Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi

Abu Ma‘shar al-Balkhi, Latinized as Albumasar (also Albusar, Albuxar; full name Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Balkhī أبو معشر جعفر بن محمد بن عمر البلخي ; 10 August 787 – 9 March 886, AH 171–272), was an early Persian Muslim astrologer, thought to be the greatest astrologer of the Abbasid court in Baghdad. While he was not a major innovator, his practical manuals for training astrologers profoundly influenced Muslim intellectual history and, through translations, that of western Europe and Byzantium.

This article is about the astrologer. For the historian and hadith scholar, see Abu Ma'shar Najih al-Sindi al-Madani.

Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi
Page of a 15th-century manuscript of the "Book of nativities" (BNF Arabe 2583 fol. 15v).
Born10 August 787
Balkh, Khurasan
Died9 March 886 (aged 98)
Wāsiṭ, Iraq, Abbasid Caliphate
Academic background
InfluencesAristotle and Ptolemy
Academic work
EraIslamic Golden Age
(Abbasid era)
Main interestsAstrology, Astronomy
InfluencedAl-Sijzi, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Pierre d'Ailly, Pico della Mirandola.
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