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RZ Alkindi Rays Sample
RZ Alkindi Rays Sample
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DE RADIIS STELLICIS
On The Stellar Rays
C9th AD
Translated by
Robert Zoller.
T
Table of Contents
p. 5
p. 7
p. 25
p. 31
p. 38
p. 42
p. 46
p. 52
Chapter 7. On Figures
p. 73
Chapter 8. On Images
p. 75
Chapter 9 On Sacrifices
p. 77
p. 80
Preface
This text has been long known to historians of science who find in it a
clear expression of the Theory of Magic by a renown Moslem
philosopher who flourished during at a time when this type of magic
was prevalent.
While many contemporary historians dismiss magic as an ancient
superstition they can not overlook the significance of such an
historically important doctrine. Here, in Alkindis work is found a clear
exposition of that doctrine, written at a time when magic was both
accepted and practised, and written by someone who believed in it. As
such it provides a reliable reference point to examine a subject that is as
difficult to define as it is to research.
It is widely accepted that the roots of science are to be found in the
occult arts. Academic interest in magic has been further stimulated in
the field of the history of mathematics, physics and medicine. It is
realised on the one hand, that astrology played an important role in
the development of geometry (especially spherical), trigonometry,
logarithms, optics and astronomy. While on the other hand, both
alchemy and magic played dominant roles in early pharmacology and
medicine.
Likewise, for the history of thought, this text is important, as it exhibits
the unified conception of reality with respect to objective and
subjective phenomena prevalent prior to the scientific revolution and
Enlightenment. It also contains ideas relating to an entirely different
conception of causality to that which developed in the West after the
seventeenth century.
Introduction
Full name: Abu Ma'shar Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn `Umar al-Balkhi (b. 787.
d.886 AD) is an example of Hermetic influence on Arabic astrology. His works
(written in Arabic) represent a curious fusion of Sabian Hermeticism, Persian
chronology,Islam, Greek Science and Mesopotamian astrology. He was
instrumental in fostering the identification of the Antediluvian Prophet Idris with
Enoch and Hermes. He was an extremely successful practitioner of the Art who
travelled throughout the Mid East in service to numerous Indian, Persian, Arab,
and Egyptian chiefs of state. His reputation was established in the Christian West
by Peter of Abano in the 13th century in his Conciliator Differentiarum
Philosophorum et Precipue Medicorum (Diff. 156) were he quotes the ALMudsakaret or (Memorabilia) of Abu Sa'id Schadsan, a student of Abu Ma'shar's
who recorded his teachers answers and astrological deeds. The Memorabilia which have come to be known among scholars as "Albumasar in Sadan" due to
traditional corruptions of both men's names, is analyzed by Lynne Thorndike in
ISIS 1954 pp 22-32.
It will suffice to say here that it is, perhaps the only example of a medieval
astrological hagiography. It portrays "the master "as a nearly omniscient wise man
learned not only in the techniques of all branches of the Art but also in its
traditional history and aware of the contributions of his predecessors. He is
quoted, in Albumasar in Sadan (p.29 of Isis article), that he follows Messahala's
method of projecting rays and in other locations admits to following other methods
of Messahala (Masha'allah).
The Nestorian Christian Ishaq ibn Hunain translated the Almagest and the
Tetrabiblos into from Greek into Arabic at Baghdad around 828 for the Caliph alMansur.
4
Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan As-Sufi) was an important figure for the history of
Alchemy as well as of the Harranian Sabians He studied alchemy under the 6th
Shiite Imam Ja`far As-Sadiq before the latter's death in 765 and served as court
alchemist to calif Harun al-Rashid. Geber died 815 AD at Tus. He is said to have
been a Harranian Sabian and is called al-Sufi. He cites Hermes and
Agathodmon frequently. Alchemy for Geber (and apparently for the entire
Sabian community to which he belonged) was part of a complex inter-related
system of Neo-pythagoreanism, Neo-platonism and Hermeticism. From the looks
of Geber's The Books of the Balance, the Harranians had developed a highly
precise and numerical theoretical alchemy and medicine. In Geber we see what
the Syrian schools had been doing since Iamblichus.
11
17
18
19
25
Some of the content of this chapter is also discussed more fully in Alkindi's
Metaphysics. See edition cited in Introduction.
