Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The History of Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures
- Part I The Greek-Arabic Scientific Tradition and Its Appropriation, Adaptation, and Development in Medieval Jewish Cultures, East and West
- Part II Individual Sciences as Studied and Practiced by Medieval Jews
- 5 Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture
- 6 Astronomy among Jews in the Middle Ages
- 7 Interactions between Jewish and Christian Astronomers in the Iberian Peninsula
- 8 The Hebrew Mathematics Culture (Twelfth–Sixteenth Centuries)
- 9 Mathematical and Physical Optics in Medieval Jewish Scientific Thought
- 10 The Evolution of the Genre of the Philosophical-Scientific Commentary
- 11 Latin Scholastic Influences on Late Medieval Hebrew Physics
- 12 Meteorology and Zoology in Medieval Hebrew Texts
- 13 The Mental Faculties and the Psychology of Sleep and Dreams
- 14 Toward a History of Hebrew Astrological Literature
- 15 Astrology in Medieval Jewish Thought (Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries)
- 16 Astral Magic and Specific Properties (Segullot) in Medieval Jewish Thought
- 17 Medicine among Medieval Jews
- 18 Alchemy in Medieval Jewish Cultures
- 19 The Science of Language among Medieval Jews
- Part III Scientific Knowledge in Context
- Name Index*
- Subject Index*
- References
14 - Toward a History of Hebrew Astrological Literature
A Bibliographical Survey
from Part II - Individual Sciences as Studied and Practiced by Medieval Jews
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The History of Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures
- Part I The Greek-Arabic Scientific Tradition and Its Appropriation, Adaptation, and Development in Medieval Jewish Cultures, East and West
- Part II Individual Sciences as Studied and Practiced by Medieval Jews
- 5 Logic in Medieval Jewish Culture
- 6 Astronomy among Jews in the Middle Ages
- 7 Interactions between Jewish and Christian Astronomers in the Iberian Peninsula
- 8 The Hebrew Mathematics Culture (Twelfth–Sixteenth Centuries)
- 9 Mathematical and Physical Optics in Medieval Jewish Scientific Thought
- 10 The Evolution of the Genre of the Philosophical-Scientific Commentary
- 11 Latin Scholastic Influences on Late Medieval Hebrew Physics
- 12 Meteorology and Zoology in Medieval Hebrew Texts
- 13 The Mental Faculties and the Psychology of Sleep and Dreams
- 14 Toward a History of Hebrew Astrological Literature
- 15 Astrology in Medieval Jewish Thought (Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries)
- 16 Astral Magic and Specific Properties (Segullot) in Medieval Jewish Thought
- 17 Medicine among Medieval Jews
- 18 Alchemy in Medieval Jewish Cultures
- 19 The Science of Language among Medieval Jews
- Part III Scientific Knowledge in Context
- Name Index*
- Subject Index*
- References
Summary
It is only recently that astrology as an inseparable part of Jewish culture and thought throughout the Middle Ages has become a respectable issue in Jewish studies. If, in the past, few scholars focused on the connection between Jewish thought and astrology, today the significant role of astrology in the intellectual world of medieval Judaism is increasingly recognized.
The widespread interest in astrological issues, which can be traced back to the Talmud, becomes unmistakable as early as the tenth century, in the response to it by figures such as Sherira Gaon (ca. 906–1006) and Hai Gaon (939–1038), who commented on various issues related to the belief in astral powers. Astrology was also important enough to come under heavy attack by illustrious intellectual leaders: The refutation of astrology by Saadia Gaon (882–942) undoubtedly should be interpreted in the broader context of the contemporary philosophical and theological discourse and of Karaite attacks on astrology in general and on Rabbanite astrology and magic in particular, but it also testifies to the spread of astrological thinking in Jewish circles at the end of the first millennium. It is noteworthy that Saadia's opinion about astrology was far from uniform. Despite his criticism, he included astrological ideas in his commentary on Sefer Yeṣirah (Book of Creation). Similarly, his North African contemporary Dunash Ibn Tamim of Kairouan (ca. 885–after 955) seems to subscribe to the principles of astrology in a commentary on Genesis; however, he also devoted an entire treatise in Arabic to The Fragility of the Principles of Judicial Astrology (Fī daʿf al-uṣūl fī aḥkām an-nuğūm).
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- Science in Medieval Jewish Cultures , pp. 255 - 291Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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