Page:The chronology of ancient nations (IA chronologyofanci00biru).djvu/51

2,604 years, and as the interval between Nebukadnezar and Alexander 436 years, a result which conies pretty near to that one, which is derived from the Thora of the Christians.

This was the era which 'Abû-Ma'shar Albalkhî wanted, upon which to base his statements regarding the mean places of the stars in his Canon. Now he supposed that the Deluge had taken place at the conjunction of the stars in the last part of Pisces, and the first part of Aries, and he tried to compute their places for that time. Then he found, that they—all of them—stood in conjunction in the space between the twenty-seventh degree of Pisces, and the end of the first degree of Aries. Further, he supposed that between that time and the epoch of the Æra Alexandri, there is an interval of 2,790 intercalated years 7 months and 26 days. This computation comes near to that of the Christians, being 249 years and 3 months less than the estimate of the astronomers. Now, when he thought that he had well established the computation of this sum according to the method, which he has explained, and when he had arrived at the result, that the duration of those periods, which astronomers call "star-cycles," was 360,000 years, the beginning of which was to precede the time of the Deluge by 180,000 years, he drew the inconsiderate conclusion, that the Deluge had occurred once in every 180,000 years, and that it would again occur in future at similar intervals.

This man, who is so proud of his ingenuity, had computed these star-cycles only from the motions of the stars, as they had been fixed by the observations of the Persians; but they (the cycles) differ from the cycles, which have been based upon the observations of the Indians, known as the "cycles of Sindhind," and likewise they differ from the days of Arjabhaz, and the days of Arkand. If anybody would construct such cycles on the basis of the observations of Ptolemy, or of the modern astronomers, he might do so by the help of the well known methods of such a calculation, as in fact many people have done, e.g. Muḥammad ben 'Isḥaḳ ben 'Ustâdh Bundâdh Alsarakhsî, 'Abû-al-wafâ Muḥammad ben Muḥammad Albûzajânî, and I myself in many of my books, particularly in the Kitâb-al-istishhâd bikhtilâf al'arṣâd.

In each of these cycles the stars come into conjunction with each other in the first part of Aries once, viz. when they start upon and return from their rotation, however, at different times. If he ('Abû-Ma'shar) now would maintain, that the stars were created standing at that time in the first part of Aries, or that the conjunction of the stars in that place is identical with the beginning of the world, or with the end of the world, such an assertion would be utterly void of proof, although the matter be within the limits of possibility. But such conclusions can never be admitted, except they rest on an evident argument, or on the report of some one who relates the origines of the world, whose word is relied upon, and regarding whom in the mind (of the reader or hearer)