Mashallah ibn Athari

Masha'allah ibn Athari
Māshāʾallāh gazing at the sky, from the 15th-century manuscript BnF Latin 7432
Born	740 Basra, Abbasid Caliphate, Iraq
Died	815 (aged 75) Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Occupation	Astronomer

Māshāʾallāh ibn Atharī (Arabic: ما شاء الله إبن أثري; c. 740 – 815), known as Mashallah, was an 8th century Persian Jewish astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician.^[1] Originally from Khorasan,^[2] he lived in Basra (in present day Iraq) during the reigns of the Abbasid caliphs al-Manṣūr and al-Ma’mūn, and was among those who introduced astrology and astronomy to Baghdad. The bibliographer ibn al-Nadim described Mashallah "as virtuous and in his time a leader in the science of jurisprudence, i.e. the science of judgments of the stars".^[3] Mashallah served as a court astrologer for the Abbasid caliphate and wrote works on astrology in Arabic. Some Latin translations survive.

The Arabic phrase mā shā’ Allāh indicates a believer's acceptance of God's ordainment of good or ill fortune. His name is probably an Arabic rendering of the Hebrew Shiluh. Al-Nadim writes Mashallah's name as Mīshā ("Yithru" or "Jethro").^{[1][4][note 1]}

The crater Messala on the Moon is named after Mashallah.

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