The Terminology of Historical Astrology According To Abraham Bar Iyya and

Abstract
Josefina Rodrguez Arribas

The Terminology of Historical Astrology according to Abraham
Bar H iyya and Abraham Ibn Ezra
Abraham Bar H iyyas Megillat ha-Megalleh is the first treatise on
historical astrology written in Hebrew and the only text in which Bar
H iyya describes how astrologers base prognostications on specific
heavenly positions and the relations in or between specific horoscopes.
It represents the first attempt by a scientist and translator to find Hebrew
terms for concepts that had hitherto circulated among the Jews of Spain
only in Arabic. The coinage of technical terms for historical astrology
in the fifth chapter of Megillat ha-Megalleh is studied, specifically
those related to the Arabic intiha (terminal point) and tasyr (direction/
prorogation), both translated as haqqafah. The meanings of that term in
Megillat ha-Megalleh, as well as the equivalents employed by Abraham
Ibn Ezra, are also studied. This concept seems to have been completely
ignored or obscurely understood until now, despite its relevance to a
full understanding of conjunctional theory in the two authors.
The Terminology of Historical

Astrology according to Abraham Bar
H iyya and Abraham Ibn Ezra1
Abraham Bar H iyyas Megillat ha-Megalleh (written ca. 11201129)
is the first treatise on historical astrology written in Hebrew and the
only text in which Bar H iyya describes how astrologers base specific
prognostications on specific heavenly positions and the relations in
or between specific horoscopes.2 This double quality makes the work
the first source of scientific astrology in Hebrew, interesting for both
historians of science and linguists. We see here the first attempt by a
I would like to express my appreciation to the Warburg Institute and the Sophia
Trust for the Sophia Fellowship that made this article possible. This research was also
supported by a travel fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Relations and
Cooperation. A preliminary and much shorter version of this paper was presented at
the Directors Work in Progress Seminar at the Warburg Institute in October 2008.
I am particularly grateful to Prof. Charles Burnett for reading and commenting on a
late draft of this article, as well as to the referees for Aleph, whose suggestions have
improved it. I also want to thank Alice Machinist for her generous and helpful reading
of my text. All translations, unless otherwise noted, are mine.
In his other astrological and astronomical works in Hebrew, Bar Hiyya is concerned
with the justification of astrology within Judaism (Iggeret) or with the technical
Aleph 11.1 (2011) pp. 11-54
11
scientist and translator to find Hebrew equivalents for concepts that had
hitherto circulated among the Jews of Spain only in Arabic.3 This article
looks at the coinage of technical terms for historical astrology in the
fifth chapter of Megillat ha-Megalleh, and specifically those related to
the Arabic technical terms intiha (terminal point) and tasyr (direction/
prorogation), both translated as haqqafah.4 This article is part of a
work in progress on the astrological and astronomical terminology of
Abraham Bar H iyya and Abraham Ibn Ezra. Consequently it explores
the meanings of the technical term haqqafah in Megillat ha-Megalleh as
well as the equivalent terms employed by Abraham Ibn Ezra (beit hasof and nihug), who immediately followed Bar H iyya in diffusing Arab
astronomy and astrology among the Jews. I chose this concept in these
two writers because some of its meanings seem to have been completely
ignored or obscurely understood until now, despite their relevance to
a full understanding of conjunctional theory in the two writers.5 In
order to understand properly the contexts, techniques, and meanings of
haqqafah (and beit ha-sof/nihug), we must first consider how historical
astrology works in the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh. In this text the
concept is employed more frequently and methodically than in any
other medieval Hebrew text on historical astrology (including the two
versions of Ibn Ezras Sefer ha-Olam).
description of elements of a horoscope in general, e.g., the division of houses (Sefer

H ebon mahalek ot ha-kok avim, Sefer ha-Ibbur, Sefer S urat ha-ares ), but not with
specific horoscopes.
3
Some terminology can be found in passages on astronomy and astrology in the talmudic
and midrashic literature, as well as the Baraita di-emuel and the Baraita de-mazzalot;
these works influenced Bar H iyyas terminology to some extent. A different case is
the Sefer H ak moni by Shabbetai Donnolo (913ca. 982), a commentary on the Sefer
Yes irah whose context is the Byzantine-Greek culture and language of southern Italy,
which must have determined Donnolos lexical choices, as Bar H iyyas was determined
by his Arabic culture and models in Spain. But Bar H iyya was the first Jew to write in
Hebrew on technical astrology (in the fifth chapter of Megillat ha-Megalleh), whereas
Donnolo seems to have been focused on cosmology and a more general approach.
On astrology in Hebrew in southern Italy, see Joshua Holo, Hebrew Astrology in
Byzantine Southern Italy, in The Occult Sciences in Byzantium, ed. P. Magdalino
and M.V. Mavroudi (Geneva: La Pomme dor, 2006), pp. 291-323; on Donnolos
astrology, see A. Sharf, The Universe of Shabbetai Donnolo (New York: Ktav Pub.
House, 1976). For Bar H iyyas scientific terminology and language, see especially:
I. Efros, Studies in Pre-Tibbonian Philosophical Terminology, Jewish Quarterly
Review 17 (192627): 12964 and 32468; ibid. 20 (192930): 11338 [repr. in idem,
Studies in Medieval Jewish Philosophy (New York and London: Columbia University
Press, 1974)]; G. B. Sarfati, Mathematical Terminology in Hebrew Scientific Literature
of the Middle Ages (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1968), pp. 61129 [Heb.]; H. Rabin,
R. Abraham bar H iyya u-teh iyyat leonenu biymei ha-beinayim, Mes udah (1945):
158170 [Heb.]; Shlomo Sela, Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Science
Historical Astrology in Sefer Megillat ha-Megalleh

Bar H iyyas Megillat ha-Megalleh is devoted to messianism; i.e., when
the Messiah will come and what signs will precede his arrival.6 One of
the main contributions of this work is the use of astrology and the theory
of the periodical conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn to anticipate the
Messiahs arrival (the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh). According to a theory
that originated in Sassanian Persia (224652), the periodic conjunctions of
Jupiter and Saturn, the largest and slowest-moving planets, rule history.7
12
(Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2003), pp. 98, 107, and 114.
4
Tasyr is a calculation involving the period of time that separates two points signifying
an event in a horoscope. The zodiacal arc separating these two points is converted into
degrees of sphaera recta and these degrees are counted directly as years. The point of
the zodiac where the direction falls is called qisma in Arabic. The lord of the term
in which the qisma falls is the qa sim (divisor) and rules the time that the directed
degree remains in the term. See Michio Yano, ed. and trans., Ku shya r ibn Labba ns
Introduction to Astrology (Tokyo: Tokyo University, 1997), pp. 21621 [3.20.212]
13
Bar H iyya merges this astrological theory with the rabbinic idea that the
history of the world mirrors the six days of the creation in Genesis.8 By
applying this analogy one can find correspondences between the actions
recounted for each the six days of creation and historical events in any of
the six millennia that the world is supposed to last.9 Neither the idea of an
astrological pattern in history nor the calculation of the date for the end
of days originated with Bar H iyya. His contribution was to combine the
two ideas and to introduce two new cycles into the periodic conjunctions
of Jupiter and Saturn.10 Saadia Gaon (882942), in the introduction to his
commentary on the book of Daniel, rejected astrology and all methods of
divination as a means to calculate the arrival of the Messiah, which can be
known only by prophecy.11 Saadias rejection proves that, at least in the
tenth century, speculations similar to those referred to by Bar H iyya in
ha-Megalleh more than a century later were rampant.12 The real pioneers
for this branch of astrology, devoted to explaining the astral causes of
past and future historical events, are Ma sha alla h (762ca. 815) and Abu
Mashar (787886).13
Bar H iyya employs the annual revolution of the sun (tequfat haanah), the periodic conjunctions (dibbuqim or h ibburim) of Jupiter
and Saturn, and different types of directions (haqqafot) as tools for
making astrological judgments about past, present, and future events.
The annual revolution of the sun is one of the most common techniques
in historical astrology. It consists of casting the horoscope for the
moment at which the sun returns to the vernal point, when the spring
and therefore the new year begin.14 This procedure has a long history in
Greek and Arabic astrology. The genethliacal form of this technique (the
anniversary horoscope) is mentioned in Abu Mashars Kita b Ah ka m
tah a wl sin l-mawa ld
;15 its historical application (annual revolution
of the sun), in his Kita b Tah a wl sin l-a lam.16 Bar H iyya, in the fifth
chapter of Megillat ha-Megalleh, considers the annual revolution of
the sun in every year that some conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn takes
place. The moment chosen to cast the horoscope of the conjunction
14
and 23035 [3.21.111]. There are no specific terms for these elements in Bar H iyyas
texts. Intiha (denoted by one of the main meanings of haqqafah in ha-Megalleh) is
the direction that moves the rising-sign of a radix horoscope one zodiacal sign per
year in the order of the signs.
5
There is a Catalan translation of Bar H iyyas Megillat ha-Megalleh by J. M. Mills

