Masha'allah ibn Athari | |
|---|---|
 Māshāʾallāh gazing at the sky, from the 15th-century manuscript BnF Latin 7432 | |
| Born | 740 |
| Died | 815 (aged 75) Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
Māshāʾallāh ibn Atharī (Arabic: ما شاء الله إبن أثري; c. 740 – 815), known as Mashallah, was an 8th century Persian Jewish astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician.[1] Originally from Khorasan,[2] he lived in Basra (in present day Iraq) during the reigns of the Abbasid caliphs al-Manṣūr and al-Ma’mūn, and was among those who introduced astrology and astronomy to Baghdad. The bibliographer ibn al-Nadim described Mashallah "as virtuous and in his time a leader in the science of jurisprudence, i.e. the science of judgments of the stars".[3] Mashallah served as a court astrologer for the Abbasid caliphate and wrote works on astrology in Arabic. Some Latin translations survive.
The Arabic phrase mā shā’ Allāh indicates a believer's acceptance of God's ordainment of good or ill fortune. His name is probably an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew Shiluh. Al-Nadim writes Mashallah's name as Mīshā ("Yithru" or "Jethro").[1][4][note 1]
The crater Messala on the Moon is named after Mashallah.
- ^ a b Dodge 1970, pp. 650–651.
- ^ Hill 1994, p. 10.
- ^ Sela 2012.
- ^ Belenkiy 2007, pp. 740–741.
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