FlourishedBaghdad, (Iraq), circa820
Died near Aleppo, (Syria), 830
Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr was the senior astronomer/astrologer at the court of the ҁAbbāsid caliph Ma’mūn . He is well-known for his leading role in the earliest systematic astronomical observations in the Islamic world, which were carried out in Baghdad in 828–829, and for the astronomical handbook, al-Zīj al-mumtaḥan, that was written on the basis of these observations.
Yaḥyā was of Persian descent and originally named Bizīst, son of Fīrūzān. Since his father, Abū Manṣūr Abān, was an astrologer in the service of the second ҁAbbāsid caliph al-Manṣūr (754–775), we may assume that Yaḥyā spent his youth in Baghdad. His first known position was as an astrologer for al-Faḍl ibn Sahl, vizier of the Caliph Ma’mūn. After al-Faḍl was assassinated in February 818, Yaḥyā converted to Islam and adopted his Arabic name. He became a boon companion (Arabic: nadīm) of Ma’mūn, and is known to have made astrological predictions for the...
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Selected References
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van Dalen, B. (2014). Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr: Abū ҁAlī Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr al-Munajjim. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1511
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