Vallicrosa, Abraam bar Hiia, Llibre revelador (Barcelona: Editorial Alpha, 1929).
Mills Vallicrosas translation is not very helpful in matters of astrology and leaves
the meanings of haqqafah without explanation or explicit translation. Shlomo Sela
(Abraham Bar H iyyas Astrological Work and Thought, Jewish Studies Quarterly
12 [2005]: 12858) does not explain any of the technicalities involved in historical
astrology, except for the five kinds of conjunctions. The persistent appearance of
haqqafah in the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh (more than 30 times) remains not only
unexplained but it is not even mentioned. However, haqqafah is a key term for
understanding the conjunctional theory in ha-Megalleh and why Bar H iyya compares
specific conjunctions and specific horoscopes in order to make prognostications,
while ignoring others. Concerning one of the equivalent terms for haqqafah in Ibn
Ezras texts (beit ha-sof), Sela leaves the reader in doubt concerning the use of this
technique in his critical edition and English translation of the two versions of Ibn
Ezras Sefer ha-T eamim. See Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Book of Reasons (Sefer haT eamim) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007), p. 317 [6.4].
Adolf Poznanski and J. Guttmann, Abraham bar H iyya, Sefer Megillat ha-megalleh
(Jerusalem: [s.n.], 1968), p. xii (Introduction). For an introduction to Bar H iyyas life,
a bibliography of his work, and a very general introduction to ha-Megalleh, see Sela,
Abraham Bar H iyyas Astrological Work and Thought.
Persian texts translated into Arabic account for the introduction of cyclical periods
of time into astrology. See E. S. Kennedy, The World-Year Concept in Islamic
Astrology, in Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences, ed. David A. King and Mary H.
Kennedy (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1983), pp. 35171.
Six thousand years as the duration of the world has a Jewish precedent (B Rosh haanah 31a), but the correlation between the six days of the Genesis and events in
world history can be found in the patristic literature, especially St. Augustine (354
430) and Isidore of Seville (d. 636). See F. Cumont and J. Bidez, Les mages hellniss
15
is the moment when the sun returns to the vernal point. The risingsign and the aspects at this moment are the relevant elements for the
astrological judgments of the conjunction. In his historical horoscopes,
Bar H iyya denotes this moment with unusual expressionsmolad,
molad ha-anah, molad ha-levanah ha-rionah, and biat ha-anah,
instead of the traditional tequfah or tequfat Nisan.17 Bar H iyya does
not explain his choice of terminology and one can only offer various
conjectures. For example, he may have wished to avoid traditional
terms, that might suggest that he computed these moments according to
the traditional methods ascribed to R. Samuel and R. Adda. However,
he employs molad with the traditional meaning of New Moon in
molad Siwan min ha-anah ha-zeh (ha-Megalleh, p. 153, line 31). The
evidence in this text indicates that Bar H iyya did not use the traditional
methods of computation. Unfortunately, he does not explain how he did
compute the dates and times of vernal equinoxes.18 In the fifth chapter
of ha-Megalleh, the dates (anno mundi) and the correlated events for
every periodic conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn are as following (with
equivalents in the Julian calendar). See Table 1.19
(Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1938), 2: 36366. The Christian influence in the Megillat haMegalleh seems likely enough, although it is difficult to know how Bar H iyya could
have known the Latin texts. See: G. Vajda, Les ides thologiques et philosophiques
dAbraham bar H iyya, Archives dhistoire doctrinale et littraire du Moyen ge 15
(1946): 197201 and 216 n. 2; J. M. Mills Vallicrosa, La obra enciclopdica de R.
Abraham bar H iyya, Estudios sobre historia de la ciencia espan ola (Madrid: CSIC,
1987), 1: 21962, on p. 253.
9
This idea is particularly expressed at the beginning of the second chapter of Megillat
ha-Megalleh: We certainly know that the seven days of Genesis are the days of
the world (p. 18, line 29p. 19, line 1). Bar H iyya makes every day of the creation
equivalent to a thousand years of the world (namely, 857 years), which entails that
the Messiah will arrive in the sixth millennium of the creation of the world, see haMegalleh, p. 147: The beginning of the seventh day will be at the end of the fifth
millennium of the world [7 times 857 years are equivalent to 5999 years, i.e., the end
of the millennium that begins with the digit 5].
10
Concerning Bar H iyyas introduction of these two new conjunctions, see Sela,
Abraham Bar H iyyas Astrological Work and Thought, pp. 13335. Despite
Selas statement that the 60-year cycle of the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn is
a novelty introduced by Bar H iyya, Abu Mashar already used it in his Kita b alqira na t (although without a specific name); see K. Yamamoto and Ch. Burnett, Abu
Table 1
Conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn according to Bar H iyyas
Megillat ha-Megalleh
Anno Julian
M u n d i Ye a r
2365
1396 BCE
16
Mashar, On Historical Astrology, The Book of Religions and Dynasties (On the Great
Conjunctions) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2000), 1: 14851 [2.8.32].
11
Shammai states that Bar H iyya created the false impression that Saadia was a defender
Profectio
Conjunction
Historical Event
WATERY
TRIPLICITY (12
conjunctions)
1st conjunction (superior) in
Aquarius/Pisces
[238 years]
Kingdom of Israel begins. (Leo in the

rising-sign)
Birth of Aaron. Solar
eclipse that indicates birth
of Moses.
See H. Ben-Shammai, Saadias Introduction to Daniel: Prophetic Calculation of the

End of Days vs. Astrological and Magical Speculation, Aleph 4 (2004): 1187. Benof astrology when he referred to Saadias commentary on Daniel in the introduction
of ha-Megalleh, in order to justify the use of astrology to calculate the end of days (p.
43).
12
Bar H iyyas contemporary, Abraham Ibn Ezra, condemns the employment of the
great conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn to calculate the arrival of the Messiah in his
long commentary on Daniel 11:31. He refers there to two exponents of this practice
in Judaism, Abraham bar H iyya and Solomon Ibn Gabirol. As far as I know, there is
17
2368
2424
1393 BCE
1337 BCE
2444
1317 BCE
2448
2484
2488
2504
2544
2nd conjunction
(middle) in Pisces
Conjunction in
Scorpio
1313 BCE
1277 BCE
3rd conjunction
(middle) in Pisces:
1273 BCE
1257 BCE
1217 BCE
2556
1205 BCE
2603
1158 BCE
4th conjunction
(middle) in Pisces
FIERY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st Conjunction
(great) in Aries/
Pisces [238 years]
Birth of Moses
Moses flees from Pharaoh
(3rd conjunction in the
triplicity).
Plagues in Egypt (4th
conjunction in the triplicity).
Israel leaves Egypt (profectio of the rising-sign
of the conjunction in
Scorpio).
End of forty years in the
wilderness and beginning
of the wars in Canaan
(7th conjunction in the
triplicity).
Death of Moses (profectio
of the fourth house in an
anairetic place), start of
Joshuas kingdom, crossing of Jordan.
End of Joshuas kingdom
(twelfth year of the 8th
conjunction in the triplicity).
Death of the elders who
governed after Joshua
(10th conjunction in the
triplicity).
Othniels death (twelfth
year of the 10th conjunction in the triplicity).
Period of the judges,
short governments and
hardships for Israel.
Cancer
no extant text of Ibn Gabirol on mundane astrology.

13
See E. S. Kennedy and D. Pingree, eds. and trans., The Astrological History of
Ma sha alla h (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. vi; Abu Mashar,
On Historical Astrology, 1: 582. Abu Mashars work describes the periodical
Scorpio
conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn: small (the conjunction takes place in the same
triplicity), middle (the conjunction changes triplicity), and great (the conjunction
completes the four triplicities and returns to its starting point). A triplicity is a group
of three signs that belong to the same element (fire, air, water, and earth). In the first
case, the conjunction indicates small political and social changes in the city or the
Cancer
country. In the second case, it points to a change in the dynasty or the emergence
of a new nation. The third type indicates the emergence of a great prophet. The
predictions were deduced from a horoscope cast for the annual revolution of the sun
(Arab. tah wl , Heb. tequfat ha-anah) of the year in which the conjunction took place.
Ma sha alla hs work has a larger context, for it assumes a Zoroastrian theory according
to which the world will last 12,000 years after creation, with every thousand ruled by
one of the seven planets. In addition to the horoscope of the annual revolution of the
sun, Ma sha alla h used the horoscope of the exact vernal equinox, the conjunctions
of Jupiter and Saturn, and the mighty profectio (intiha ), which makes one zodiacal
sign equivalent to one thousand years, starting from Aries. Likewise, Abu Mashar
considers the annual revolution of the sun at the moment when the sun enters the
vernal point and the three types of conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn (every 20, 240,
and 960 years). For historical predictions, Abu Mashar considers the cycles of the
conjunctions, the annual revolution of the sun, and eclipses, while he uses the syzygy
before the beginning of the season and the syzygy of every month for the judgments
concerning the weather of the corresponding period, in other words, the full or new
moon before the beginning of season or month.
(Aries in the
rising-sign)
14
This return does not take place exactly at the same moment every year. According
to Ibn Ezra, there is a difference of 87 15' between two annual revolutions of the
sun, i.e., five equinoctial hours and 49 minutes; see the second version of Sefer haT eamim, pp. 23839 [6.3].
15
Tenth-century Greek version edited by D. Pingree, Albumasaris De revolutionibus

nativitatum (Leipzig: Teubner, 1968).
18
19
2841
2854
920 BCE
907 BCE
2881
880 BCE
2884
877 BCE
2960
3199
3204
EARTHLY
TRIPLICITY (12
conjunctions)
1st conjunction
(great) in Taurus
[238 years]
801 BCE
562 BCE
557 BCE
20
Conjunction in
Virgo (3rd in the
triplicity)
Conjunction in
Taurus (7th in the
triplicity)
AIRY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
7th conjunction in
Gemini
Prophecy emerges in
Israel, righteous rulers,
and proclamation of the
kingdom.
(Sagittarius
in the risingsign)
Aries
16
A Latin version, perhaps by John of Seville, Albumasaris Flores, ed. Johannes Baptista
Sessa (Venice, 1488 or 1506) is available in PDF format in the Warburg Institutes
online Bibliotheca astrologica numerica (http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/mnemosyne/
orientation/Bibastro.htm).
Birth of David; Samuel
prophesies (thirteenth
year of the conjunction,
profectio of the rising
sign of the conjunction in
Taurus).
Leo
Sauls kingdom, and
Davids after him
17
For instance, Bar H iyya employs the term tequfah for solstices and equinoxes in his
Iggeret li-Yehudah ben Barzillai (tequfot ha-anah); see Z. Schwarz, ed., Abraham
bar H iyya, Iggeret R. Abraham b. H iyya ha-Nasi e-katav le-R. Yehudah b. R.
Barzillai, in S. Kraus, ed., Festschrift Adolf Schwarz zum siebzigsten Geburtstag
(Berlin and Vienna: R. R. Lwit, 1917), p. 30. In ha-Megalleh Bar H iyya uses three
expressions for the vernal equinox: molad ha-anah (e.g., ha-Megalleh, p. 122, line 29;
p. 123, line 2), biat ha-anah (ha-Megalleh, p. 122, line 17), and molad ha-levanah harionah (ha-Megalleh, p. 130, line 2). The use of molad to mean equinox is intriguing
Beginning of Davids
kingdom (for forty
years and six months),
which lasts until exile of
Jehoiachin [442 years] in
the fourth year of the 3rd
conjunction.
End of Solomons reign,
decline of the kingdom,
and division between
Jeroboam and Rehoboam
(804 BCE)
Decay of the kingdoms
of Israel and Judah in the
3rd conjunction of this
triplicity.
Scorpio
Shalmaneser decrees the

