more properly ABU-Maaschar (805-885), Arab astronomer, was born at Balkh, flourished at Bagdad, and died at Wasid in Central Asia. His principal works are: De Magnis Conjunctionibus (Augsburg, 1489); Introductorium in Astronomiam (Venice, 1506); and Flores Astrologici (Augsburg, 1488). He maintained in the first that the world, created when the seven planets were in conjunction in the first degree of Aries, will come to an end at a like conjunction in the last degree of Pisces.
See Biog. Universelle (Jourdain); Lalande, Bibliographie Astronomique; Poggendorff, Biog. literarisches Handworterbuch; Houzeau, Bibl. Astronomique.