Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah: A Fourteenth Century Defense against Astrological Divination and

Alchemical Transmutation
Author(s): John W. Livingston
Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 91, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1971), pp. 96-
103
Published by: American Oriental Society
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 IBN QAYYIM AL-JAWZIYYAH: A FOURTEENTH CENTURY DEFENSE AGAINST
ASTROLOGICAL DIVINATION AND ALCHEMICAL TRANSMUTATION

JOHN W. LIVINGSTON
HARVARD
UNIVERSITY

This article is a review of the arguments of the hanbalt theologian Ibn Qayyim al-Jaw-
ziyyah (d. 1349 A.D.) against the occult sciences that existed in Islam during his time. The
article takes as its point of departure Professor Armand Abel's argument (La place des
sciences occultes dans la d6cadence, in Classicisme et declin culturel dans l'histoire de l'Islam,
edited by R. Brunschwig and G. E. Von Grunebaum, Paris, 1957) that the Sunni religious
institution protected, and indeed sanctioned, the rising tide of occultism which, according
to Abel, inundated the lands of Islam in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries of the Christian
era. Ibn Qayyim, one of the great spokesmen of the Sunni tradition, devoted over two
hundred pages in his Miftah Dar al-SaCadah in harshly denouncing divinatory practices,
especially astrology and alchemy, which does not at all tally with the conclusions drawn
by Professor Abel. Some of Ibn Qayyim's arguments appear to be original, while some,
according to his own admission, definitely are not. The author of the present article deals
with Ibn Qayyim's refutations of astrology and alchemy and has tried to show from what
sources the theologian may have learned his arguments.

AN ATTITUDE SHARED BY A GREAT MANY WRITERS
on Islamic intellectual decline, regardless of their
historical perspective, is that when the "rational"
(i.e., the Greek) sciences1 gave way to religious
totalitarianism, occult sciences-which had also
entered Islam in the train of its Hellenic inherit-
ance-flourished in their place. This theme forms
the substance of Armand Abel's contribution
("La place des sciences occultes dans la d6ca-
dence") to an international symposium of Islamic
scholars which met in Bordeaux in 1956 to discuss
;he decline of Islamic civilization.2 I shall leave
aside the problems evoked by Professor Abel's
article, and the symposium as a whole.3 I shall
1 The rational sciences were called by Muslim writers
al-'ulim al-'aqliyyah or 'ulum al-awd'il: sciences
herited by Islam, particularly from the Greeks. A second
category of the sciences distinguished by Muslims was
the 'ulum al-'arab (sciences of the Arabs) or 'ulum al-
shari'ah (sciences of religious law). See Ibn al-Nadim,
Fihrist al-'Ulum, ed. G. Fliigel, Leipzig, 1871-72;
Muhammadibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, Mafdtihal- Ulum,
ed. G. Van Vloten, Leiden, 1895; Abu Nasr al-Farabi,
Kitdb Ihsa' al-'Ulm, Cairo, 1931; Abu 'All ibn Sina,
Risalah fI Aqsam al- 'Aqliyyah, in Tis'a Rasa'ilfi
1-Hikmah wa 1-Tabi'iyydt, Cairo, 1908.
2 Classicisme et declin culturel dans l'histoire de l'Islam,
organized by R. Brunschwig and G. E. von Grunebaum.
Paris, 1957.
3 For example,
the vague meaning of "decadence"
rather examine Abel's depiction of the rise of the
occult sciences in Islam, for I believe him to have
overstated the case in putting forth the example
of Abful-'Abbas Ahmad ibn 'Abdullah al-Qurashi
al-Bini as proof of occultism's grand success in
the thirteenth century:
Avec celui-ci (al-Buni), la science des invocations, des
talismans, des divinations, de l'astrologie, de l'emploi
des noms sacres, des mots magiques et secrets, la
cabbale, l'usage du djafr, tout cela va se trouver
systematise, clarifi6, autant que faire se peut, vul-
garis6 et mis definitivement sous l'egide de la religion.4
In view of the number of first-rate thinkers in
Islam from every religious quarter, including
al-Jabiz (d. 869), Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), al-
Ghazzali (d. 1111), Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1200),
in-
as it was used, the nature of "science" as the natural
philosophers and scientists of Islam conceived it, the
subtle differences that distinguished "legitimate" from
"occult" sciences in the minds of some medieval thinkers
but not of others; and the particularly difficult problem
of whether in actual fact occult science took the place of
natural science as interest in the latter retreated from a
society tyrannized by religious totalitarianism, or
whether occultism, as an integral part of the Greek gift
to Islam, enjoyed more or less the same attention in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as it did during the
High 'Abbasid period, 850-1050.
