The Jewish Contribution to Medieval Astrology

February 2023

Copyright © by Judith, 2022

Each month requires a needful newsletter topic. I allow these topics to arrive through inspiration. Topics float through my thoughts while washing dishes or walking. Perhaps, a good student question makes the obvious choice!  Being the first day of Chanukah, 2022, the idea formed to honor the great Medieval Jewish contributions to astrology, (generally), and medical astrology, (specifically). Theirs is a generous contribution, all too rarely cited. Regretfully, Chanukah will be over before publication!

The resultant list hardly encompasses the countless numbers of Medieval translators, astrologers, and physicians of Hebrew ancestry who preserved, transmitted, created, and eventually availed astrological texts to Europe or who served there as court physicians. 

I’ve created this short list because most astrology enthusiasts are entirely unaware of the enormity of Jewish involvement in the craft we utilize today. This occurs in part because historically, most are continuously defined by their spoken language or empire of origin. Hopefully, this little article will assist in a greater awareness of their distinctly Jewish heritage. Most entrants here deserve explicating books about their works, and indeed, many have been written! Today’s object is to remember them. 

One of the most significant and lesser-known facts about Medieval medicine is that a small number of female physicians of Hebrew ethnicity were licensed to practice medicine in specific Islamic and Christian countries. Notably, this occurs at a time when female physicians were generally prohibited from access to both licenses and practice! 

I’ve included these unusual women here - sans astrological bona fides - despite the fact that this invites the inclusion of all-era Jewish physicians, (who are not distinctly astrologers). Doing so would flood out my astrologically specific purpose.  However, these women need to be known!  

True, medical work was both a traditional and permissible vocation for Jewish men, who so often served the Sultans and Kings of Muslim and Christian lands. It is, however, astonishing to discover that a small number of Jewish women were likewise permitted to practice as physicians, albeit in a limited way. You will find their names referenced in my roster. As women, their access to wide publication would have been difficult or impossible. Hence, we regrettably know almost nothing about these remarkable women.

Medical Astrology was ingrained into the medical paradigm of the time. It is thus understood that most era physicians working within the Arabic, Mediterranean, and Ottoman lands utilized at least some form of medical astrology in their work. Let us begin with our list of remarkable thinkers, writers, translators, astronomers, mathematicians, poets, and physicians who were simultaneously either astrologers and/or medical astrologers.

• Jacob ben Tarik:  Jewish scholar who founded the first astrological school of Baghdad in 777; successfully administered by the great Arabic astrologer Al-Kindi, and the renowned Persian astrologer, Abu Ma’shar.

• Masha’Allah: 740-815 CE: A notable Persian Jewish astrologer from Khorasan, later living in Basra. He was recognized in his time as a leader in “the science of the judgments of the stars” (per bibliographer Ibn al-Nadim). He was among those who first introduced astrology to Baghdad. Masha’Allah was a voluminous author of astrological books in the Arabic language. As translations reached 12th-century Europe his works reigned as seminal. Earlier authors Dorotheas and “Hermes Trismegistus” appear to strongly influence his work. Also known as Messahalla.

• Sahl ibn Bishr: (786-c. 845) The influential “Jewish Syriac Christian” astronomer, mathematician, and significant author. He served as an astrologer to the governor of Khuristan and later, to the vizier of Baghdad. He wrote Arabic language books on astronomy, astrology, and arithmetic. Also known as Rabban al-Tabari and Haya al-Yahudi ("the Jew”). He is regarded as one of the primary astrologers of the era - his works being studied throughout the Middle Ages. 

• Ali Ibn Saul: Son of Sahl Ibn Bishr: famous physician and medical writer in Iraq (era physicians made use of medical astrology in some manner).

• Da’vd Abu al Fadi: Highly influential physician of Karaite Jewish origins.

• 800s -1300s CE: Jewish women doctors openly practice in Turkey and Egypt. 

• Isaac ben Solomon Israili: (900s) authors books on medical astrology that remain influential for centuries. Also known as Isaac Israeli the Elder and Isaac Judaeus, he was one of the foremost philosophers, physicians, and astrologers living in the Arabic lands. He is regarded as the father of Medieval Jewish Neoplatonism. His works, originally penned in Arabic, entered 13th-century European university medical curricula as Hebrew, Latin, and Spanish translations. His works remained well-regarded throughout the Middle Ages.

• 1000 CE: Arabs and Jews become court physicians in Germany.

• Solomon ibn Gabirol (b. 1021-22): Author of significant astrology inclusive text Keter Malkut

• Abraham bar Ḥiyya ha-Nasi (c. 1070 – 1136 or 1145), also known as Abraham Savasorda, Abraham Albargeloni, and Abraham Judaeus: Active translator of Arabic language scientific works into Latin. He may have been the first to introduce Arabic algebra to Christian Europe. His original works spanned manifold topics including astronomy, mathematics, Jewish thought,  land surveying, and no less, astrology.

“Bar Hiyya was the first medieval intellectual to write in Hebrew for a Jewish audience about astrology in the framework of the reception of Graeco-Arabic science.”          

