It has been a popular criticism by Astrologers who are mostly focused on English Renaissance texts and Medieval to Renaissance era Latin texts translated into English that those into Hellenistic and Medieval Arabic & Persian Astrology just want “purity”. A recent interview though with Benjamin Dykes on a certain Astrology podcast made it very clear-to me at least- that “purity” wasn’t the point, the fact is is that a few too many Western Europeans simply didn’t have the same academic translation standards that we do today, and much of the rich vocabulary from the Medieval Arabic texts has been mistranslated and misunderstood over the centuries. 

So I’m not just looking forward to eventually ordering Ben Dykes’s book Sahl ibn Bishr, Volume 1: Principles, Elections, Questions, Nativities, but also the upcoming published translation by Liana Saif of the Ghayat Al-Hakim. It’s not so much the “purity” aspects I care about, but of recovering what was lost even with the best translators or intentions of the time.