{{short description|10th-century Muslim mathematician and scholar}} {{other people||Maslama (disambiguation){{!}}Maslama}} {{For|the planet|Upsilon Andromedae d}} {{Infobox person | name = Maslama al-Majriti | other_names = Methilem | birth_date = 950 | birth_place = Madrid, Al-Andalus (now Spain) | death_date = 1007 (aged 56–57) | death_place = Córdoba, Caliphate of Córdoba (now Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain) | occupation = Muslim astronomer, alchemist, mathematician, scholar, economist }}
'''Abu al-Qasim Maslama ibn Ahmad al-Majriti''' ({{langx|ar|أبو القاسم مسلمة بن أحمد المجريطي}}: c. 950–1007), known in European Latin-language sources as '''{{lang|la|Methilem}}''', was a Muslim Arab<ref>{{cite book|last1=Selin|first1=Helaine|author-link=Helaine Selin|title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures|date=2008|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-1-4020-4559-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kt9DIY1g9HYC&q=maslama+%22arab+astronomer%22&pg=PA1336|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dodds |first=Jerrilynn Denise |author-link=Jerrilynn Dodds |title=Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-87099-637-5 |pages=15 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=David A. |author-link=David A. King (historian) |title=Islamic Mathematical Astronomy |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-1-85043-740-6 |pages=132 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Lenn E. |author-link=Lenn E. Goodman |title=Ibn Ṭufayl's Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān : a philosophical tale |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-30310-9 |pages=17 |language=English}}</ref> astronomer, alchemist, mathematician, economist and scholar in al-Andalus, active during the reign of Al-Hakam II. His full name is Abu 'l-Qāsim Maslama ibn Aḥmad al-Faraḍī al-Ḥāsib al-Maj̲rīṭī al-Qurṭubī al-Andalusī.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|year=1993|title=al- Mad̲j̲rīṭī|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam|publisher=Brill Publishers|url=http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-1/al-madjriti-SIM_4414|last=Wiedemann|first=E.|orig-year=1927|editor-last=Houtsma|editor-first=M. Th.|editor2-last=Arnold|editor2-first=T.W.|editor3-last=Basset|editor3-first=R.|editor4-last=Hartmann|editor4-first=R.|edition=1st|page=96}}</ref>
==Achievements== Al-Majrīṭī took part in the translation of Ptolemy's ''Planisphaerium'', improved existing translations of the ''Almagest'', introduced and improved the astronomical tables of Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, aided historians by working out tables to convert Persian dates to Hijri years, and introduced the techniques of surveying and triangulation.<ref name="sarton">{{cite book| title = Introduction to the History of Science | last = Sarton | first = George |author-link = George Sarton | volume = 1 | pages = 668–9 | publisher = Carnegie Institution for Science | date = 1927}}</ref>
[[File:HgOpowder.jpg|250px|thumb|Al-Majrīṭī was one of the earliest alchemists to record the usage and experimentation of mercury(II) oxide.]]