14
Cf. Aristotle, On the Soul (De Anima), sec. 414b, 1-5: Aristotle connects living
beings (including man) with the sensory, appetite, passion and imagination. All
these will play important roles in what follows. In particular, he asserts that
imagination is never found without sense and that the judgement is often
influenced by appetite (desire) and imagination. Importantly, Aristotle asserts that
appetite, mind and imagination are all capable of initiating movement. For a
thorough discussion of the relation of Astrology to the Aristotelian Tradition see,
R.Lemay, Abu Ma'shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century, American
University of Beirut, Publications of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Oriental
Series, no.38.
17
18
19
31
respectum It is possible that the Arabic word the Latin word respectum was
intended to translate meant "astrological aspect" though the word aspectum is
used at the end of the paragraph. I have translated respectum as "relationship"
because a relationship, even if an aspect, is not limited to the Ptolemaic aspects
of 0, 60, 90, 120 & 180 degrees.
33
34
text has: quam alia ad omnes et res omnes et loca in mundo contenta.
obliquantur
35
This is why the influences of rising, culminating or setting stars or planets are
held to be most powerful.
36
propter quod
38
61
species
According to Medieval Science, hot, cold, wet, and dry were different things
not merely relative qualities such as we conceive them. Hence Geber, whose
alchemical and philosophical works Alkindi would have undoubtedly known,
asserted that it was possible, through spagyric separations to isolate the so called
elementata, or Primitive Qualities, Hot, Cold, Wet and Dry from any subject and,
through recombination according to different proportions, to create artificial
substances not produced in nature. With such a concept of hot and cold it is not
unreasonable to suppose that cold is as capable of being radiated as is heat;
especially as one can feel cold in the presence of a cold body. For instance, if you
stand about a foot in front of the opened door of your refrigerator on a hot day
(without touching it) you will feel cooler than you would in another room. The
sensible impression is rather indistinguishable from that mutatis mutandis of
standing before a radiator on a cold day. Our physics tells us that the two
experiences are not identical, though they may feel so. In the latter case radiation
of heat does occur. In the former case there is no radiation from the refrigerator
but rather it is we who radiate heat and, in front of the open refrigerator, we lose it
more than elsewhere due to the cooling system in the refrigerator which is
constantly sucking heat from the inside of the unit. When we open the door, we
become one of the knockwursts in the meat bin.
39
42
67
68
69
70
rei
super
Sense perceives things. Mind conceives properties.
omnia que fiunt et contingunt
If all things occur by necessity, fate exists and can be known by knowing its
cause.
46
83
motus
operantur
84
86
87
88
89
90
comprehendere
propter
or operation
taking ministrant for ministata
humana providentia
motus
47
92
"in appropriate matter" (in competenti materia). Magical tradition holds that
the magician must join or "wed," as Pico della Mirandola would have it in his
"Magical Conclusions," things which are appropriate for the production of the
desired effects. Such things must also be competent, that is capable ofyeeilding
the desired results. Finally, there is often a given attraction between such
appropriate items, so they can be said to seek each other intensely (con + peto).
93
95
96
in actum
species
52
130
131
132
133
134
135
verba
motus
voces: voices, sounds, words, or incantations.
in actum producte
operantur
vocum
voces
136
73
248
The idea that man exerts a transformative effect upon matter by working it
manually, while simultaneously directing his attention fully to the work is
fundamental to Alchemical theory. Here this idea is extended to the
representation of magical characters the very act of drawing which are believed to
alter matter.
249
The editors of the Latin Text point out that this passage refers to the various
designs commonly used in Islamic talismanic and amuletic magic. We are referred
to R. Kriss, H. Kriss-Heinrich, Volksglaube und Bereich des Islam, II, Amulette,
Zauberformeln und Beschwrungen, 1962, p. 74-79, and p. 81 (characters on
lunettes).
250
251
operatur
virtutem suam faciendi motus
77
261
motus
non esse
262
quanto ea que opere hominis corumpuntur in non esse.... Lit. the degree
to which those things which are {intentionally} corrupted by human agency into
non-existence....
263
The editors of the Latin text point out that the Picatrix contains specific
instructions as to the species of animal to be sacrificed for specific purposes, the
proper incenses to use as well as detailed instructions of other aspects of the
ceremonies mentioned.
264
265
Plotinus, Enneads, trs MacKenna, London: Faber & Faber, 1969, 4:12-13
where the harmony of the soul of the world and the soul of an individual regulates
the descent of the individual soul into an appropriate individual body of the
appropriate species (of which it is an image) at the appropriate time and place.
80
273
operis voluntarii