This volume provides the Arabic, Latin and English versions of the major text on political astrology of the Middle Ages, generally attributed to Abū Ma‘šar (Albumasar), with a commentary and Latin-Arabic and Arabic-Latin glossaries. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004117334).
This volume provides the Arabic, Latin and English versions of the major text on political astrology of the Middle Ages, generally attributed to Abū Ma‘šar (Albumasar), with a commentary and Latin-Arabic and Arabic-Latin glossaries. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004117334).
The present volume offers the first critical edition of the Hebrew text of the two versions of Ibn Ezra s Book of the World, accompanied by an English translation and a commentary. These twin treatises represent the first Hebrew work, unique in medieval Jewish science, to discuss the theories and techniques of historical and meteorological astrology that had accumulated from Antiquity to Ibn Ezra s time, on the basis of Greek, Hindu, Persian, and Arabic sources. This volume also incorporates the first critical edition, translated and annotated, of M sh Þall h s Book on Eclipses, a work dealing with mundane astrology whose Hebrew translation was ascribed to Ibn Ezra, as well as a study of three brief texts in which Ibn Ezra conveyed his own opinion about mundane astrology.
Abū Ma’͑šar’s Great Introduction to Astrology (mid-ninth century) is the most comprehensive and influential text on astrology in the Middle Ages. In addition to presenting astrological doctrine, it provides a detailed justification for the validity of astrology and establishes its basis within the natural sciences of the philosophers. These two volumes provide a critical edition of the Arabic text; a facing English translation, which includes references to the divergences in the twelfth-century Latin translations of John of Seville and Hermann of Carinthia (Volume 1); and the large fragment of a Greek translation (edited by David Pingree). Comprehensive Arabic, English, Greek and Latin glossaries enable one to trace changes in vocabulary and terminology as the text passed from one culture to another. (Volume 2.)
This volume provides the Arabic, Latin and English text of the major work on historical astrology of the Middle Ages. The text is attributed either to Abū Ma'šar (787-886) or to his pupil Ibn al-Bāzyār, and was translated into Latin in the mid-twelfth century. In eight books (parts) it provides the scientific basis for predictions concerning kings, prophets, dynasties, religions, wars, epidemics etc., by means of conjunctions of planets, comets and other astronomical factors. It is cited frequently by both Arabic and Latin authors. These editions will provide, for the first time, the context of these citations. Aside from its intrinsic interest for cultural history and the history of science, this work provides several details. The print edition is available as a set of two volumes (9789004117334).
For centuries following the fall of Rome, western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse of the scientific advances coming from Baghdad, Antioch, or the cities of Persia, Central Asia, and Muslim Spain. T here, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge and revitalizing the works of Plato and Aristotle. I n the royal library of Baghdad, known as the House of Wisdom, an army of scholars worked at the behest of the Abbasid caliphs. At a time when the best book collections in Europe held several dozen volumes, the House of Wisdom boasted as many as four hundred thousand. Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, thirsty for knowledge, traveled to Arab lands and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. I n this brilliant, evocative book, Lyons shows just how much "Western" culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization, and reveals the untold story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.
"This book brings into dialogue two major fields of scholarship that are rarely studied together: sacred kingship and sainthood in Islam. In doing so, it offers an original perspective on both. In historical terms, the foucs here is on the Mughal empire in sixteenth-century India and its antecedents and parallels in Timurid Central Asia and Safavid Iran."--Introduction, p. [1].
"A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula" is the second comparative history of a new subseries with a regional focus, published by the Coordinating Committee of the International Comparative Literature Association. As its predecessor for East-Central Europe, this two-volume history distances itself from traditional histories built around periods and movements, and explores, from a comparative viewpoint, a space considered to be a powerful symbol of inter-literary relations. Both the geographical pertinence and its symbolic condition are obviously discussed, when not even contested.Written by an international team of researchers who are specialists in the field, this history is the first attempt at applying a comparative approach to the plurilingual and multicultural literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. The aim of comprehensiveness is abandoned in favor of a diverse and extensive array of key issues for a comparative agenda."A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula" undermines the primacy claimed for national and linguistic boundaries, and provides a geo-cultural account of literary inter-systems which cannot otherwise be explained.
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came Magi from the east to Jerusalem saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him. NEW LIGHT ON AN ANCIENT MYSTERY The Star of Bethlehem is still one of the most popular and puzzling mysteries of the Bible. Its inclusion, at the very beginning of the very first Gospel, raises so many awkward questions for orthodox Christianity that one has to wonder how it ever made the canonical cut in the first place. So why would the authors (and editors) of the Christian Gospels choose Zoroastrian Magi and astrology to herald the coming of Jesus Christ? Did the Magi have some special significance then that we have since lost? After all, the New Testament narrative opens with them. So who were the Magi, and did their astrological beliefs really lead them to Jesus? Now, for the first time, in The Star of the Magi, an author with a solid background in the history of astrology in ancient religion examines the Star. The result is a breathtaking blend of history, religious studies, astronomy, and astrology that tells the whole story as it has never been told before. The Magi had definite expectations of a coming world savior who would be born of a virgin, all mysteriously encoded and foretold in Magian astrology. These ancient Persian beliefs had tremendous bearing on the development of Jewish messianic expectations - they inspired early Christians and their Jewish and Persian neighbors, and gave them hope in their desperate battles against the Romans. Astronomy alone cannot unlock the secrets of the Star. There are simply too many phenomena to choose from - even astronomers concede that that we must now look to astrology for better answers.
The papers in this volumes consider literacy, education and manuscript transmission in Byzantium and its neighbouring worlds, areas which to date have received surprisingly little sustained scholarly treatment among Byzantinists. Contributions include an overview, survey papers and individual case studies, many of which draw on recently discovered or rarely consulted sources: literary sources include astrological texts, saints' lives and florilegia as well as documentary texts, art and archaeological evidence. The contributors' fields reflect the interdisciplinary scope of this volume, covering history, art history, literary studies and palaeography. The volume looks in detail at Byzantium, but also includes papers on Rus, the Middle East, and the Jewish contribution. The book's eastern perspectives offer interesting comparisons and contrasts with the medieval West. The book is illustrated with plates showing illuminated manuscripts and archaeological artefacts. The contributors are Paul Botley, Simon Franklin, Catherine Holmes, Erica Hunter, John Lowden, Paul Magdalino, Margaret Mullett, Stefan Reif, Charlotte Roueche, Natalie Tchernetska, and Judith Waring.