exile of Israel (fifth year
of the 1st conjunction in
the triplicity).
Leo
in light of astronomical terminology before and after Bar H iyya (e.g., ha-Megalleh, p.
119, line 3 [molad]; p. 124, line 4 and p. 132, line 1 [ha-molad ha-rion]; p. 126, line
7 [ha molad ha-dibbuq ha-rav]; and p. 148, line 3 [ha molad ha-dibbuq ha-rion harav]). For the astronomical and calendrical meanings of molad, see E. Ben-Yehudah,
Milon ha-laon ha-ivrit ha-yeenah ve-ha-h adaah, (Jerusalem: Maqor, 1980), 6:
28452846.
18
For details, see E. Mahler, Handbuch der jdischen Chronologie (Leipzig: Gustav
Fock, 1916), pp. 507519. Molad and molad ha-anah cannot refer to a New Moon,
because the molad and molad ha-anah occur on various days of the month in the
Jewish calendar according to Bar H iyyas text (in all likelihood the day of the vernal
(Aries in the
rising-sign)
equinox), whereas the New Moon always occurs on the first day of the month in the
Jewish calendar (although sometimes displaced by a day for various reasons). I am
very grateful to Mr. Lenn Schramm (Jerusalem) for alerting me to the problem with
Bar H iyyas dates for the moladot and to an anonymous reader for Aleph for his/her
help in clarifying it.
19
For Julian calendar conversions I relied on Scott E. Lees online tool (http://www.
rosettacalendar.com/index.cgi).
21
3318
443 BCE
3338
423 BCE
3397
364 BCE
3408
353 BCE
3556
205 BCE
3793
33 CE
3794
34 CE
22
WATERY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
Conjunction (superior) in Cancer
[953 years]
Conjunction in
Pisces
Conjunction in
Pisces
FIERY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction
(great) in Leo [238
years]
EARTHLY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction
(great) in Virgo
[239 years]
(Leo in the
Nebuchadnezzar exiles
Jehoiachin, king of Judah, rising-sign)
in 436 BCE (profectio of
the sign of the conjunction)
Zedekiahs exile and future deliverance of Israel.
Cyrus the Persian allows
Israel to return from exile
and rebuild the Temple.
Enmity against Israel
stops during this period
(eleventh year of the
conjunction in Pisces,
profectio of the risingsign of the conjunction in
Pisces).
Flowering of knowledge during the Second
Temple, although with
difficulties.
Crucifixion of Jesus (one

year before the conjunction of the change of triplicity).
End of the kingdom of
Israel and its occultation;
emergence of a new religion, Christianity
Capricorn
3828
68 CE
4033
273 CE
4271
511
4331
571
4382
622
4392
632
3rd conjunction in
Scorpio
4509
749
FIERY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction (great) in
Sagittarius
[238 years]
Leo
Sagittarius
(Taurus in the
rising-sign)
Cancer
(Capricorn
in the risingsign)
Virgo
AIRY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction
(great) in Libra
[238 years]
WATERY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction (superior) in
Scorpio [953 years]
2nd conjunction
(middle) in Scorpio
(3rd in the triplicity)
Exile of Israel decreed

by Titus (fourth year of
the 2nd conjunction in
the triplicity), 1460 years
since the birth of Moses
(AM 2368)
Constantines kingdom, (Sagittarius
in the risinggreat but with an impious religion, Christianity; sign)
Diocletian; Manes founds
Manichaeism
A new religion that will
spread by sword.
(Virgo in the
rising-sign)
Birth of Muhammad; his

religion will prevail for
584 years. Full eclipse of
the moon
Beginning of
Muhammads kingdom
Death of Muhammad;
Umayyad dynasty rules
in Damascus
Conflict between
Umayyads and Abbasids;
kingdom moves from
Damascus to Baghdad;
last Umayyad flees to
Hispania.
(Cancer in the
rising-sign)
(Gemini in
the risingsign)
23
4747
4847
987
1087
4859
1099
4889
1129
4946
1186
4966
1206
4986
1226
5105
1345
24
EARTHLY
TRIPLICITY
(12 conjunctions)
1st conjunction (great) in
Capricorn
[239 years]
Conjunction in
Taurus (twelfth
year of the 6th
conjunction in the
triplicity)
Wars in the West, decline of the Umayyads,

government of Hamite
peoples [Almoravids and
Almohads] in Hispania
(Capricorn
in the risingsign)
5164
1404
Conjunction in
Aquarius
5204
1444
5224
1464
WATERY
TRIPLICITY (12
conjunctions)
Conjunction (superior) in Cancer.
Solar and lunar
eclipses
Conjunction
(mighty) in Pisces
[2859 years since
the conjunction
of the kingdom of
Israel]
5208
1448
(Aries in the
rising-sign)
5228
1468
Christians go to the Holy (Libra in the

Land to fight Muslims;
rising-sign)
wars in Spain and in the
other lands of Edom,
Africa, and the East.
Crusade to the Holy
Libra
Land. Lunar eclipse:
wars in the land of Israel;
Christians conquer
Jerusalem.
Conjunction in
Virgo: war and
death in the land of
Israel
Conjunction in
Sufferings and wars in the
Capricorn
land of the Philistines,
Edom, Ishmael, and in
(lower) Mesopotamia
Conjunction in
Wars in Israel, signs of
Virgo
deliverance, decay of
Ishmaels kingdom begins.
AIRY
Great signs and evils in
TRIPLICITY
the world that indicate
(12 conjunctions)
the deliverance of Israel.
Conjunction (great) Islam and Christendom
in Aquarius
will be annihilated.
[218 years sic]:
Conjunction in
Wars and the emergence
Aquarius (7th con- of a great kingdom
junction in the tri- (Israel).
plicity)
(Aquarius in
the risingsign)
(Cancer in the
rising-sign)
Power of the righteous

nation
(Sagittarius
in the risingsign)
(Libra in the
rising-sign)
A kingdom will emerge

(Libra in the
rising-sign)
in the world as it did in
the conjunction that was
the first of the twelve
great conjunctions (cycle
of the mighty conjunction of Jupiter and
Saturn).
Manifestation of the signs
of the conjunction in
Cancer of 5204 (according to some astrologers).
Manifestation of the signs Aquarius
of the mighty conjunction of 5224 in Pisces
(according to other astrologers).
As we can see in the Table, the full cycle of conjunctions considered by

Bar H iyya consists of 12 conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter in successive
triplicities, i.e., 12 great conjunctions of the two planets (every 238
years), changing from any triplicity to another triplicity of the zodiac.
Every great conjunction (dibbuq gadol) includes 12 small conjunctions
of 20 less years (dibbuq qat on), in which the conjunction of the
two planets moves from one zodiacal sign to another within the same
triplicity (e.g., from Aries to Leo, from Leo to Sagittarius, or from
Sagittarius to Aries in the fiery triplicity). These small conjunctions
25
are grouped into the middle conjunctions of 60 years (dibbuq ems ai),
which are the conjunctions that take place in the same sign within the
same triplicity. Forty-eight successive conjunctions of the two planets,
cycling through all four triplicities of the zodiac (water, fire, earth, and
air) bring them back, every 953 years, to the same triplicity where
the cycle began. This conjunction that returns to the first triplicity
is called the superior conjunction (dibbuq rav). In the time frame
considered by Bar H iyya there are four superior conjunctions of Jupiter
and Saturn: 1396 BCE (in Pisces), 443 BCE (in Cancer), 511 CE (in
Scorpio), and 1464 CE (in Pisces). There is a total of 144 conjunctions
(48 3) until the return of the conjunction to the sign and triplicity
of the first conjunction. The conjunction that returns to its original
position, where the count until the advent of the Messiah started, is the
mighty conjunction (dibbuq as um), with a period of 2,859 years (238
12= 2,860 years),20 exactly the number of years that separate the
superior conjunction of AM 2365 (1396 BCE) from the superior and
mighty conjunction of AM 5224 (1464 CE). Bar H iyya confers a unique
status to the cycle of this conjunction, for its completion will bring the
Messiah and the end of days.21 For Israel, this means the restoration of
its kingdom, the kingdom of the righteous, and the resurrection of the
dead, among other things. As noted by Sela, Bar H iyyas justification for
introducing this cycle, never before mentioned in historical astrology,
is to place the messianic calculation in a cosmological frame that brings
the dates he found in biblical chronology into accord with the history
of the world up to his time.
Bar H iyya uses either the mean motion or the true motion of
the planets when he establishes the moment of the conjunction of
the upper planets. However, he does not refer to both motions in all
cases. The clearer and perhaps more controversial cases are the first
great conjunction in Pisces (the watery triplicity) and the first great
conjunction in Aries (the fiery triplicity). In the first of these (1396
BCE), the conjunction took place in Aquarius (airy triplicity), if we take
26
the true motion of Jupiter and Saturn, or in Pisces (watery triplicity),

