Claudius Ptolemy By Abdul Rahim Khurram

 

Claudius Ptolemy By Abdul Rahim Khurram

Claudius Ptolemy was an astronomer who lived from around 100 to 170 C.E. Very little is known of him, including where he was born. Claudius denotes citizen of Rome, while Ptolemy means inhabitant of Egypt. Some accounts claim that he was a citizen of Rome, others that he lived in Alexandria, Egypt.

He was also a mathematician, geographer and astrologer. His work was comparable to that of Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in terms of significance. However, while much of Claudius Ptolemy's work has been disproved, the treatises he wrote on astronomy, astrology, geography, and music served as the basis on which other scientists constructed their theories.

The Ptolemaic conception of the cosmos became the dominant cosmological model for centuries thereafter, and was not superseded until the seventeenth century by Kepler and Copernicus.

Modern astrologers recognise Ptolemy as the creator of one of the oldest full textbooks of astrology, - the Tetrabiblos (Greek) meaning Four Books. Although we know Ptolemy did not originate his methods of astrology we recognize his contribution as being one of arranging the mass of Eastern star lore into an ordered and reasoned presentation. The Tetrabiblos provides a full exposition of the conceptual framework of astrology, enabling its practitioners to refute detractors on scientific as well as theological grounds.

Ptolemy's encouragement and approbation of astrology, as a leading thinker of his day, contributed to the discipline's academic prestige. By preserving its credibility as a science as well as an art, he secured its practice during the mediaeval period when many other occult pursuits were punished on religious grounds. He spoke of astrology with authority and lucidity, establishing the Tetrabiblos as the standard reference for astrological students. It was used extensively by Arabic scholars, who viewed Ptolemy as the definitive word on the subject, and later by European ones when it was translated back into Latin in the 12th century.