Achmet, son of Seirim (), the author of a work on the interpretation of dreams, the '' Oneirocriticon of Achmet'', is probably not the same person as Abu Bekr Mohammed Ben Sirin, whose work on the same subject is still extant in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

in the Royal Library at

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, and who was born AH 33 (AD 653-4) and died AH 110 (AD 728-9). The two names Ahmed or Achimet and Mohammed consist in Arabic of four letters each, and differ only in the first. There are many differences between Achmet's work, in the form in which we have it, and that of

Ibn Sirin Muhammad Ibn Sirin (, romanized: Muḥammad Ibn Sirīn) (born in Basra) was a Muslim tabi' as he was a contemporary of Anas ibn Malik. He is claimed by some to have been an interpreter of dreams, though others regard the books to have been fal ...

, as the writer of the former (or the translator) appears from internal evidence to have been certainly a Christian, (c. 2, 150, &c.) It exists only in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, or rather it has only been published in that language. It consists of three hundred and four chapters, and professes to be derived from what has been written on the same subject by the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

ns,

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

, and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ians. It was translated out of Greek into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

about the year 1160, by

Leo Tuscus Leo Tuscus (or Leo the Tuscan, fl. 1160/66–1182/83) was an Italian writer and translator who served as a Latin–Greek interpreter in the imperial chancery of the Byzantine Empire under Emperor Manuel Komnenos. Leo was born in the first half of t ...

, of which work two specimens are to be found in Gasp. Barthii ''Adversaria.'' Around 1165, it was used as a source by Pascalis Romanus for his ''Liber thesauri occulti'', a Latin compilation on dream interpretation that also draws on

Artemidorus Artemidorus Daldianus () or Ephesius was a professional diviner and dream interpreter who lived in the 2nd century AD. He is known from an extant five-volume Greek work, the '' Oneirocritica'' or ''Oneirokritikon'' ()."Artemidorus Daldianus" in ...

. It was first published at Frankfort, 1577, 8vo., in a Latin translation, made by

Leunclavius Johannes LeunclaviusOther name variants: Hans Lewenklaw, Löwenklau, Joannes Leunclavius, John Leunclavius (c. 1533/1541 – 1594) was a German historian and orientalist. He was an expert in Turkish history, republishing and annotating Ottoman sou ...

, from a very imperfect Greek manuscript, with the title "Apomasaris Apotelesmata, sive de Significatis et Eventis Insomniorum, ex Indorum, Persarum, Aegyptiorumque Disciplina." The word Apomasares is a corruption of the name of the famous Albumasar, or Abu Ma'shar, and Leunclavius afterwards acknowledged his mistake in attributing the work to him. It was published in Greek and Latin by Rigaltius, and appended to his edition of the ''

Oneirocritica ''Oneirocritica'' () (''The Interpretation of Dreams'') is an ancient Greek treatise on dream interpretation written by Artemidorus in the 2nd century AD."Artemidorus Daldianus" in '' The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia B ...

'' of Artemidorus, Lutet. Paris. 1603, 4to., and some Greek various readings are inserted by Jacobus De Rhoer in his ''Otium Daventriense''. It has also been translated into Italian, French, and German.

Teachings

In a dream, a tall, kind

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

represents an angel.

Notes

References

* from Smith's ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1867), from which this article was originally derived
Oneirocriticon of Achmet
Mavroudi, Maria : ''A Byzantine Book on Dream Interpretation''. Brill, 2002. {{DEFAULTSORT:Achmet (Oneiromancer) Diviners Dream Occult writers