al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Risala fi ilm al-nujum

"Risala fi ilm al-nujum" ("Treatise on the Science of the Stars") by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi (d. 463 AH), the hadith scholar and historian of Baghdad, is one of the sources closest in time to al-Suyuti's al-Hay'a al-saniyya. ¹ Heinen deliberately renders ilm al-nujum loosely, since a clear-cut distinction between astronomy and astrology is foreign to the text. ¹

The treatise survives in a single manuscript in the Süleymaniye Library, Istanbul (Atıf Efendi 190); to Heinen's knowledge it had never been published or translated, though several authors had described and quoted it, not always correctly. ¹

From the outset al-Khatib distinguishes an acceptable branch of the science, rooted in the Qur'an, the Sunna and the sayings of Companions, Successors and later scholars, from a branch to be rejected. ² The acceptable branch includes star names, their appearances, risings, settings and courses, guidance by them, the Bedouins' movements by their seasons, knowledge of rain by the rain-stars, finding the qibla, and knowing prayer times and the hours of the night. ² Heinen suggests it may have been al-Suyuti's chief formal inspiration, though he quotes it only once. ^{1 2}