4 Classicisme et declin culturel, p. 301.

96

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 Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmautation,
LIVINGSTON:
and Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 132S), all of -whom
wrote against the occult sciences, it comes
with some surprise to be told that the occult
sciences were to find a refuge in religion.5 If by
religion Abel meant the established religious
institution of High Islam (as opposed to folk
Islam) as represented by the jurists, judges,
jurisconsults, the religious and legal thinkers and
officials, known collectively as the ulema, then
some qualification must be made to Abel's thesis,
since the temper of the ulema regarding 'ulbim
al-awd'il, and in particular alchemy and astro-
logical divination, often became violent in its
opposition.6
In considering the attitudes representative of
the Sunni religious establishment in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, account should be taken
of the HanbalTwriters and jurists, especially Ibn
Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (d. 1349), who, though
overlooked by Abel, was as important a spokes-
man against occultism in the fourteenth century
as al-B-un! was for it in the thirteenth century.
Ibn Qayyim stands out as one of the most im-
portant thinkers in the Hanbali tradition, which
included his own teacher Ibn Taymiyyah, and a
century before him Ibn al-Jawzi. All three of these
religious scholars express in the corpus of their
writings, sermons and legal decisions (fatadia),
sentiments not only of the Hanbalz school, but
of all the members of the Sunni community who
were seriously concerned with defending the
established Sunna of Islam from innovations
from any direction, whether Christian saint-
worship, Aristotelian metaphysics, or astrological
divination and the pursuit of alchemical trans-
mutation. With respect to occultism in particular,
those who saw in its practice a threat to Sunni
Islam as it had developed throughout the centuries
found their most eloquent and violent guardian
in Ibn Qayyim. His attack, or defense, depending
5This does not include "non-religious thinkers,"
such as the three famous falasifa, al-Farabi (d. 950),
Ibn Sina (d. 1037) and Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) who also
wrote against occultism and whose arguments were
used by the religious thinkers when they suited the
purpose.
6 I. Goldziher, "Stellung der Alten Islamischen
Orthodoxie Zu der Antiken Wissenschaften", Abhand-
lungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften,Berlin, 1914-15.
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97
on how one chooses to view it, comes in his
tliftah/ Dar al-Sa'ddah,7 compared by Nallino to
Pico della Miirandola's Adversus Astrologiam.8
His arguments, some of which by their originality
reveal a certain scope of imagination, and even
humor-not that Hanbali or any type of con-
servatism should engender an "ankylose" of
humor and imagination-stand by their own
merit as worthy of being reviewed. In addition to
this, however, the thesis put forth by Professor
Abel, who by neglecting to mention the tradition
expressed by Ibn Qayyim's polemic has given a
distorted picture, makes a review of these argu-
ments all the more desirable.
Ibn Qayyim's arguments are directed generally
against alchemy and divination of all varieties,
but particularly against the astrologers: those
who would dare think they could know secrets
locked within the mystery of God's supreme and
all-embracing wisdom. For the astrological
diviners, the heavens, with the unchanging har-
mony and periodicity of the fixed and moving
stars, were the key to divine secrets which by
expert interpretation of the initiated could be
known to man; but for Ibn Qayyim the heavens
offered divine proofs of the perfection of God's
cosmic creation, the product of a wisdom so great
that it would be the height of folly for one to claim
knowledge of even the smallest scrap of it. For
Ibn Qayyim, the structure and harmony of the
universe, and of the earth's relation to it, with its
four seasons, its moon and sun winding around
their celestial belts, were God's gifts to man. The
sun nourished plants and animals for man's
sustenance and measured his years and days. By
them he reckoned religious feasts and proper times
to pray. The stars were the traveler's nightly
guideposts. The earth, with its elements of fire,
water, air and earth, its seasons, seas, mountains
and winds all in perfect balance, about which
circumambulated the accoutrements of the cos-
mos, formed a well-built and furnished home, a
7 There are two
editions of this book, both made in
Cairo; the first was printed in two volumes, 1905-07;
the second in one volume, 1939,by al-Azhar Library.
