ABSTRACT
The attribution to the Shafi’i school of Islamic law may indicate a judge or a jurist. The translation was commissioned by Shams al-Din Muẖammad Ibn Abu al-Fatẖ al-Sufi, a mathematician and astronomer who died in 1543. God will surely reward him for how scholars are benefiting from his work. Astronomy perhaps continued to command attention due to its practical uses and, especially, the importance of zijs in building the calendar. Retranslation was not an uncommon practice in the past “golden” age of translation. Its main purpose then was the improvement of the first translations, either with corrections and revisions through comparison with the source text or by refining and polishing the style of the target text. In terms of translation methods, both versions show keen concern with accuracy and faithfulness to the original, as would be expected in technical translation.
