Who is Adila?

[LeicesterChris]

Bonatti makes reference to "Adila". For instance, Holden (in A History of Horoscopic Astrology) says:

"For example, just in Treatise 3, Part 3, Chapter 5, which contains descriptions of the celestial houses, he mentions Adila, Alezdegoz, alchabitius, Albohali, al-Kindi, Albategnius (al-Battani), Albuas, Argapholon, Mansur, the Master (Masha'allah), [Omar] Tiberiades, Vuellius (Vettius Valens) and Zahel (Sahl ibn Bishr)."

Bonatti is quite formulaic, and has many passages along the lines of:

Et dixit Adila ... et dixit Alkindus ...

So I assume Adila is an Arabic astrologer who is a source for Bonatti - but I'm at a loss to work out which one. Latin names often mangled the Arabic names horribly, so the original Arabic might not sound much like "Adila". Any ideas?

[Levente Laszlo]

Hi Chris,

Ben Dykes, the translator of Bonatti identifies "Adila" with the tenth-century Ḥamdānid Emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, a well-known patron of arts and sciences. However, this assumption is quite implausible: as far as I know, Sayf al-Dawla only appears in astrological context as the person to whom al-Qabīṣī dedicated his introductory work; in John of Seville's Latin translation the name appears as "Ceyfhaddaula" (and similar), which is a bit too different from "Adila" ("Adile" in two fourteenth-century manuscripts I checked).

In any case, he is mentioned together with Alezdegoz (al-Andarzaghar) once, which is clearly from al-Qabīṣī 1.57, and in another case with Argafalam, whose name appears twice in the Alchandreana, but the instructions are not taken from there. There are also some parallels between the characteristics of the planets as given by "Adile" and Māshāʾallāh as preserved in al-Qabīṣī, but al-Qabīṣī cannot be the source. Unfortunately, I don't know any other instances of the name beside Bonatti's expositions, including manuscript sources, and there are several possible Arabic forms standing behind the name, provided it is a name, not an honorific or a title. Also, I don't know any Arabic author who could be identified with the "Adile" fragments. No more ideas.

Maybe you'd like to contact David Juste; perhaps he can help you.

[LeicesterChris]

Thanks very much, Laszlo! This is extremely useful.

[Levente Laszlo]

My pleasure.