Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi

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Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787 - 886), also known as Albumasar, Abu Ma'shar, and Balkhi, was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer from Balkh, in today's Afghanistan.

Many of his works were translated into Latin and were well known in amongst many European astrologers, astronomers, and mathematicians (Mathematici) during the European Middle Ages; here was known by his Latinized name "Albumasar."

Richard Lemay has argued that the writings of Albumasar were very likely the single most important original source of Aristotle's theories of nature for European scholars, starting a little before the middle of the 12th century (see Richard Lemay, Abu Ma'shar and Latin Aristotelianism in the Twelfth Century, The Recovery of Aristotle's Natural Philosophy through Arabic Astrology, 1962).

It was not until later in the 12th century that the original books of Aristotle on nature began to become available in Latin. The works of Aristotle on logic had been known earlier, and Aristotle was generally recognized as "the master of logic." But during the course of the 12th century, Aristotle was transformed into the "master of those who know," and in particular a master of natural philosophy, or the scientific theory of natural things. It is especially interesting that the work of Albumasar (or Balkhi) in question is a treatise on astrology. Its Latin title is Introductorium in Astronmiam, a translation of the Arabic Kitab al-mudkhal al-kabir ila 'ilm ahkam an-nujjum, written in Baghdad in the year 848 A.D. It was translated into Latin first by John of Seville in 1133, and again, less literally and abridged, by Hermann of Carinthia in 1140 A.D.