8 C. A. Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti Editi e Inediti, Vol.
V, Astrologia, Astronomia, Geographia,a cura di Maria
Nallino, Rome, 1944, p. 33.
98 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 91.1 (1971)
masterpiece of cosmic utilitarianism, whose archi-
tect had designed with infinite vision and un-
wasted effort for man's needs and pleasures.9
As for him who believes that human personalities
and events are influenced by the heavenly bodies,
he is
the most ignorant of people, the most in error and the
furthest from humanity; he as much as declares him-
self publicly to know not that his creator is the same
creator of the heavens and the earth; nor does he
know the Lord's attributes nor His acts. Indeed, he
knows not his own soul within him, nor does he know
its purpose or why it was created, nor by what it is
perfected and what is good for it, what corrupts it and
what destroys it. He is certainly the most ignorant of
people concerning his own soul and its creator.'0
He is even worse off than the ignorant Christians
with their trinity, pope and ecclesiastical hier-
archy.1l "Is this anything but deceit and lies"
by those ignorant of God's revelation, who claim
the sublunary world is influenced by heavenly
bodies and spirits,u in the same manner the sun
and moon influence plants and animals?
The change and transformation, the generation and
degeneration of this world can have no relationship
with a star [excluding the sun and moon] whose oc-
currence (wuqu') can only be imagined (yatasawwaru)
as the will of an all-powerful active agent (fd'il) to
whose power are subjugated the effects of stars and
spirits, and by whose will they are ordered.l3
If the stars had intelligence and will, would they
not leave their fixed orbits? They do not do so,
for they cannot, bound as they are by the Al-
mighty Will.
And so for those who claim happiness and sadness to
be in relation with the stars, they are laughed at by
intelligent people from every country. Their ignorance
and error make them a center for all excesses and ig-
norance concerning prophetic and rational truth. So
we shall show you their ignorance and lies and contra-
dictions and the falsity of what they say.'4
9 Miftdh, pp. 214-300.
10
Mift.ah, p. 462. This page is mispaginated as 362.
n Miftdh, p. 488.
12 That is, spirits which guide the movements of the
seven moving stars.
13
Miftdh, p. 462.
14 Miftah, pp. 462-63.
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Having properly castigated the astrologers as
being worse than infidels, quite in accordance
with the form of Muslim polemics, Ibn Qayyim
whittles their art away in more rational tones. It
must not be thought, however, that the presenta-
tion here of his arguments is in the same order as
that in his own narrative. Only the most interest-
ing arguments will be mentioned, and presented
so as best to bring out their essence in the fewest
possible words; Ibn Qayyim often repeats himself
in unfolding his arguments and sometimes punc-
tuates them with emotional outbursts and pious
admonitions irrelevant to the logic of his proofs.
Also, details or variations of some of his main
arguments which are scattered throughout the
text have been brought together for unity and
coherence.
His first argument is drawn from Aristotelian
celestial physics, ironical though this may be for a
.Hanbalzjurist.15
Let it be asked of them: Concerning the thing which
causes influences with respect to good and bad fortune,
is it from one star by itself, or one zodiacal constella-
tion, or is it from a star but conditional upon the
star's being a part of a constellation? All [three] are
absurd. The first and second necessitate the continu-
ance of the influence, since that which influences is
perpetually fixed in place. The third is also absurd
because when the influence of the star changes because
of a change of two constellations [along the zodiac] it
is necessary that the nature of each constellation differ
in essence from the nature of the second, since if it
were not so, the natures of all the constellations would
be the same in essence and therefore the influence of
the [influencing] star in all of the constellations would
necessarily be the same influence, since it is impossible
that differences follow from things identical in nature.
When the influences of all stars are necessarily different
by reason of the difference in the constellations, it
follows that there must be a break (qit'a) or dividing
point in the state (kawn) of the zodiac which marks a
difference in nature and essence, and this requires that
the state of the celestial sphere be composed of several
substances and not one. Yet all the philosophers have
15 However, a Hanbali faylasuf was not unknown.
Isma'il ibn Azj I studied logic and philosophy and wrote
that the knowledge of the prophets was in accordance
with that of Aristotle and Hermes; Goldziher, "Stel-
lung," p. 8.