According to Said al-Andalusi, he was the best mathematician and astronomer of his time in al-Andalus.<ref name="AndalusīSalem1991" />{{rp|64}} He also introduced new surveying methods by working closely with his colleague ibn al-Saffar. He also wrote a book on taxation and the economy of al-Andalus.<ref name=sarton />
He edited and made changes to parts of the ''Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity'' when it arrived in al-Andalus.<ref>H. Kahane et al. 'Picatrix and the talismans', in ''Romance Philology'', xix, 1966, p 575; E.J. Holmyard, 'Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutba 'l-Hakim', in ''Isis'', vi, 1924, p 294.</ref><ref>One recent study suggests that the authorship of this work should be attributed to Maslama b. Qasim al-Qurtubi (d. 353/964). See Maribel Fierro, 'Bāṭinism in Al-Andalus. Maslama b. Qāsim al-Qurṭubī (d. 353/964), Author of the "Rutbat al- Ḥakīm" and the "Ghāyat al-Ḥakīm (Picatrix)"', in ''Studia Islamica'', No. 84, (1996), pp. 87-112</ref>
Al-Majrīṭī also predicted a futuristic process of scientific interchange and the advent of networks for scientific communication. He built a school of Astronomy and Mathematics and marked the beginning of organized scientific research in al-Andalus. Among his students were Ibn al-Saffar, Abu al-Salt, and at-Turtushi.<ref name="AndalusīSalem1991" />{{rp|64}}
==Pseudo-Majrīṭī== From his date of death, inconsistencies result in the dating of two influential works in alchemy attributed to him,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holmyard |first1=E.J. |title=Maslama al-Majriti and the Rutbatu'l-Hakim |journal=Isis |date=1924 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=293–305 |doi=10.1086/358238|s2cid=144175388 }}</ref><ref name=sarton /> as either they were published long after his death, or they were the work of someone else claiming some of his glory: the latter is the current general belief.<ref name="AndalusīSalem1991">{{cite book|last1=Andalusī|first1=Ṣāʻid ibn Aḥmad|last2=Salem|first2=Semaʻan I.|last3=Kumar|first3=Alok|title=Science in the medieval world: book of the Categories of nations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9K4AAAAIAAJ|access-date=25 May 2013|date=1991|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-71139-6|page=100}}</ref>
The two works are the "Sage's Step/The Rank of the Wise" (''Rutbat al-hakim'', ?1009) and the ''Picatrix''. Both were translated into Latin, in a version somewhat bowdlerised by Christian dogma, in 1252 on the orders of King Alfonso X of Castile; the original Arabic text dates probably from the middle of the eleventh century.
The ''Rutbat'' includes alchemical formulae and instructions for purification of precious metals, and was also the first to note the principle of conservation of mass, which he did in the course of his pathbreaking experiment on mercury(II) oxide: {{quote|I took natural quivering mercury, free from impurity, and placed it in a glass vessel shaped like an egg. This I put inside another vessel like a cooking pot, and set the whole apparatus over an extremely gentle fire. The outer pot was then in such a degree of heat that I could bear my hand upon it. I heated the apparatus day and night for forty days, after which I opened it. I found that the mercury (the original weight of which was a quarter of a pound) had been completely converted into red powder, soft to touch, the weight remaining as it was originally.<ref>(Holmyard, 1924), p. 302.</ref>}}
The ''Picatrix'' is more concerned with advanced esotericism, principally astrology and talismanic magic, although he also goes into prophecy. The author considers this the advanced level of work, occasionally referring to the ''Rutbat'' as the foundation text.
==Supposed daughter==
Several modern sources state that al-Majriti had a daughter, Fátima de Madrid, who was also an astronomer. However, the earliest known mention of her is a short biographical article on her in the ''Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana'', published in the 1920s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Marín |first1=Manuela |year=2011 |chapter=Arabismo en Madrid |editor1-last=Gil Flores |editor1-first=Daniel |title=De Maŷrit a Madrid. Madrid y los árabes, del siglo IX al siglo XXI |location=Madrid/Barcelona |publisher=Casa Árabe/Lunwerg |page=191 |isbn=978-84-9785-707-9}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite encyclopedia | last = Vernet | first = Juan | title=Al-Majrītī Abu 'L-Qāsim Maslama Ibn Aḥmad Al-Faraḍī | url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902778.html | encyclopedia = Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography | publisher = Encyclopedia.com | orig-year=1970-80 | date = 2008 }} * {{cite encyclopedia | editor = Thomas Hockey | display-editors = etal | last = Casulleras | first = Josep | title=Majrīṭī: Abū al-Qāsim Maslama ibn Aḥmad al-Ḥāsib al-Faraḍī al-Majrīṭī | encyclopedia = The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers | publisher = Springer | date = 2007 | location = New York | pages = 727–8 | url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Majriti_BEA.htm | isbn=978-0-387-31022-0}} ([http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Majriti_BEA.pdf PDF version])
{{Islamic alchemy and chemistry}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Majriti, Maslama}} Category:950s births Category:1007 deaths Category:10th-century Arab people Category:11th-century Arab people Category:Astronomers from al-Andalus Category:Mathematicians from al-Andalus Category:10th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Category:People from Madrid Category:Alchemists of the medieval Islamic world Category:10th-century writers from al-Andalus Category:Scholars from al-Andalus Category:Mathematicians who worked on Islamic inheritance Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Astrologers from al-Andalus