if we take their mean motion.22 In the second, the first conjunction
of the fiery triplicity (1158 BCE), the conjunction was in Aries (mean
motion) or Pisces (true motion).23 Especially in the first example, Bar
H iyya looks at the conjunction in Aquarius as well as that in Pisces in
order to interpret this significant horoscope, which is the radix of all the
following horoscopes until the end of time. It is the longest temporal
20
Sela, following MS BNF 1058, f. 67a, has the mighty conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
taking place every 2,869 years (Abraham Bar H iyyas Astrological Work and Thought,
pp. 13435). The edition by Poznanski and Guttmann, which I follow, is based in
three manuscripts: MS Oxford Bodleian 160, MS Frankfurt (Merzbacher Library),
and MS Munich 10. There the number of years of the mighty conjunction is 2859.
21
According to Abu Mashar, the starting point of the dawr (cycle) can be shifted
to the date of the significant conjunction, but he seems to regard the first dawr
(which is not shifted) as still valid (Yamamoto and Burnett, On Historical Astrology,
1: 589). Different Arabic authors attach different lengths to the dawr cycle (see Table
4). Bar H iyya seems to have considered the conjunction of the kingdom of Israel as
the starting point of a conjunctional dawr, the only one he would consider in his
astrological history, with a duration of 2,859 years, but placed within the context of a
particular theory of thousands, whose beginning took place at the creation and whose
end would coincide with the accomplishment of the mighty conjunctional cycle (the
seventh day of the world). Bar H iyyas thousands theory is inspired, in part, by Psalm
90:4, where Gods day is equated with a day (half of a 24-hour cycle) plus one-third
of the night (a watch/vigil). As we have mentioned (see note 9), Bar H iyya keeps the
correspondence with the seven days of the creation, but employs a calculation that
differs from that suggested in Psalms and makes Gods day equivalent to 857 1 7
years; see the second chapter of ha-Megalleh (Mills Vallicrosa, Llibre revelador, pp.
35ff.).
22
Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 119.
23
Ibid., p. 126.
27
cycle (the mighty conjunction of 2,859 years). Throughout the fifth

chapter of ha-Megalleh, Bar H iyya seems to give priority to the view
that the conjunction in Pisces (according to the planets mean motion)
is the first in the cycle of the mighty conjunction. Because Bar H iyya
completes the cycle of 2,859 years with the return of Jupiter and Saturn
to the watery triplicity (Pisces) and not to the airy triplicity (Aquarius),
it is clear that he considers the mean motion to be more correct than
the true; this is, indeed, the usual procedure in the calculation of the
conjunctions, as he himself states.24 Note that the rule in historical
astrology, for Bar H iyya and later, was not to use the horoscope for
the exact moment at which the conjunction takes place, but rather the
horoscope of the annual revolution of the sun in the year during which
any conjunction of the two upper planets would take place.
Throughout the text, Bar H iyya frequently compares positions in
a certain horoscope with the positions in a previous one in order to
deduce astrological judgments about future events. The references are
usually to the horoscope considered to be that of the kingdom of Israel
(1396 BCE), the horoscope of the first conjunction in any triplicity
where a certain event took or will take place, and the horoscope of any
conjunction whose cycle rules a past, present, or future historical event.
A clear instance of this comparison between horoscopes is the fact, which
Bar H iyya frequently points out, that from the first conjunction of the
mighty cycle (1396 BCE) until the great conjunction in Virgo (earthly
triplicity) in the year 34 CE (inclusive), all the great conjunctions took
place in signs that were above the horizon in the starting horoscope
(1396 BCE). After that, all the conjunctions took place in signs that
were below the horizon in the first horoscope.25 Bar H iyya confers
great importance on this general feature, because he holds that any star
or zodiacal sign above the horizon indicates the emergence and visibility
of its qualities, whereas its position below the horizon implies, in a
general way, its occultation or latency.26 All the signs in which the great
conjunctions took place from the great conjunction announcing Moses
28
birth and the emergence of the kingdom of Israel (1396 BCE) until the
horoscope of the conjunction indicating the emergence of Christendom
and the decline of Israel (34 CE) were signs that were above the horizon
in the radix horoscope (1396 BCE). Bar H iyya interprets this as a sign
of the persistence and endurance of the kingdom of Israel. By contrast,
the change of the great conjunctions to signs below the horizon in the
radix horoscope means Israels darkness and occultation in the history
of the world.27 Only with the great conjunction in Aquarius (1226
CE) would the great conjunctions return to the signs that transited the
diurnal sky in the radix horoscope.28 This change implies that Israel
will again have a visible role and increasing relevance in the history of
the world, while Christendom and Islam will be eclipsed and disappear
before the arrival of the Messiah.29
Every great conjunction is joined to one zodiacal sign that is the
ruler of a people or nation. Therefore the corresponding people or
nation is especially signified and affected by the conjunction that takes
place in its ruling zodiacal sign. If we take a look at Table 1, which lists
all the conjunctions mentioned in the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh, we
will notice that the emergence and re-emergence of Israel are linked
with the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Aquarius/Pisces (AM 2365,
4986, and 5224); the conjunctions of these planets in Virgo/Libra
(AM 3794 and 4033) indicates the emergence of Christendom; and the
conjunction in Scorpio (AM 4271) indicates the birth of Islam.30 The
24
Ibid., p. 127.
25
Ibid., p. 135.
26
Ibid., p. 135.
27
Ibid., p. 135.
28
Ibid., p. 149.
29
Ibid., p. 151.
30
Ibid., p. 145.
29
date of the Messiahs arrival and the subsequent deliverance of Israel

enter Bar H iyyas text in two alternative forms. Astrologers hold two
different opinions concerning this date and the moment at which the
mighty cycle of 2,859 years will be closed.31 According to one group,
this will happen in 1448 CE; according to the other group, in 1468 CE.
The former group, Bar H iyya explains, consider it unnecessary for all
the conjunctions of the watery triplicity until Pisces (the sign of the first
conjunction according to the mean motion of the planets) to take place.
They consider that the mighty cycle will be closed when the conjunction
of the upper planets moves from the previous triplicity to the watery
triplicity, to the corresponding sign (Cancer). For the second group,
the conjunction has to arrive at the same watery sign in which it was at
the beginning (Pisces) before the cycle of the mighty conjunction of the
two upper planets is complete (four superior conjunctions). Although
Bar H iyya does not explicitly incline towards either view (as he says,
both groups have supporting arguments), the way he uses the mighty
conjunction suggests that he favors the second group, i.e., those who end
mighty conjunction in Pisces instead of Cancer.32
There is a significant change in Bar H iyyas style and approach in
the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh, after he concludes his explanation of
the conjunctions before his time and begins to deal with contemporary
and future conjunctions.33 The transition is marked by the conjunction
of the year 1129 (the terminus post quem for the composition of haMegalleh), thirty years after the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem (1099).
The predictions of future events concern the year 1186, for which
revolts and disorders are predicted.34 These two dates (1099 and 1129)
bracket the period in which Bar H iyya wrote his book and when the
wars in Muslim and Christian lands, which he surely knew about, were
being waged. Bar H iyya describes his present in the following terms:
We are not authorized to declare what the benefit and outcome
of this war [between Christians and Muslims] will be, for we
30
are going to talk about future events that will happen, and God
can strengthen, among the signs, whatever motions [of the
planets] He deems appropriate.35
Several passages in the text hint that Bar H iyya read or knew
works on historical astrology similar to the one he was writing, which
circulated in his time:36
Among the Muslim ... Someone else among them did likewise
in a poem that he composed about the events in the kingdom
of Ishmael since the arrival of this conjunction. He says that
he has neither permission nor capacity to tell the misfortune of
Ishmael, for they are children of his people and his family. These
31
Ibid., pp. 15254.
32
Ibid., p. 154.
33
Ibid., p. 143.
34
For the many traditions regarding the conjunction of this year, see D. Weltecke, Die
Konjunktion der Planeten im September 1186, Saeculum 54.2 (2003): 179212. I owe
this reference to Prof. Charles Burnett. A conjunction of all the planets in the year
1186 is also described in a Hebrew text from the Cairo Geniza; see B. R. Goldstein
and D. Pingree, Horoscopes from the Cairo Geniza, Journal of Near Eastern
Studies 36.2 (1977): 11415 and 13738.
35
36
There were several attempts to write astrological histories of the caliphate during
the eighth and ninth centuries. According to Kennedy and Pingree, from before
Ma sha alla h, there are extant one by pseudo-Stephanus of Alexandria and another
anonymous one summarized by al-Sijz. In addition to the works by al-Kind and
Abu Mashar, there is a long series of horoscopes of the installation of caliphs in
al-Yaqu b s History and fragments of astrological histories by al-Khwa rizm and alBatta n (The Astrological History of Ma sha alla h, p. 135).
31
orb of the deferent (reqia galgal ha-gadol), whose center is

the center of the Earth. They also can move on the eccentric
circumference (ofan galgal gadol), whose center is apart from
the center of the Earth, and then they do not need the deferent
(galgal ha-haqqafah).40
persons manifested much fear about Ishmaels kingdom and

wanted neither to show more nor to indicate who will inherit
the kingdom, its greatness, and its glory after the destruction
of Ishmaels kingdom, because they do not want to or because
they do not know it.37
The Meanings of Haqqafah in Bar H iyyas Megillat haMegalleh