 LIVINGSTON: Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation
said that the celestial sphere is of one pure, simple
substance and not a compound.16
In the following section, entitled "The Second
Aspect in Discourse on the Falsity of Astrology,"
Ibn Qayyim presents a number of short proofs,
some of which are criticisms of the astrologer's
methodology and technique rather than proofs
bearing on the falseness of the art. This is true of
the first three arguments which are quite similar
to one another. Since human eyesight is not cosmic
in its reach, the number of moving stars, he argues,
(now dispensing with the celestial system of
Aristotle) is unknown, and therefore knowledge of
their sublunary influences must be limited. For
example, if a body the size of Mercury were in the
highest sphere, human eyesight would not per-
ceive it, and accordingly, smaller stars in pro-
portionately lower spheres would also be im-
perceptible. Influences of these stars, unseen be-
cause of size and distance, would be indeterminate.
And if you astrologers answer that it is precisely be-
cause of this distance and smallness that their influ-
ences are negligible, then why is it that you claim a
great influence for the smallest heavenly body, Mer-
cury? Why is it that you have given an influence to
al-Ra's and al-Dhanab, which are two imaginary points
[ascending and descending nodes]?17
If the Milky Way is a myriad of tiny stars
packed together in the sphere of the fixed stars it
is certainly impossible to have knowledge of their
influences.l8 In a later section Ibn Qayyim uses
the same argument but with an empirical ap-
proach. The only way to know the individual
influences exerted by all possible combinations of
positions of the moving and fixed stars is by repe-
tition of experience. The same outcome of a
worldly event must occur for each identical stellar
16
Miftdh, pp. 363-64. Compare with al-Farabi's argu-
ment, Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti, V, pp. 23-24.
17 For the
importance of nodes, see Willy Hartner,
"The Pseudoplanetary Nodes of the Moon's Orbit in
Hindu and Islamic Iconographies. A contribution to the
History of Ancient and Medieval Astrology", Ars
Islamical, vol. V, 1938.
18 Pages 364-65. Ibn Sina posed essentially the same
argument; A. F. Mehren, "Vues d'Avicenne sur l'as-
trologie," Le Museon, III, 1884, p. 400.
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99
configuration. But since, in terms of minutes and
seconds of degrees, the moving and fixed stars
return to an identical position with respect to one
another only after thousands of years, how can
one hope to draw conclusions from experience?
Not even history extends far back enough for this.
Even if all the heavens returned to the same posi-
tion a thousand times the astrologer still would
not know if the cause of the influence was due to
certain conjunctions or to the totality of the
heavens in that one particular position. Ibn
Qayyim gives two further arguments related to
this: that since the natures of the perceived fixed
stars are imperfectly known, their influences are
as imperfectly known; and that the human mind
could not possibly comprehend the great multi-
plicity of composed natures obtained from more
than one thousand stars, each of which had its
own nature.'9 His fifth argument is essentially the
same as one used by ibn Iazm three centuries
earlier. Since the distance of the sphere of fixed
stars from the earth is so great that one second
of degree is many thousands of times the diam-
eter of the earth, precise measurement in terms
of seconds and thirds was impossible.20 In fact,
so quickly did the outer sphere move that in the
time a fast-walking man took one step, a fixed
star moved three thousand miles;21 or as presented
several pages later, in the interval between the
separation of the baby from the womb and the
astrologer's setting up of his astrolabe and taking
his readings, the fixed stars moved over a distance
of one thousand times the size (diameter) of the
earth.22 Observational instruments were not ac-
curate enough to measure such minuscule differ-
ences.
One argument of his-that the zodiacal symbols
of the bear, snake, lion and scorpion, etc. in no
way resemble the constellations after which they
19This had been an argument of Ibn Sina; Nallino,
Raccolta di Scritti, V, pp. 29-30.
20 Nallino, Raccolta di
Scritti, V, p. 31
21Miftdh, p. 465.
22
Miftah, p. 470. This had been mentioned in his
eighth argument (p. 468) with reference to a treatise by
the scientist 'Ali ibn al-Haytham on defects in observa-
tional equipment and man's inability to perfect them.
100 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 91.1 (1971)
are named-may seem exceedingly weak. More
in sympathy with modern thought is his ques-
tioning of a science that claimed for itself one
truth, but had so many different systems-
Persian, Chinese, Babylonian and Indian-none
of which could agree with the other as to whether
certain conjunctions cause happiness or sadness,
wealth or poverty, ugliness or beauty, good or
bad character.23
As for the claim that a person's personality is
determined by the stars at the moment of birth,
it would have to follow that everyone born at
the same moment would have the same character
traits, which is nonsense. Will a twin who goes to
the northern regions of snow and cold not differ
from the other who lives in a hot climate? What
of men killed in the same hour in battle, or
drowned in the same moment of some disaster at
sea, whose horoscopes were different? 24 The only
similarity between the ascendant constellation of
the zodiac and the child just taken from the womb
is that both appear after having been concealed.