- Abraham Bar Hiyya, Astrological Work and Thought by Shlomo Sela

• Judah Ha-Levi (1075-1141 CE): Revered Jewish poet, philosopher, physician, friend of Abraham Ibn Ezra, and noted author of a treatise on planetary climatology.

• Abraham Ibn Ezra: (c. 1089- c. 1167) A highly influential astrologer who incorporated astrological ideology into his influential biblical exegesis. Ibn Ezra facilitated the absorption of astrological content into mainstream Jewish culture; wrote the first comprehensive corpus of Hebrew astrological guidebooks that address the main genres of Arabic language astrology, while providing Hebrew readers with access to astrology. Claudius Ptolemy is cited as Ibn Ezra’s foremost source. Also known as Abraham Avenezra, he was a highly influential transmitter of astrology and science in Europe and Medieval Latin culture. 

• Abraham Ibn Daud (1110-1180): This is the significant philosopher and author whose work strongly infused the philosophical approach of Maimonides (who later superseded him). Ibn Daud authored astrological considerations in his Emunah Ramah.

• The Jewish Opposition: Maimonides 1138-1204: A renowned Sephardic Jewish physician and philosopher who decried astrology. Born in Cordova, he served as a royal physician in Cairo. His scathing Repudiation of Astrology, categorically rejecting the science, is loudly celebrated and oft-cited by astrology’s critics. There are, of course, other Jewish thinkers who agreed with his position. We have included him here for reference purposes.

• 1158 CE: Jewish astrologer and physician Abraham Ibn Ezra, from Toledo, lectures at the English court. (See his mini-biographical blurb, above).

• 1200s CE: Jewish women doctors, (mostly oculists) practice in Germany and other countries. R. Yehudah ben Asher and Marat Yuskah are prominent. 

• David Ben Yom Tov 1300-1361 CE (approx.): A Catalan Jewish astrologer and astronomer who wrote the Ketal Qatan on fevers (includes medical astrology)

• 1321 CE: Fava of Manosque and Hava of Manosque: practicing female Jewish surgeons. 

• 1326 CE: Sara de Sancto Aegidio: Only record of Jewess teaching medicine is recorded in Marseilles records. 

• 1387 CE: Na Bellaire and Na Pla: Licensed female Jewish physicians in Levida, Aragon.

• 1389-1497 CE: List of Jewish women doctors of Frankfurt-am-Main. 

• 1419 CE:  Sarah of Wurtzburg: A Jewish female physician obtains permission from Bishop Johann II of Brunn to practice medicine throughout the diocese. 

• 1428 CE: Serlin: Female Jewish physician allowed to live and practice outside of the Jewish quarter. 

• 1453 CE: The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans contributed to the wider dispersion of both Jewish and Greek physicians, (and their astrologically inclusive medical system) throughout neighboring lands. The city hosted a Jewish population of 30,000 with over 44 synagogues. Most exiled Jews fled to Cairo. Certainly, some were removed to Greece, et al. Later, the Ottoman empire became a safe haven for Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquisition.

• 1492 CE: The expulsion of Jews from Spain disseminates Jewish physicians and their medical knowledge and texts to new host countries, including, but not exclusive to Holland, England, Italy, the Basque lands in Spain and France, and the Baltics. A significant number dispersed to various cities within the Ottoman Empire, including North Africa. Interestingly, a community of Jews (and their physicians) was thought to have fled to India at this time, becoming what is now called the Paradeci. 

• Judah ben Moses ha-Kohen: A foremost astrology and astronomy translator serving as a personal physician to Alfonso X ("the Learned") of Castile (ca. 1243-1272). He was Rabbi of the Toledo synagogue, and possibly born in this city. He was literate in Hebrew, Arabic, Castilian, and Latin.

• Jacob Alcorsono and Crescas de Vivers served as court physicians at the courts of Pedro IV (1336-87)

• John 1  (1387-89): Court astrologer of Aragon.

• Abraham Zacuto (1450-1510): Author of Sefer Yusahin. A court astrologer at the court of Manual 1 of Portugal from 1494 until the expulsion of the Jews from Portugal in 1497.

• Jacob B. Emmanuel Provinciale ( Also known as Bonet de Latts), (The late 1400s - early 1500s). Served as a physician and court astrologer to popes Alexander VI and Leo X. Authored Prognosticum. He is well known for his invention of an astrological ring mechanism that allowed the practitioner to measure the stellar and solar altitudes and hereby determine the time of day with great precision. 

• Nostradamus (1503-1566): The great Hebrew physician, still renowned for his remarkable feats of future prediction, disguised within cryptic quatrains, and frequently citing specific upcoming planetary alignments. His family (said to be of Jewish genetic descent from the tribe of Issachar), were probably forced converts to Catholicism.

Start learning Medical Astrology 101. This course is designed for the independent student to acquire a foundation in reading the Planetary Health Chart.

Medical Disclaimer: Use this celestially timed recipe exclusively with your physician’s consent and their specified contraindications. We cannot give medical advice, direction, or prescription. This recipe is for educational purposes only, and wonderment. We are not responsible for the misuse of this recipe.