A key term for understanding the meaning of the astrological chapter
in ha-Megalleh is the Hebrew word haqqafah.38 This is only one of
the many terms that Bar H iyya coined to denote concepts taken from
Arabic astronomy and astrology. We have chosen to focus on it here
because of its ambiguity and the key role that it plays for understanding
Bar H iyyas astrological techniques in ha-Megalleh and the branch of
medieval astrology known as historical or mundane astrology.
Haqqafah is a technical term whose general meaning is revolution,
circuit, rotation, or path of a star. This general meaning emerges,
for instance, in the sixth chapter of Bar H iyyas Sefer H ebon mahalek ot
ha-kok avim, where it means heavenly circle or zodiac.39 In Megillat
ha-Megalleh, haqqafah can also mean either profection (profectio) or
the technique known as direction or prorogation. In these cases,
haqqafah implies two horoscopes or two positions of heavenly bodies.
In addition, as nomen rectum haqqafah signifies various elements of
mathematical astronomy: e.g., galgal ha-haqqafah deferent (Arabic
falak al-h a mil); galgal ha-haqqafah ha-qat on epicycle (Arabic falak
al-tadwr ):
The astrologers (h ak mei melek et ha-kok avim) ... say that
the planets can move on the epicycle (galgal ha-haqqafah
ha-qat on), which revolves for each of them on the sphere/
32
The type of direction known in Latin as profectio (Arabic intiha ) is

surely the most commonly used predictive technique in ha-Megalleh
37
38

For a list of words derived from this root and their meanings in Bar H iyyas work, see
Efros, Studies in Pre-Tibbonian Philosophical Terminology, pp. 337 and 356. This
glossary is useful but has to be handled with care for this and some other terms that
have astrological meanings.
39
J. M. Mills Vallicrosa, ed. and trans., La obra Sfer hesbn mahlekot ha-kokabim
(Libro del clculo de los movimientos de los astros) de R. Abraham bar H iyya
ha-Bargelon (Madrid: CSIC, 1959), p. 38 , line 4: If you investigate the motion
of the heavenly circle/zodiac (seder haqqafatan) in the horizons inclined (ofanim
ha-not im) with respect to the sphaera recta (ofan ha-mior), either northward or
southward, you will find that the number of its rising upon the Earth and that of its
setting below it are not the same, but they are according to three ways. The sphaera
recta, a concept of mathematical astronomy, can be defined as the heavenly sphere
as it appears to observers on the equinoctial line (equator), for whom the meridian
is always perpendicular (recta) to the equator. It has to be distinguished from the
sphaera obliqua, the heavenly sphere as seen by observers everywhere else except for
the equator. From their perspective, the meridian is always inclined with respect to
the equator, by an angle that changes depending on the place.
40
Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 113, line 16 (galgal ha-haqqafah); p. 113, line 14 (galgal

ha-haqqafah ha-qat on). The sense of epicycle is also found in Bar H iyyas Sefer
H ebon under the slightly different and abbreviated form ofan ha-haqqafah (ch. 14,
p. 91, line 3).
33
(aside from the elements that constitute the horoscope: signs, planets,
and aspects).41 In the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh we can distinguish
three different types of profection. The first is the profection of the
rising-sign of the vernal equinox of the year in which the conjunction
radix of the two upper planets took place, i.e., the conjunction of the
kingdom of Israel (1396 BCE). This profection reappears throughout
the text as the reference for successive horoscopes that take this
conjunction as their radix. Bar H iyya does not further explain the
technique he is employing, but simply mentions it after the degrees
of the rising-sign, midheaven, and the positions of the planets in the
horoscope in question. He includes it in the formula the profection
(haqqafah) of the year was, in the clause when the profection
arrived, and in other sentences where haqqafah is the subject of a verb
of motion.42 This type of profection is mentioned for the remaining
great conjunctions of the 2,859-year cycle that is the frame and the limit
of world history, starting with the exodus from Egypt.43 The second
type is the profection for the rising-sign of the vernal equinox of the
year in which any conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter takes place.44 The
third type of profection, secondary with respect to the first two, is
the profection of the zodiacal sign in which any of the conjunctions
of the two upper planets take place.45 Bar H iyya refers, as a rule, to
the profection of the zodiacal sign in the rising-sign, but he also pays
attention to the planets and houses affected by the movement of the
profection.46 He also employs haqqafah (as in haqqafah la-yamim) to
denote the astrological direction that makes one sign equivalent to one
day (Arabic tasyr ), although this meaning is less frequent.
Here are several examples of direction and profection (both denoted
by the same term, haqqafah):
41
Intiha is the Arabic name for the sign or degree in which the direction from the
rising-sign falls. The planet that is the lord of that sign is the sa lh uda h and is the ruler
of the entire year. For a comparison with the more systematic and complete use of
the profectio by Abu Mashar, see Yamamoto and Burnett, On Historical Astrology,
1: 610 (table). Abu Mashars system is more universal (the first conjunction or radix
is connected not with Islam but with a universal catastrophe, the flood), while Bar
H iyyas approach is more local (the radix is the conjunction of the kingdom of Israel);
where Abu Mashar and Arabic astrology place a conjunction affecting the world,
Bar H iyya focuses on a conjunction affecting only a people and a religion. We could
consider Bar H iyyas work as the unfolding of a particular case of the conjunction
of the religion and/or dynasty in Abu Mashars scheme. There is also an early use
of the profectio in the Liber Aristotelis (itself probably a work by Ma sha alla h); see
Ch. Burnett and. D. Pingree, eds. The Liber Aristotilis of Hugo of Santalla (London:
Warburg Institute, 1997), p. 112 [4.15] (De signo alentiphe, videlicet terminali). I owe
this reference to Prof. Burnett.
42
For instances of the first formula, see Megillat ha-Megalleh, pp. 128, 129, and 132; for
examples of the second and third ways of introducing the profectio, see pp. 122, 128,
and 151.
43
For instance, in the first conjunction in the earthly triplicity (AM 2841), Bar H iyya
considers the profectio from the rising-sign of the first conjunction in AM 2365; see
44
In the conjunction of AM 3408, Bar H iyya takes into consideration the moment at
which the profectio reached Sagittarius from the rising-sign (Aquarius) of the annual
revolution of the sun in AM 3397; see Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 133, and other
examples on pp. 131 and 153.
45
For instance, in the conjunction of AM 3318 (first conjunction of the watery triplicity
that began in Cancer), Bar H iyyawho understands that this conjunction indicates
the kingdom of Babylon, and more precisely, Nebuchadnezzars kingdom, which
ruled over Israelinterprets the arrival of the profectio of the sign of the conjunction
The [fulfillment of] this injunction [the crossing of the Jordan]

was postponed until the mourning days [for Moses] were
over.47 The third day was the day on which the direction of
34
(Cancer) at the place of Mars (Capricorn) as a sign of the exile of King Jehoiachin,
during the cycle of this conjunction. Keeping this pattern, when the profectio returned
to the sign of Mars twenty years later (AM 3338), Zedekiahs exile took place before
35
the days (haqqafah la-yamim) from the rising-sign [Scorpio]

reached the lot of fortune (goral ha-yofi) [in Capricorn]. The
next day, when the direction (haqqafah) reached the sign
Aquarius, which is the zodiacal sign of the first conjunction
[1396 BCE], they crossed the river Jordan.48
Bar H iyya explains that the vernal equinox of AM 2488 (1273 BCE)
was the day on which the period of thirty days of mourning for Moses
finished and at that moment Joshuas rule began (7 Nisan=23 March in
the Julian calendar). Three days later, Israel crossed the Jordan River
(10 Nisan=26 March in the Julian calendar). This day is signified in
astrology by the three signs that were between the rising-sign (15
Scorpio) and the lot of fortune (21 Capricorn), for the three signs are
made equivalent to three days. The fourth day, when the direction that
makes one sign equivalent to one day (haqqafah la-yamim) reached
Aquarius, the actual crossing of the Jordan took place, for Aquarius
is the zodiacal sign of Israel and the sign in which the conjunction
signifying the emergence of Israel (1396 BCE) took place (according
to the true motion of the two planets). In addition to the favorable
sign that implies the presence of the lot of fortune, the day of the week
on which the crossing of the Jordan took place was Thursday, the day
ruled by Jupiter, the most favorable of the planets, which was in the sign
of Aquarius, the sign of Israel.49
The meaning of haqqafah is more difficult to detect in other
contexts:
was on 23 March], when, according to the number of the days,

the direction (haqqafah) reached Jupiter, the lord of the risingsign (baal meon ha-s omeah ), which was (Jupiter) in Aquarius,
in the third house.50
In this fragment, Bar H iyya seems to be speaking about the direction
of one sign and one planet moving one day per sign in the order of the
zodiac. As we can appreciate here, much of the information conveyed
the darkness of Israel; see Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 132. Likewise, Ibn Labba n refers
to the fact that it is also possible to direct the sign where the intiha falls (and other
elements, as well). He does so in the order of the signs and in degrees of sphaera recta
(Yano, Introduction, pp. 216221 [3.20.212]).
46
For the case of the profectio of a planet, see Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 124. Concerning
the profectio of a house, see ibid. Here, Bar H iyya refers to the conjunction in AM
2488 (in the watery triplicity). The middle conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces
took place in the fourth house of the horoscope of the vernal equinox of 2484. Four
years later (2488), moving one house per year in the order of the signs, the profectio
of the sign of that conjunction was in the eighth house, which indicates death, where
Mars was placed the year of the middle conjunction in Pisces (2484). All these factors
indicated Moses death.
47
Namely, the thirty days established for the mourning.
48
Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 125, lines 2 (haqqafah la-yamim) and 3 (haqqafah).
49
For other examples of profectio, see ibid., p. 128, line 15 and p. 130, line 20. We know
of at least one source where the days of the week are related to the zodiacal signs, the
Our ancestors came out of Egypt in AM 2448 (1313 BCE),

which was the fourth year of this conjunction (in Scorpio, AM
2444/1317 BCE). ... The ruling planet of the year (ha-kok av
ha-moel al ha-anah) was Saturn, which was in the rising-sign
[Sagittarius]. ... The exile took place on the third day after the
vernal equinox [of the year AM 2448, when the vernal equinox
36
Malh amat Daniyal, a calendar with the prognostication of weather, harvests, illnesses,
death, and political issues according to the beginning of the year, the month, and the
signs of heavens. See A. Fodor, trans. (with facsimile of Arabic text), The Muslim East,
Studies in Honour of Julius Germanus (Budapest: Lornd Etvs University, 1974),
pp. 85133, especially p. 98 [5].
50
Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 123, line 7. See also p. 122, lines 27 and 29.
37
by Bar H iyya must be extracted from between the lines; this is the rule
in the astrological chapter of ha-Megalleh. Only a reader familiar with
the technique involved is able to properly understand the passage.
The technical term employed here (haqqafah) is never defined in Bar
H iyyas work, despite the fact that he seems to have introduced it to
Hebrew with these two specific meanings (profection and direction).
Haqqafah also appears in different nominal collocations; for example,
beit ha-haqqafah, meaning the sign in which the profection of any
conjunction of any of the four triplicities falls:
This seventh conjunction took place in Taurus. The vernal
equinox of the year [molad ha-levanah ha-rionah] was at two
hours less one eighth of the second day (Monday), 3 Nisan (21
March in the Julian calendar), AM 2960 (801 BCE). ... Mars
was in the sign of the profection (beit ha-haqqafah) that ruled
the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Jeroboam. Those
versed in this science say that Mars, which was the custodian
(memunneh), was in the house that indicates the kingdom of
Israel. For that reason, the kings of Israel deviated from the
[right] way and followed the ways of Jeroboam and his sins,
and Mars made them sin.51
In the previous example, the collocation beit ha-haqqafah (lit. house
of the profection, i.e., terminal house) is equivalent to mazzal hahaqqafah (lit. sign of the profection) in the next passage below. This
reflects the common confusion of the concepts of sign and house, which
are clearly distinct in theory but overlap in texts and in astrological
terminology.52
conjunction [of Jupiter and Saturn] (2365/1396). ... The sign of