Whoever claims otherwise is weak-minded.25
Furthermore, if the astrologers truly thought of
exactitude, they would consider the moment of
conception, not birth, as the determining point
in a person's character. It is then that generation
and existence begin. Birth, by which time the
foetus has already become a person in existence,
is no more than a transference from one place to
the next.
In a section dealing with the contradictions of
astrologers Ibn Qayyim ridicules their division of
the Zodiac to account for variation in influences
into sexes, colors, and the four qualities, hot,
cold, dry and moist. Does this not refute their
contention that the super-lunary spheres are of
one pure nature? 26How could a particular stellar
configuration transmit the same influence to
23
Miftah, p. 467.
24 See Ibn jHazm, Al-Fisal fi 1-Milal wa-l-Ahwa'
wa-l-Nihal, Cairo 1347 H., vol. 5, pp. 24-25 for a similar
argument.
25
Mift.h, p. 468.
of
Miftd.h, pp. 490-502. For an earlier development
26
this argument by Ibn Sina see Mehren, "Vues d'Avicenne
sur l'astrologie," p. 388.
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people living in opposite regions of the world?
The only heavenly influences come from the rays
of heat which fall in varying quantities upon the
seven climes of the earth. In comparison to the
sun the heat of all other stars is negligible. The
sun does have a direct physical effect. People
living in southern regions are dark, with hot and
dry natures inversely proportional to their dis-
tance from the equator. People in the warm,
moderate region are quick and agile in body and
mind, qualities that disappear upon separation
from this choice climate. Inhabitants of northern
places are excessively white with unhealthy blue
eyes. Their skin is flaccid, their nature sluggish.
These unfortunates tend to be a bit stupid, the
insides of their heads having been frozen from
lack of sun. They are hardly any better off than
the blacks who live by the equator. Both of these
extreme regions have deleterious effects; accord-
ingly, little civilization is found there. The highest
civilizations are found in the middle regions,
Syria, Iraq, Iran, Khorasan and China, and it is
only natural that Islam should have taken root
here. The people of this region are neither sickly
white nor black, but a healthy tan and ruddy
color. "What all this seems to indicate is that the
influences on the types of human character are
attributable to the natural conditions prevailing
in the seven regions. Sun, wind, earth, the reflec-
tion of the rays are all partial causes, the totality
of which is the One Cause, the All-Knowing,
The Powerful, from whom comes the order of the
world... which these ignoramuses (the astrolo-
gers) know not." 27
The astrologers claim ability to foretell out-
comes of future events by their science. Why then
are they so often incorrect? Why in fact are they
not rich by the secrets of their craft? Few indeed
are the occasions when they divine things cor-
rectly, and these few successful occasions are the
combined results of past experience, a great deal
of conjecture, pure luck and considerable deceit.
There was a woman who came to an astrologer and
gave him a dirham for her horoscope. He told her some-
thing or other. "Nothing of the sort has happened!"
27
Miftdh, p. 501 if.
 LIVINGSTON: Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation
she exclaimed. He read her horoscope again and told
her something else. This too she denied. He then told
her that her horoscope indicated loss of money. "Now
you have told the truth," she answered-"The dirham
I gave you!"28
Finally, several examples of the errors astrolo-
gers have made are drawin from famous events in
Islamic history. The first is the battle of Siffin
(37 H.) where 'Ali and his followers met Mu'-
awiyah and the Syrian army. Astrologers had
judged that 'All would be killed and his army de-
feated. But they were proved to be liars and
'Ali was victorious over the Syrians. There was
also a story that the astrologers had predicted de-
feat for 'All in his war against the Kharijites.29
"They had agreed that those who seceded at the
time of this horoscope would destroy his ('Ali's)
army, for the moon was in Scorpio. But 'All
contradicted them, saying 'We shall go out with
trust in God, depending upon him, holding the
astrologers to be liars'. And so he was victorious
with the help of God".30 The same pious note
sounds through the several succeeding examples.
Sometimes astrologers appear to be correct in the
short run of things, but eventually history brings
them to the lie. When Baghdad was built astrolo-
gers claimed that never would a caliph die in it.
