. According to al-Bīrūnī, he chose the moment for the founding of Baghdad in July 762. His descendants, the Banū Nawbakht, remained prominent scholars and officials in Baghdad.
Māshāʾallāh ibn Atharī
c. 740–815
A Jewish astrologer from Basra, listed among al-Manṣūr's court astrologers. His concise books on birth charts, questions and world events were translated into Latin; medieval Europe knew him as Messahala.
Ibrāhīm al-Fazārī
8th century
Astronomer at al-Manṣūr's court. With Yaʿqūb ibn Ṭāriq he worked on the Arabic version of the Indian astronomical tables known as the Zīj al-Sindhind, and he is credited with early Arabic work on the astrolabe.
ʿUmar ibn al-Farrukhān al-Ṭabarī
died c. 815
A Persian astrologer and translator in early Abbasid Baghdad, named among al-Manṣūr's astrologers. He translated and commented on Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.
Theophilus of Edessa
died 785
A Christian scholar who served the caliph al-Mahdī as astrologer, including on campaigns. He wrote on military astrology and translated Greek works, among them Homer, into Syriac.
Sahl ibn Bishr
active c. 820–850
An astrologer of Jewish origin whose handbooks on answering questions and choosing times were widely copied and translated into Latin, where he was known as Zael.
Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī
787–886
Born in Balkh, settled in Baghdad. According to Ibn al-Nadīm he turned to astrology at forty-seven after al-Kindī drew him into mathematics. His Great Introduction, translated into Latin in 1133 and 1140, shaped European astrology for centuries. He wrote at length on the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn.
Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī
c. 800–870
Called 'the philosopher of the Arabs', he worked in Baghdad under al-Maʾmūn and his successors and wrote on mathematics, optics, music and the influence of the stars.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣūfī
903–986
Persian astronomer from Rey who worked in Shiraz. His Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars (c. 964) revised Ptolemy's star catalogue and gave each constellation twice, as seen on a globe and in the sky. It is the source of many star names still in use.
al-Qabīṣī
10th century
Astrologer at the court of Sayf al-Dawla in Aleppo. His compact Introduction to Astrology became a standard textbook in Latin Europe as 'Alcabitius'.
Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī
973–c. 1050
One of the great scholars of the medieval world, from Khwarazm. He wrote the Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology (1029), a book on India comparing its sciences with those of the Islamic world, and the Chronology of Ancient Nations. He was openly sceptical of parts of astrology even as he taught it.
Claudius Ptolemy
c. 100–170
Greek scholar of Roman Alexandria. His Almagest on astronomy and Tetrabiblos on astrology were translated into Arabic and became foundations of the Baghdad tradition.