the profection (mazzal ha-haqqafah) was Aries.53
Exceptionally, we find haqqafah as the direct object of the verb sovev
spin, rotate, revolve in the phrase savevah ha-haqqafah.
The vernal equinox of the first year of this conjunction took
place at the end of the first hour of the fourth night (the night
between Tuesday and Wednesday), 9 Nisan (17 March in the
Julian Calendar), AM 4847 (1087 CE). ... Twelve years after
this conjunction, when the profection completed the circuit
(savevah ha-haqqafah) of all the zodiacal signs in the sky and
returned (h ozer h alilah) to the first sign, the troops of Edom
became strong in this year to go and conquer the land of
Israel.54
51
Ibid., p. 130, line 2.
52
Arab. burg al-muntaha , Lat. signum profectionis: namely, the sign reached by the
motion of the profectio. Intiha specifically means the terminal point (degree) reached
by the profectio; see Yamamoto and Burnett, On Historical Astrology, 1: 578.

53
Megillat ha-Megalleh, p. 128, line 8.
54
Ibid., p. 143, line 27 (h ozer h alilah) and line 26 (savevah ha-haqqafah). In addition to
haqqafah, Bar H iyya employs the expression h ozer h alilah to allude to the indefinite
periodic return of the heavenly motions. Regarding the meanings of this expression,
see E. Ben-Yehudah, Thesaurus totius hebraitatis et veteris et recentioris (Jerusalem:
The conjunction moved from the fiery triplicity to the earthly

triplicity, to Taurus (2841/920), where Venus was at [the
moment of] the vernal equinox of the year of the superior
38
Ben-Yehudah, 1959), 3: 1575, where, in addition to h ozer h alilah as an adverb, we also

find the collocation h ozer h alilah with h alilah equivalent to tequfah (Rashi on Job
1:5).
39
Table 2
Abraham Bar H iyyas Terminology
haqqafah
beit ha-haqqafah
mazzal ha-haqqafah
ofan ha-haqqafah
galgal ha-haqqafah ha-qaon
galgal ha-haqqafah
tequfat ha-anah
cycle
profectio (1 sign/1 year)
direction (1 day/1 sign)
heavenly circle/zodiac
sign/house in which the profectio falls
sign in which the profectio falls
degrees, and nihug ha-mis adim direction according to the rises of

the signs.58 In each case, the reference is to calculating when a planet
or a degree of the zodiac will reach a certain position or when a certain
aspect will be formed between these two points.
55
For an overview of this encyclopedia and of Ibn Ezras scientific terminology,

see S. Sela, Scientific Data in the Exegetical-Theological Work of Abraham Ibn
epicycle
Ezra: Historical Time and Geographical Space Conception, Ph.D. dissertation,
deferent
annual revolution of the sun
Tel Aviv University, 1997 [Heb.]; idem, Ast rologiyah u-faranut ha-miqra bahaguto el Avraham Ibn Ezra (Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 1999);
Abraham Ibn Ezra and the Rise of Medieval Science. Concerning this field of
scientific terminology, we should mention his articles: El papel de Abraham ibn
Ezr en la divulgacin de los juicios de la astrologa en las lenguas hebrea y latina,
Abraham Ibn Ezras Terminological Equivalents

We will consider the term haqqafah, what it denotes, and the
equivalent terms for the profection and astrological directions in the
writings of Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089/921164/67). This comparison
is relevant, because Ibn Ezra was Bar H iyyas immediate successor
in coining Hebrew astrological and astronomical terminology. The
differences between their choices should tell us something about their
respective approaches to the problem of dealing with the limits of
medieval Hebrew to convey scientific and technical issues. Directions
are used in practically all of the astrological branches that Ibn Ezra
explored in his astrological encyclopedia.55 He employed them to make
prognostications about certain aspects of the horoscope or about general
fortune at a certain moment of the future in natal, historical, elective, and
medical astrology.56 Among other texts, Ibn Ezra explains directions
(nihugim) in the tenth chapter of his Sefer Reit h ok mah.57 Ibn Ezra
employs various terms (only one of them connected to haqqafah, as we
will see below), allowing the context to clarify the procedure involved:
nahag/niheg to direct, nihug ha-maalot direction according to the
40
Sefarad 59.1 (1999): 15994; Abraham Ibn Ezras Special Strategy in the Creation
of a Hebrew Scientific Terminology, Micrologus 9 (2001): 6587; Queries on
Astrology Sent from Southern France to Maimonides: Critical Edition of the
Hebrew Text, Translation, and Commentary, Aleph 4 (2004): 89190; and the
glossary and general comments on terminology in his Abraham Ibn Ezra, The Book
of Reasons. On Ibn Ezras astrological terminology, see also J. Rodrguez Arribas,
Les significations de et et de zeman dans le commentaire de Qohlet dAbraham
ibn Ezra, Revue des tudes juives 165.34 (2006): 43544; eadem, Finis ab origine
pendet: Death according to Medieval Astrological Sources in Hebrew, Pecia 17
(forthcoming).
56
See Ibn Ezras commentaries on Exod. 5:26, Eccles. 1:13, 1:15, 3:13, 8:6, and 9:11.
57
R. Levy and E. Cantera, ed. and trans., Abraham ibn Ezra, The Beginning of Wisdom
(Baltimore: John Hopkins Press, 1939): lxxvlxxvi; I follow the Hebrew text there for
the explanation of the directions.
58
See: first version of Sefer ha-eelot, MS BNF 1056 f. 67a (niheg); Sefer ha-Moladot,
MS BNF 1056 f. 50b (nihug ha-maalot); M. Ben-Yitzhaq Baqal, ed., A. Ibn Ezra:
Sefer Mipetei ha-mazzalot, in Seder 12 ha-mazzalot (Jerusalem: Baqal, 1995), 2: 185
(nihug ha-mis adim).
41
One calculates the directions (nihugim) of the aphetic places