For a while it seemed that this prophecy would be
fulfilled. Mansfir, the founder of Baghdad, died
on his way to Mecca. His successor al-Mahdi
died outside of the city, as did Harun al-Rashid.
But when Ma'mfin killed Amin in Baghdad the
deceit and lies of the astrologers again became
manifest.
Ibn Qayyim's arguments against alchemy come
early in his attack on the divinatory arts. They
are essentially the same as Ibn Sina's famous
argument against the alchemists, i.e., the most
they are able to do is make substances appear to
be gold and silver by cunning artifice, but as for
making the real thing they are helpless.31 Trans-
28
Miftdh, p. 471.
29 Those who seceded from supporting 'Ali because he
had condescended to mediate with his opponent Mu'-
awiyah.
30
Miftdh, p. 473.
31 E. J.
Holmyard and D. C. Mandeville, De Congela-
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101
mutation like divination is impossible. To believe
or engage in it is to join hands with the devil, for
it is against the divine order that was mirrored in
the social, economic and political order of the
world.
Reflect on the wisdom of God, the Powerful, the Glori-
ous, concerning the scarcity of those two types of cur-
rency, gold and silver, and the reduction of the world's
wealth and goods [that would result] from their [the
alchemists'] artifices to create gold and silver by simu-
lating God's creation of them. The intense avidity of
their attempts to realize their goal reach the extremity
of effort and struggle. And yet they never succeed. If
they were able to make what God created of these
[two metals] the order of the world would crumble,
since gold and silver would multiply and spread among
all people until they became no more important than
pottery and palm fronds. Because of this, the benefits
for which they were originally put on earth would no
longer exist. Their superabundance would deprive
them of their preciousness and use as money and pay-
ment for warriors.... The order of the world which
God made would fall when everyone possessed gold
and silver and those who had been subjugated to
others would no longer be so. If enough of the two
precious metals were created to suffice everyone, then
everyone would be at the same time impoverished. God
designed the scarcity of these metals as the basis of
the order of the world. He did not make them so scarce
that they lost their utility, such as is the case with red
sulphur. Rather He deposited them in the earth and
multiplied them in accordance with the divine plan of
His wisdom, mercy and the benefits he willed for his
worshippers . . . Compared to iron, copper and lead,
gold and silver were made scarce by the wisdom of God
for the good of the people, since a fine thing is con-
sidered valuable and precious as long as it is little in
quantity and desired; but once it increases and be-
comes plentiful among both the upper class and the
generality of people, their desire for it decreases and it
falls in the opinion of everyone.32
It is by trickery that the alchemists fool people
into believing that they are able to change copper,
lead and brass into gold and silver. They produce
optical illusions, similar to the tricks nature some-
times plays on us, such as what happened in a
story Ibn Qayyim read of the men who were
searching for metals.
tione et Conglutinatione Lapidum; being sections of the
Kitib al-Shifa'; Paris, 1927; pp. 41, 54, 85.
32
Miftdh, p. 241.
102 Journal of the American Oriental Society, 91.1 (1971)
Having deeply penetrated within a region of a moun-
tain in their search they came to a certain place and
behold, before them they saw the likeness of moun-
tains of silver. Below these mountainous walls of
silver was a copious, fast-flowing river. The men,
finding no way to cross in order to get to the silver,
proceeded until they came to a crossing place. They
crossed and returned along the river's edge to the
place where they had seen the silver. But now they
found no trace of it. They searched in every direction.
Not knowing where else to look they sadly departed.
And this shows the falsity of alchemy; that upon in-
vestigation it is discovered to be nothing more than a
matter of counterfeit and tinting.33
These are the main arguments against the occult
sciences found in Ibn Qayyim's Miftah Ddr
al-Sa'ddah. They present no architecture of genius.
Some were weak, even absurd; some were too
some were hardly bound
strenuously contrived;
by any semblance of logical method, alternating as
Ibn Qayyim did in his search for proofs, one time
using Aristotelian physics for substantiation, the
next ridiculing and insulting all philosophers as
those "liars and fools" who negated God and His
prophets.34The only note of consistency prevail-
ing throughout his argumentation comes from
Koranic verse, hadith, and those precepts of
Islam by which he could demonstrate the idea of
the omnipotence of God, to whose will and
wisdom everything in this universe belonged.
