Al-Ašraf ʿUmar’s ‘Tabṣira’, Chapter XXXV

Forecasting Weather and Predicting Prices

Abstract

Al-Ašraf ʿUmar (d. 695/1296), author of more than ten scholarly treatises and later in his life ruler over Yemen, merges two prognostic practices—weather forecasting and price prediction—in Chapter XXXV of his ‘Book of Enlightenment in the Science of the Stars’ (‘Kitāb al-Tabṣira fī ʿilm al-nuǧūm’). This article investigates the tradition strands of both prognostic practices in the Islamicate sources and discusses commonalities of their underlying techniques. With this background knowledge, Chapter XXXV of the ‘Tabṣira’ is discussed and assessed.