Maslama al-Qurtubi
Description
Picatrix is a 400-page Arabic book of magic and astrology, which most scholars assume was originally written in the middle of the 11th century, though an argument for composition in the first half of the 10th century has been made. The work was translated into Spanish and then into Latin during the 13th century, at which time it got the Latin title Picatrix. The title Picatrix is also sometimes used to refer to the book's author.
Life & work in brief
Summarised by section — one row per topic, for fast reading.
| Work / contribution | Significance |
|---|---|
| Content and sources | The work is divided into four books, which exhibit a marked absence of systematic exposition. |
| Authorship and significance of title | The Arab historian, Ibn Khaldun, in his Muqaddimah, ascribed authorship of Picatrix (referring to the original Arabic version, under the title Ġāyat al-Ḥakīm غاية الحكيم ) to the astronomer and mathematician Maslama Al-Majriti, who died between 1005 CE and 1008 CE (398 AH). |
| Anticipation of experimental method | Martin Plessner suggests that a translator of the Picatrix established a medieval definition of scientific experiment by changing a passage in the Hebrew translation of the Arabic original, establishing a theoretical basis for the experimental method: |
Contribution to the celestial-alphabet tradition
Andalusi astronomer-magus attributed the Picatrix (Ghayat al-Hakim), the defining Arabic astral-magic grimoire of planetary talismans and stellar letters — the Iberian conduit through which Arabic stellar-letter magic enters the Latin West.
Lineage — influence tree
Where Maslama al-Qurtubi sits in the magi lineage: who shaped this figure, and who this figure shaped in turn. Mage names link to their own ficha.