Work B.3.2
Pseudo-Ptolemy and Balaam
كتاب طوالع البروج
Kitāb Ṭawāliʿ al-burūj
A text describing the features of the natives based on their ascendant; it is divided into twelve chapters (one for each sign) for male and twelve for female natives. In each chapter, a general description of the native is followed by separate, more detailed ones based on the ascending decan and the houses. The title describes the work as ‘a commentary by Ptolemy and Balaam, son of Beor, the diviner’. Its exact origin remains unknown and it is unclear whether it should be linked with the unidentified Kitāb al-Mawālīd ascribed to Ptolemy by Ibn al-Nadīm. Further texts associated with Ptolemy and belonging to the same genre include the Kitab Ṭāliʿ al-mawlūd mukhtaṣar li-l-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ (B.3.3), the Kitāb Mawālid al-rijāl wa-l-nisāʾ ʿalā raʾy Hirmis wa-Baṭlamyūs (MS Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Ayasofya 2704, ff. 27r–60v) and the Liber de nativitatibus hominum (Latin B.11). These works have been treated separately, as their contents vary greatly in spite of their similar titles and structure. The present Kitāb Ṭawāliʿ al-burūj is generally much fuller than the other texts and adds extensive sections on magic and medicine.
Text: [Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Murad Buhari 234]
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Bibl.: Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (ed. FlügelGustav Flügel, Kitâb al-Fihrist, 2 vols, Leipzig: Vogel, 1871–1872, vol. I, p. 268:7; ed. SayyidAyman Fu’ād Sayyid, Kitāb al-Fihrist li-Abī l-Faraj Muḥammad bin Isḥāq al-Nadīm (allafa-hu sana 377 H), 4 vols, London: Al Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 2009, vol. III, p. 215:15; tr. DodgeBayard Dodge, The Fihrist of al-Nadīm. A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, 2 vols, New York / London: Columbia University Press, 1970, vol. I, p. 640:7).
Ed.: None.
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