Ibn Qayyim did not even adduce the best of argu-
ments that had been used by earlier Muslim
thinkers, especially those of al-Farabi and ibn
Sina.35 However, for the problem under discus-
sion, the importance of Ibn Qayyim is not the wit
or ingenuity with which he tried to lay bare the
inequity of his enemy-the enemy of Islam as he
saw it-but what he stood for as one of the para-
mount spokesman for the religious institution in
its perpetual battle against those who trans-
gressed beyond the limits of the Sunni creed
which had evolved during the first four centuries
of the Muslim historical experience.
33
Miftlh, p. 241.
34
Miftah, p. 504.
36 For a summary of these see Nallino, Raccolta di
Scritti, V, p. 24 ff; and Mehren, "Vues d'Avicenne sur
l'astrologie," p. 388 ff.
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His arguments do not represent a fanatic,
overall condemnation of the 'ulam al-awd'il, of
which, as earlier stated, astrology and alchemy
were considered a part. For example, ibn Qayyim
is careful to distinguish between the two sciences
or arts (sind'atayn) encompassing the study of the
stars. One of these two arts he refers to as 'ilm
al-hay'ah, the ordinary expression for astronomy.36
He also refers to astronomy as an 'ilm al-awd'il
(pl. 'ulam al-awd'il)-a pre-Islamic science or
Greek science-which may indicate that ibn
Qayyim considered astronomy a gift of the
Greeks, and astrology a debased accretion of later
times.37 The practitioners of astronomy he calls
by several names: arbdbal-hay'ah, busard' (those
who have perception, understanding or knowl-
edge); ashab al-irsdd (those who observe, and
whose science is rasadiyyah-pertaining to ob-
servation). These are to be differentiated from
those who do not know the fundamentals of their
art, the 'umydn-the blind ones who practice "the
second science" or 'ilm al-ahkdm (literally "the
science of judgment" or judiciary astrology), the
usual expression for astrology.38This was the art
"detested by most of those devoted to astronomy.
They denied the usefulness of astrology, claiming
it to be an arbitrary thing, destitute of proofs." 39
One final note. In reference to one of the ques-
tions that was mentioned in footnote three of
this article-the relative positions of astronomy
36 Nallino, Raccolta di Scritti, V, p. 42.
37 Miftah, p. 485.
38
Miftah, p. 369.
39 Miftah, p. 485. Ibn Qayyim's teacher Ibn Taymiy-
yah made a similar distinction between astronomy and
astrology, referring to the first as hisdb (reckoning,
computing), and the second as ahkdm."As for hisdb, it is
knowledge of the measurement of the spheres and stars,
of their qualities and their movements and all related to
that; this is a basically true science in which there is no
doubt." The second, ahkdm,is a type of magic, it is false
and mendacious. It is worship of the stars and hence
polytheistic. See Majmu'at al-Fatdwd, Cairo, 1326-29/
1908-11, vol. I, pp. 323-36. Three centuries earlier Ibn
Sina had made the distinction in almost identical terms;
astronomy had a solid, mathematically demonstrable
basis, astrology was a false science with no scientific
basis: Mehren, "Vues d'Avicenne sur l'astrologie," p.
398.
 IVINGSTON: Astrological Divination and Alchemical Transmutation 103

and astrology in Islam during the tenth and
eleventh centuries-ibn Qayyim's use of the term
ahkam and ahkamiyymnto designate astrology
and those who practice it leads one to believe that
at one time in Islam the relationship between the
two arts was so close that either they were one or
astrology, whose divinatory aspect must have
been limited, was considered a respectable
science.40
We say that the likes of the blind ones among the
ahkdmiyyinare those who do not know the laws of the
stars (ahkdm al-nujfm) [astrology as the term was
40See Mehren, "Vues d'Aviceine sur l'astrologie,"
p. 19.
ordinarily employed]; they are the majority. The likes
of those who understand (al-busard') among them are
the professionals of this work, and they are the
fewest.41
Further on he writes that "if anything similar to
the approach of Ibn al-Zarqali,42who followed a
path in ahkdm unlike the one today, had con-
tinued, we would have seen a difference. But this
art has died, and nothing remains but the tradi-
tion of these errors." 43
41
Miftdh, p. 469.
42 Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Yahya al-Naqqash al-Zar-
qali (Azarchel), the Spanish Muslim astronomer, who
flourished during the last half of the eleventh century.
43
Mift.h, p. 487.

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