View source for Al-Qabisi

{{Short description|10th century Arabian astrologer}}
{{about|the astrologer and mathematician|his contemporary, the jurist|Abu ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ḳābiṣī}}
{{Distinguish|Ibn al-Qabisi}}
[[File:Alchabitius – Opus ad scrutanda stellarum magisteria isagogicum, 1521 – BEIC 1211700.jpg|thumb|''Opus ad scrutanda stellarum magisteria isagogicum'', Latin translation from 1521]]

'''Abu al-Saqr Abd al-Aziz ibn Uthman ibn Ali al-Qabisi''', generally known as '''Al-Qabisi''', (Latinised as '''Alchabitius''' or '''Alcabitius)''', and sometimes known as ''Alchabiz'', ''Abdelazys'', ''Abdilaziz'' ([[Arabic]]:'' 'Abd al-Azîz'',  عبدالعزيز القبيصي), (died 967) was a Arab Muslim [[astrologer]], [[astronomer]], and [[mathematician]].

==Life==
Originally from Qabisa in [[Iraq]],<ref name=a>{{cite web |title=Qabisi |url=https://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Qabisi_BEA.htm |website=islamsci.mcgill.ca}}</ref> Alchabitius later went to [[Aleppo]] where he worked for and lived in the palace of [[Sayf al-Dawla]]. He died in 967.<ref name=WDL>{{cite web |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9554/ |title=Introduction to the Art of Judgments of the Stars |website=[[World Digital Library]] |date=1512 |access-date=2013-07-14 }}</ref>

==Work==
Al-Qabisi is best known for his treatise on [[judicial astrology]], ''Introduction to the Art of Judgments of the Stars''.<ref name=WDL/> This was dedicated to the Emir of Aleppo, Prince Sayf al-Dawla,<ref name=Warburg>{{cite book |editor1=Burnett, Charles |editor2=Yamamoto, Keiji |editor3=Yano, Michio |title=Al-Qabisi (Alcabitius): The Introduction to Astrology |date=2004 |publisher=The Warburg Institute |location=London |isbn=085481132X |page=2}}</ref> and survives in at least twenty-five Arabic manuscripts, and over two hundred manuscripts of its Latin translation, with twelve printed editions of the Latin work between 1473 and 1521.<ref name=Warburg />{{rp|1}} The Arabic text has received at least three Latin translations, which attracted several commentaries and were, in turn, translated into other European languages. In the 12th century it was translated by [[Johannes Hispalensis]].<ref name="PMC_7927718">{{cite journal|first1=David Eugene|last1=Smith|author-link1=David Eugene Smith|title=Medicine and Mathematics in the Sixteenth Century|pmc=7927718|pmid= 33943138|journal=Ann Med Hist.|date=July 1, 1917|volume= 1|issue=2|pages=125–140|oclc=12650954}} (here cited p. 126).</ref> In 1512 it was published by [[Melchiorre Sessa]] in [[Venice, Italy|Venice]].<ref name=WDL/> The 1473 copy, and others up until 1521, features writing about Al-Qabisi by [[John of Saxony (astronomer)|John of Saxony]],<ref name=WDL/><ref>Lynn Thorndike, ''A History of Magic and Experimental Science,'' vol. 3, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934), pp. 262-3.</ref> who commented his [[astrology|astrological]] works.<ref name="PMC_7927718" />

Al-Qabisi wrote a modest book on [[arithmetic]], "Risala fi anwâ' al-‘adad" (Treatise on the kinds of numbers), in which he discusses [[Euclid]]'s [[perfect number]]s and how to form them, and [[Thābit ibn Qurra]]'s theorem on [[amicable number]]s.<ref name=Rashed2013>{{cite book |last=Rashed |first=R. |title=The Development of Arabic Mathematics: Between Arithmetic and Algebra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jb3nCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA281 |year=2013 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-94-017-3274-1 |page=281}}</ref>

Other works include:<ref name=a></ref>
* Risala fi al-ab'âd wa-'l-ajrâm (A treatise on distances and bodies);
* Kitāb fi ithbāt ṣinā’at Aḥkām al-nujūm (On Confirming the Art of Astrology);
* Hal al-Zîjat (Solving astronomical tables);
* Risāla fī imtiḥān al-munajjimīn (A treatise for the examination of astrologers)
* Shukūk al-Majisṭī (Doubts on the Almagest);
The belief in the power of stars dated back to Alexandrinian sect of [[iatromathematicians]] and the more ancient cult of [[Hermes Trismegistos]].<ref name="PMC_7927718" />

==See also==
*[[Al-Biruni]]
*[[Haly Abenragel]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite encyclopedia | editor=Hispalensis, Johannes  | editor-link=John of Seville | last=Alchabitius | title=Alchabitius cum commento noviter impresso (Libellus isagogicus Abdilazi) | publisher=[[Melchior Sessa]] | date=1512 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wunk47yU__YC&q=alchabitius | language=la}}
* {{cite encyclopedia | editor=Hockey, Thomas | last=Yamamoto | first=Keiji | title=Qabīṣī: Abū al-Ṣaqr ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAlī al-Qabīṣī | encyclopedia=The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers | publisher=Springer | date=2007 | location=New York | page=941 | url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Qabisi_BEA.htm | isbn=978-0-387-31022-0|display-editors=etal}} ([http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Qabisi_BEA.pdf PDF version])
*{{cite encyclopedia | last=Pingree | first=David | title=Al-Qabīṣī, Abū Al-Ṣaqr 'Abd Al-'Azīz Ibn 'Uthmān Ibn 'Alī  | url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830903546.html |  encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of Scientific Biography|Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography]] | publisher=[[Encyclopedia.com]] | orig-year=1970-80 | date=2008}}
{{Astronomy in medieval Islam}}{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qabisi}}
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:967 deaths]]
[[Category:10th-century astronomers]]
[[Category:Medieval Syrian astronomers]]
[[Category:Medieval Syrian mathematicians]]

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