(meqomot ha-h ayyim), which are five and are called the princes
(sarim): the sun, the moon, their conjunction and opposition
whichever of them takes place just before the birth (and you
take into consideration only the conjunction or the opposition
already past)the rising degree, and the lot of fortune (goral
ha-mazzal ha-t ov).59
According to Ibn Ezra, directions (and the aspects among planets) can
be calculated by two methods. The first is according to the degrees of
the signs, which are equal everywhere; the second, according to the rises
of the signs, which change from place to place. The former is based on
the ecliptic (galgal ha-mazzalot); the latter, on the sphaera recta (galgal
ha-yoer). Ibn Ezra ascribes the first method to Enoch, i.e., Hermes,
and the second to astrologers. Bar H iyya also refers to this double
procedure in several places, employing the expressions (derek ) h ebon
ha-mazzalot and (derek ) maalot ha-mazzalot.60 The calculation by
the two methods, in addition to being prescriptive (depending on the
type of direction involved), can result in astrological judgments that
are completely different or even opposite.61 Ibn Ezra states that there
are five types of directions (nihugim) that provide general knowledge
of future events. In the first type, every sign rules the mundane issue
for 1,000 years, in a cycle of 12,000 years; in the second type, every
sign rules for 100 years, in a cycle of 1,200 years; in the third type, one
sign rules for ten years, in a cycle of 120 years. The fourth type, called
al-farda r in Arabic (in Latin, fardaria or firdaria), is a cycle of 75 years
in which each of the planets rules for a certain number of years in a
certain order.62 For Ibn Ezra, the fifth type of direction is the rule by
one sign in each year of a persons life until the cycle of twelve signs
has been completed in twelve years (in all likelihood the profection).63
Directions can also be employed in the periodic conjunctions of Saturn
and Jupiter, individual anniversary horoscopes, the annual revolution
42
of the sun, and the customary lots that astrologers calculate.64 The
direction (nihug) of a degree, planet, or sign can move in the order of
the signs or the opposite. According to Ibn Ezra, lots are directed in
the reverse order of the signs, while the fifth type of direction (nihug
in the sense of profection) is directed in the order of the signs, as in haMegalleh.65 Another type of direction is that of the rising degree until
59
Second version of Sefer Keli ha-neh oet, MS BNF hb. 1045, ff. 195a195b. In
the second version of Sefer ha-T eamim, Ibn Ezra explains that in certain specific
circumstances the positions of the sun, the moon, and their conjunction cannot be
aphetic places (pp. 236239 [6.2]).
60
Among other places, ha-Megalleh, pp. 121, 137, and 152 (h ebon ha-mazzalot); pp.
120, 137, and 151 (maalot ha-mazzalot).
61
Baqal, Sefer Mipetei ha-mazzalot, 2: 185: The first way of directing is with equal
degrees: every degree is given one complete year, and the fraction of the year will
depend on the fraction of the degree. ... The second way is the direction according to
the rises. An example: if the first type of direction informs about a sick person, [the
judgment] will not be serious. If the direction is according to the second way, [the
judgment] will be very serious. ... You will act in this way with the rising degree that
you want to try. Make the direction with the rises of the signs in the place and [give]
one complete year to every degree.
62
See R. Ramsay Wright, facsimile and trans., Al-Br u n, The Book of Instruction in the
Elements of the Art of Astrology (London: Luzac, 1934), pp. 255 [438439] and 321 [517].
63
The five types of directions are mentioned and described in Levy and Cantera, Reshit
h okhmah, pp. lxxvlxxvi.
64
Dorotheus of Sidon, who refers to the fifth type of direction in his Carmen
astrologicum, states that the fortune of the native for a certain year will depend on
the position in the natal horoscope of the lord of the sign in which the profectio falls.
See David Pingree, ed. and trans., Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen astrologicum (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1976), p. 245 [4.14].
65
Arab. sahm. The basic procedure to calculate lots involves transferring to the rising
43
it reaches the body of a planet (guf kok av) or an aspect with a planet
(mabbat or); this applies to natal astrology and annual revolutions
of the sun.66 Depending on which degree is directedthe rising and
setting degrees, or the degrees in upper midheaven and the opposite
in lower midheaventhe procedure changes. Astrologers directed the
former employing the rising times of the signs in the local horizon,
while they directed the latter taking into consideration the rising time
at sphaera recta.67 When the degree to be directed is placed between
any of the angles in the horoscope (rising-sign, descending-sign, upper
midheaven, and lower midheaven), the procedure is longer and more
complicated and takes account of the rises in the contiguous angles.68
Ibn Ezras approach to directions is longer, richer, and more detailed
than Bar H iyyas; however the latter gives a thorough and specific
explanation of some of the mathematical calculation involved in
directions in his Sefer H ebon.69
Ibn Ezra uses the adverbial phrase h ozer h alilah to describe the
periodic return and repetition of the cycles of the stars, as Bar H iyya
did and we mentioned above (see note 54).
second version of Ibn Ezras Sefer ha-T eamim, with the sense of the
orb of a sphere, in this case, the zodiac (the sphere that the sun circles
and that encloses the other spheres of the planets and the luminaries),
with the same meaning given it by Bar H iyya.
Now in one day it [the sun] circles the entire circumferential orb
(ha-galgal ha-maqqif), which is 360 [degrees], and completes its
circuit (haqqafato).73
Here we also encounter the collocation galgal ha-maqqif (from n.q.f)
to mean the sphere that revolves around everything, i.e., the zodiac.
In the second version of Sefer Keli ha-neh oet, Ibn Ezra employs
haqqafah in the construct state, using haqqafat enot ha-olam as an
equivalent for tequfat ha-anah (annual revolution of the sun).74 In
addition, the Hebrew translator of Ibn al-Muthanna s commentary on
al-Khwa rizm s found in MS Parma, usually identified with Ibn Ezra,
also employs the word in construct expression, such as galgal hahaqqafah (epicycle):
The meaning of what has been (Eccles. 1:9) [refers to] the
spheres and their stars, for they are like wheels repeating a cycle
(hem kemo agullot h ozerot h alilah) and their beginning is like
their end and their end is like their beginning.70
For Ibn Ezra, n.q.f revolve, complete a circuit or revolution, which
is the root of haqqafah, retains one of the meanings assigned it by Bar
H iyya (rotation, revolution, circuit). Both Bar H iyya (in Sefer H ebon)
and Ibn Ezra (in Sefer ha-Ibbur)71 employ a noun from the same
root that is predominant in the context of historical astrology: tequfah
(Arabic tah wl ), as in tequfat ha-anah (annual revolution of the sun),
the procedure characteristic of this branch of astrology and which we
have already explained above.72 We find the word haqqafah only in the
44
degree the number of degrees separating two given positions in the horoscope where
any planet, angle, or other element is placed. The degree at which the count from the
rising degree finishes is the corresponding lot. For the motion of the direction of lots,
see Reshit h okhmah, p. lxxv.
66
Ibid., p. lxxv (Hebrew text).
67
See also the first version of Sefer ha-T eamim, in Sela, Book of Reasons, pp. 9699
[10.3.16].
68
This calculation is carefully described by al-Qabs . See K. Yamamoto, M. Yano,

and Ch. Burnett, eds. and trans., Al-Qabs : The Introduction to Astrology (London:
Warburg Institute, 2004), pp. 12029 [4.13].
69
Ibid. pp. 11217 (Hebrew text).
70
M. Gmez Aranda, ed. and trans., El comentario de Abraham ibn Ezra al Libro del
45
The epicycle (ha-galgal ha-qat on) is the galgal ha-haqqafah and

it is so-called because the planets complete a revolution on it.75
Finally, Ibn Ezra and the aforementioned translator of Ibn al-Muthanna s
commentary use the hifil form of the root n.q.f (hiqqif), with two main
meanings, one astronomical (Ibn al-Muthanna ), the other astrological
(Ibn Ezra): to revolve a star or sphere and to direct a planet or degree
in a horoscope, respectively. The latter is the only case where Ibn Ezra
uses root n.q.f for direction (rather than his customary n.h.g.).
... God created the seven planets, their apogees (gavehut), and
nodes (mah beret), in the first part of Aries and commanded them
to go around (le-haqqif), giving each of them a fixed motion
until they come together again where God created them.76
I already mentioned that the lord of the hour of birth (baal
eot ha-molad) is very powerful. For this reason, astrologers
direct it [calculate its directions] (yaqqifu) every year.77
For the profection, Bar H iyya uses haqqafah; Ibn Ezra uses nihug and,
much more frequently, the less equivocal beit ha-sof (terminal house),
similar to Bar H iyyas beit/mazzal ha-haqqafah; less frequently, Ibn
Ezra also employs ha-mazzal ha-h ozer h alilah (lit. the zodiacal sign that
makes a cycle). The profection seems to be the last of the five types of
directions (nihugim) mentioned by Ibn Ezra: one sign for every year in
a twelve-year cycle.78 As seems to have been the rule among astrologers,
for prognostications concerning historical astrology Ibn Ezra employs
the chart of the year in which some conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn
takes place, but especially a conjunction that signified the emergence of
the people, religion, or city at issue. Ibn Ezra sometimes mentions the
chart of the city, which could mean the chart of the citys foundation.
Instead, though, it refers to the rising sign of the city in the horoscope
of the annual revolution of the sun.79 As we have seen, Bar H iyya, too,
46
frequently employs the chart of the year for mundane prognostications.

In either casethe conjunction of the two upper planets or the annual
revolution of the sunIbn Ezra always calculates the horoscope of
Eclesiasts (Madrid: CSIC, 1994), pp. 14*15*.

71
S. Z. H. Halberstam, Sefer ha-Ibbur (Lyck: Verein Mkize Nirdamim, 1874), book 1 [p. 11].
72
The expression tequfat ha-anah is equivalent to tequfat ha-eme; see Ibn Ezra,
Sefer ha-Moladot, MS Paris BNF 1056, f. 49a. Ibn Ezra also employs tequfah in the
expressions tequfat ha-h odaim (monthly revolution, i.e., the periodic conjunction of
the sun with the moon that indicates the beginning of a month); see the second version
of Sefer ha-T eamim, in Sela, Book of Reasons, pp. 248251 and 328 [8.2]) and tequfat
ha-yom (daily revolution, i.e., the diurnal revolution of the sun that determines days);
see Ibn Ezras commentary on Ps. 19:7, in M. Cohen, ed., Miqraot gedolot ha-keter
[Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1992], Psalms, 1: 59.
73
Sela, Book of Reasons, p. 238 [6.3.2] (Hebrew text) and p. 239 (English trans.).
74
MS BNF hb. 1045 f. 188a.
75
B. R. Goldstein, ed. and trans., Ibn al-Muthanns Commentary on the Astronomical

Tables of al-Khwrizm (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1967), p.
112 [293]. Goldsteins translation of this passage omits the translation of galgal hahaqqafah (p. 158, lines 2930).
76
77
Ibid., p. 106 [299] (Hebrew text) and p. 152, lines 69 (English trans.).
Second version of Sefer ha-T eamim, in Sela, Book of Reasons, p. 252 [8.4.1] (Hebrew
text). I complete Selas translation (p. 253), which misses the technical sense of yaqqifu
as referring to directions; nor does he explain it in his notes.
78
Dorotheus of Sidon states that, when someone is born, the lord of the year is the
lord of the rising-sign in the natal horoscope. From the rising-sign, the astrologer
must count one year per sign until reaching the year whose prognostication he is
looking for; the lord of the sign at which his count ends is the lord of that year. The
prognostication will depend on its position in the natal horoscope and with respect to
the directed rising-sign; see Carmen, pp. 245249 [4.1].
79
See, e.g., the second version of Ibn Ezras Sefer ha-Olam, MS Vatican 477 f. 87b. See
47
the syzygy before the spring (new or full moon, in contrast to Bar
H iyya, who uses the horoscope of the vernal equinox). In these types of
horoscopes, the motion of the profection is always from the rising sign.
If you know the years of the city, look at the terminal house
(beit ha-sof), for, year after year, every time the rising-sign
reaches the position of a benefic or malefic planet [the influence
of the benefic or malefic planet] will be manifested.80
In natal astrology, Ibn Ezra seems to have known a direction (nihug)
that makes one sign equivalent to one month instead of one year
(profection), to which Bar H iyya does not refer. This next passage refers
to the direction (one month per sign) and to the profection (one year
per sign), in addition to the method for counting signs when one is
calculating the profection:
In the horoscope, look at the positions of the planets and the lot
of fortune, and assign one sign to every month. Start counting
from the rising degree until thirty degrees, which corresponds
to thirty days and ten hours [i.e., a mean solar month]. Look:
the month in which [the direction] reaches a benefic planet
indicates a profit, and the contrary if it reaches a malefic. Enoch
said that when the profection (beit ha-sof) reaches the first, fifth,
seventh, ninth, tenth, or eleventh house, it is the sign of a good
year, unless one of the malefic planets is in one of them.81
Clearly, Ibn Ezras terminology is richer and more specific than Bar
H iyyas, at least in the semantic field of directions. However, like
haqqafah (direction and profection) in ha-Megalleh, the words nihug
(direction and profection) and beit ha-sof (only profection) sometimes
overlap in Ibn Ezras writings when they denote the concept of
profection.
48
Table 3
Abraham Ibn Ezras Terminology
haqqafah
galgal ha-haqqafah
beit ha-sof
nihug
ha-mazzal ha-ozer alilah

