The Beginning of Wisdom (Translation From Hebrew)

This book is purely for astrologers. I returned it. It's probably of greater importance to those that understand degrees, declinations, etc..

I'm giving this an extra star simply for the translation. In this series the authors consistently [inject] their interpretations of what they 'think' Ibn Ezra was attempting to say, based on their understanding of so-called 'modern' astrology, all without looking into the contemporary authors that Ibn Ezra may have been relying upon. They conveniently inject their own theories while disregarding Ibn Ezra's voluminous other texts (such as the book of tables he constantly refers to) that would have greatly expounded his astronomical theories and allow the reader to use his techniques. They instead seem to rely almost completely on Ptolemy and modern astrological hogwash to interpret the text. They don't even appear to have read Masha Allah whom Ezra constantly cites here.Rob Hand's commentary is downright painful. He goes to strange lengths to designate himself an expert, injecting needless annotations or criticisms of Ibn Ezra while concurrently admitting he doesn't fully understand the epoch or context. His constant, needless, criticism and comparisons to modernism or Ptolemy comes off as arrogant as well as ignorant. Or worse, you'll find him re-interpreting Ezra into his own paradigm of how he thinks Ezra's astrology 'should' work. There was clearly very little scholarly research actually done, and it shows in this series.For instance, you'd think someone propounding themselves experts in the subject would bother to read earlier Jewish astrologers such as Shabbethai Donnolo (10th century) or Abraham Bar Ḥiyya (about 20 years earlier in Spain), or their Muslim/Hebrew counterparts for their views of Jewish astrological cosmology. Unfortunately for the reader, this is the only English copy available unless you want to spend a few hundred dollars on Shlomo Sela's superior scholarly expositions, and this book is still overpriced for what you get.

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra wrote the Beginning of Wisdom in 1148 AD as a basic introduction to astrology. While Ibn Ezra was Jewish, this text is an excellent introduction to medieval Arabic astrology. The 12th and 13th centuries saw many Arabic texts, not just on astrology, brought to Europe and translated into Latin. Medieval and Renaissance European astrology was largely derived from sources in the Arabic world.This edition translated is from the original Hebrew by Meira Epstein and edited by Robert Hand, one of the foremost traditional astrologers practicing today. It discusses the fixed stars and constellations, the signs, houses, aspects and provides an excellent basic introduction to traditional astrology. Epstein and Hand provide copious annotations which are both interesting and useful.This version of the Beginning of Wisdom is superior to the earlier Levy-Cantera translation because it was done by actual astrologers whose practical knowledge of the subject is combined with extensive scholarship.The Beginning of Wisdon is a helpful reference text for practicing traditional astrologers and a useful introduction to the subject for those starting their studies in this area.