Works of Sahl & Masha'allah by Sahl ibn Bishr

Author:Sahl ibn Bishr [Bishr, Sahl ibn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Cazimi Press
Published: 2012-12-29T05:00:00+00:00

ON TIMES

§1 Know that times excite1 motion. And2 there is a beginning of motion which comes to be in the circle up to the end of time, a time in which the hour is adapted to each motion that begins, until it is ended with a complexion matching it or not matching—wherefore this signifies good or bad. And the general motions are according to what I will tell you, if God wills.

Know that the changing of figures, and the destruction or alteration3 of motions in the general circle, signifies what (of the good or bad) is made stable in time. And the alteration or the changing of the figures is the changing of the planets from the east into the west,4 and from the west into the east, also from the north into the south, and vice versa; and from it in latitude and longitude.

But the motion of the circle is that by which it is moved once from the east into the west in every day and night—that is, one circuit. Indeed the exposition of their motion in longitude is, because all the planets, after they are separated from the Sun (this is when they transit the body of the Sun) and made distant5 from him through 180º, still they are oriental; from this, up to the completion of 360º, they are occidental.6 And this motion which I have stated from the east to the west is accidental, not substantial.

And the “east”7 of the planets is from the side of the motion of the circle: it signifies quickness. This8 is like if it is between the Ascendant and the tenth, and between the seventh and the fourth. And the “west”9 of them [is] namely like if a planet is between the fourth and the Ascendant, and what surpasses this (that is, what is between the tenth and the seventh). And this place in the circle signifies slowness and delay, according to the sayings of the ancients.10

1 Reading tempora excitant with BN for terra excitat.

2 This sentence seems garbled or incomplete in both BN and 1493.

3 Conversio. This word can also mean “revolving,” which could be relevant.

4 Ab oriente in occidentem.

5 Lit., “prolonged.”

6 This is significant because it is an early, clear statement of Renaissance-style doctrines or orientality. Note that it departs from traditional doctrine in that it does not distinguish between combustion and orientality.

7 Oriens.

8 This sentence does not appear in BN, but probably should have.

9 Occidens.

But M āshā’allāh11 was different from them: that is, he disagrees with them in this. He makes the higher place of the circle [to be] namely whatever is elevated out of the circle and hastens to ascend and appear, and this is from the fourth backwards to the tenth: and this higher part is called “from the beginning of the motion of the circle in ascending”; after this, that which is between the fourth and the tenth backwards, to the slow and descending part, to the beginning of the descension of the circle and of its turning, and of the slowness of its appearing.

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