hiqqif
ha-galgal ha-maqqif
tequfat ha-anah
haqqafat enot ha-olam
*
orb of a sphere
epicycle*
profectio (1 sign/1 year)
direction
1 sign/1000 years (12,000-year cycle)
1 sign/100 years (1200-year cycle)
1 sign/10 years (120-year cycle)
cycle of 75 years of all the planets (fardaria)
1 sign/1 year (cycle of 12 years or profectio)
direction (1 sign/1 month)
profectio
revolving a star or sphere*
directing a planet or other point on the zodiac
zodiac
used in Hebrew translation of Ibn al-Muthanna s commentary in MS Parma,
attributed to Ibn Ezra
also the first version of this treatise in MS BNF 1056 f. 85a, where a copyist clarifies
in a marginal note that the sign of the city (mazzal ha-medinah) referred to in the
text denotes the rising-sign of the city. See also F. E. Robbins, ed. and trans., Ptolemy,
Tetrabiblos (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 162165 [2.5].
80
Second version of Sefer ha-Olam, MS Vatican 477 f. 90a.
81
Sefer ha-Moladot, MS BNF 1056 f. 61a. About two hundred years after Bar H iyya
and Ibn Ezra, Gersonides (12881344) employed the profectio in his prognostication
for the year 1345 (a small conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the airy triplicity).
However, he neither coined technical terms nor employed the expressions already
put in circulation by Bar H iyya and Ibn Ezra to refer to it (despite the fact that he
knew their texts). He simply uses the procedure without naming or explaining the
technique. The Hebrew text of Gersonides and the Latin texts on this conjunction
49
Conclusions
The terminological problems reviewed here are only a sample of the
important task that faced the first translators from Arabic into Hebrew,
who had to deal with concepts and techniques never before described in
Hebrew. The comparison of the terminology employed by Bar H iyya
and Ibn Ezra reveals interesting coincidences. Both describe the return
of the cycles with the mishnaic expression h ozer h alilah and designate
the heavenly sphere/orb by forms of the root n.q.f (move in a circle,
revolve, complete a cycle): haqqafah for Bar H iyya, ha-galgal hamaqqif and haqqafah for Ibn Ezra. However, much more frequently
Ibn Ezra diverges from Bar H iyya in his terminological preferences.
In the field of mundane astrology, this divergence is visible in the very
word chosen by Ibn Ezra to designate the periodical conjunctions of
Jupiter and Saturn and any astrological conjunction. Bar H iyya uses
dibbuq (root d.b.q join) or h ibbur (root h .b.r join), whereas Ibn
Ezra employs mah beret (root h .b.r). In this case, Ibn Ezras choice
is not determined by a lack of precedent, but by personal preference
(curiously, mah beret is a biblical word, while dibbuq has a biblical root
but is not a biblical form). Bar H iyya uses the nonbiblical haqqafah to
denote the profection (also beit ha-haqqafah and mazzal ha-haqqafah);
Ibn Ezra employs another expression (beit ha-sof) that is less equivocal
and closer to the original Arabic (intiha and bur al-muntaha ), but is
also a compound of two biblical words. However, Ibn Ezra utilizes
a more specific and precise term than Bar H iyya for the directions
nihug and the verbal forms niheg (root n.h.g direct/guide) and hiqqif
(n.q.f, as in haqqafah); both are biblical roots, and the latter is a biblical
form. Despite this, Ibn Ezra uses nihug to denote either the direction
(the most frequent meaning of the word in Ibn Ezras texts) or the
profection (more precisely denoted by beit ha-sof), thus reproducing
the amphibology of Bar H iyyas haqqafah (direction and profection).
Bar H iyya seems to have given up looking for a more precise word for
directions and the action of directing a degree or a planet.
50
We can draw some conclusions about their different approaches

to the coinage of terminology. It is clear that Ibn Ezra approaches
the Arabic legacy independently of Bar H iyyas terminology. There
are two likely reasons for this. First, Ibn Ezra was the first to write
in Hebrew about certain astrological questions. He wrote much more
and about many more astrological fields than Bar H iyya (nothing by
Bar H iyya is extant in Hebrew on elective, interrogative, and natal
astrology). Second, Ibn Ezra is more concerned than Bar H iyya with
precision and with the purity and authenticity of the Hebrew language;
hence his predilection for biblical terms and roots. In all likelihood,
this characteristic of his terminology has to do with his training as
a grammarian and his concern with linguistic matters, which are
missing from Bar H iyya. Bar H iyyas astrological writings are less
rich and diversified than Ibn Ezras. However, the fifth chapter of
ha-Megalleh is clearly one of the most specialized and detailed texts
in historical astrology, surely one of the most technical in this field in
medieval Hebrew. It is clear that a reader familiar with the procedure of
historical astrology would understand the expression haqqafah, which
have been edited and translated by B. R. Goldstein (Hebrew ed. and English tr.,
pp. 1221), D. Pingree (Latin ed.), and E. Poulle (English trans. of De Muris Latin)
in Levi Ben Gersons Prognostication for the Conjunction of 1345, Transactions
of the American Philosophical Society n.s. 80.6 (1990): 160. Gersonides use of the
profectio differs from Bar H iyyas and Ibn Ezras: he counts one sign per year but in
the reverse order of the signsperhaps, as Goldstein suggests, because he is dealing
with a nocturnal horoscope. With regard to Gersonides calculations, we must point
out that, in contrast to Bar H iyya and Ibn Ezra, he calculated horoscopes for the
true moment of the conjunction of the two upper planets, which proves that he was
a more expert or more confident astronomer than his predecessors. Ibn Ezra states
explicitly that this calculation and that of the true moment of the suns return to the
vernal point, are impossible.
51
is left without explanation in the fifth chapter of ha-Megalleh; but it

is also true that this specialized astrologer was not the reader whom
Bar H iyya had in mind for ha-Megalleh. Four of its five chapters are
devoted to matters that have nothing to do with astrology, but with
Messianism. Readers of ha-Megalleh had not been introduced to the
new Hebrew terminology of the stars, for Bar H iyya was just beginning
to cope with this question, at least in writing. Many of Bar H iyyas
contemporaries surely knew astrology from Arabic sources as he did.
But even if astrology was a fashionable discipline it is hard to believe
that many could have properly understood how directions in general
or the profection in particular worked from so specialized a text as
ha-Megalleh without a previous knowledge. This consideration raises
two questions, among many others: to what extent were technical texts
of this kind autonomous, given that ha-Megalleh offers no definitions
of the key terms or an explanatory introduction? To what degree were
average readers familiar with the astrological techniques associated with
the practice of learned/scientific astrology?
482
Table
Different Cycles (dawr/adwa r) in Arabic Astrology
Abu
Mashar1
Ibn
Nawbaht
The data in the table are drawn from the following works: the introductions by Ana
Labarta and Angel Mestres to Mus ibn Nawbah t, Kita b al-azmina wa-l-duhu r
(Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 2005), pp. 2023 and 4346; E. S. Kennedy,
The World-Year Concept in Islamic Astrology and The World-Year of the
Persians, Journal of the American Oriental Society 83 (1963): 31527; D. Pingree,
The Thousands of Abu Mashar (London: Warburg Institute, 1968); Yamamoto,
Yano, and Burnett, Al-Qabs , pp. 11829; Godefroid de Callata, Ihwa n al-S afa ,
Les revolutions et les cycles (Beirut and Louvain la Neuve: Al-Bouraq Editions, 1996),
1.
pp. 43ff and 102 (letter XXXVI); Y. Marquet, Les Cycles de la souverainet selon les
ptres des Ihwa n al-S afa , Studia Islamica 36 (1972): 4769; R. Ramsay Wright, The
Book of Instruction, pp. 320321 [517]; and Yano, Ku shya r ibn Labba ns Introduction,
pp. 13849 [2.12].
52
dawr following the greater

[sic] (1 sign/
360 years in a
cycle of 4,320
years)
360,000 years
(1 degree/
1,000 years)
dawr before
the flood
(1 sign/360
years in a
cycle of 4,320
years)
51,000 years
(7,000 7)
great dawr (1
sign/100 years
in a cycle of
1,200 years)
middle dawr
(1 sign/10
years in a
cycle of 120
years)
36,000 years 12,000 years

(motion of the (1 sign/1,000
solar apogee, years)
1 sign/3,000
years)
Ibn Labba n 12,000 years 7,000 years (1 dawr (360
(1 sign/1,000 planet/1,000 years =
years from
years from
mighty farda r;
Aries in asSaturn in
1 sign and
planet from
cending order) descending
Saturn and
order)
Cancer)
Ihwa n alS afa

82
adwa r
dawr (360
(mighty, great, years/1 planet
and 1 sign)
middle)
cycle of 9,000 cycle of 7,000
cycle of
360,000 years years
years
(1 degree/
(1 planet or
(1 planet/
1,000 years)2 node/1,000
1,000 years)
years)
mighty dawr
(1 sign/1,000
years in
a cycle of
12,000 years)
small dawr (1
sign/1 year in
a cycle of 12
years)
7,000 years
(1 planet/
1,000 years)3
For Abu Mashar, the radix horoscope is that of the year 3101 BCE, which coincides
with the Indian kaliyuga. This date is the most frequent radix among the medieval
astrologers of the period. According to this tradition, a mean conjunction of all the
planets took place in Aries (0 degrees) on February 17/18, 3101 BCE.
2.
As Pingree remarks, the period of 360,000 years may derive its existence from the
53
Koran (sura 22), which states that one day for God is like 1,000 years for a man;
making one year of God equivalent to 360,000 human years. See The Thousands of
3.
Abu Maar, pp. 23-25 n. 4.

Y. Marquet proved that the theory of the great conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn,
according to the Iwa n al-afa , employs a cycle of 7000 lunar years (7 960 solar
years); each new thousand is signified by the emergence of a prophet who founds a
religion or an empire. See Les rvolutions et les cycles, p. 105 n. 95.
54
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Josefina Rodrguez Arribas

Josefina Rodrguez Arribas