Ibn Yunus
Ibn Yunus (950?-1009) was born in Islamic Egypt and served the Fatimid dynasty for twenty-six years. His most famous work, al-Zij al-Hakimi al-kabir, is notable for its very accurate tabulated results. These may have been obtained using very large instruments.

The transmission of Arab and Persian astrology took place from as early as the middle of the 12th century. John of Seville, to name only one of the early scholars dedicated to support the survival of original source material, translated the works of famous astrologers like Alkindi, Albumasar, Messahala or Thebit ibn Qurra straight from the Arabic into Latin. Nevertheless it should take until the 16th century before the first astrological works were printed and published in the vernacular.

A comprehensive literature review of astrological physiognomy from the Greco-Roman period to the present day.  Includes works canonical to the non-astrological physiognomy tradition beginning with the pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomica (3rd Cent BCE). 71 pages.

"The following is the translation of the Conference kept  by Prof. Ornella Faracovi on the 11th November 1993 in the Physics Department of Milan university. Prof. Faracovi is  an expert of history of philosophy and the director of Centro Studi Enriques.  She is an expert of Renaissance and Medieval astrology- she has published  the Italian version of Cardano’s Comment to the second book of Tetrabiblos and  De iudiciis geniturarum, Marsilio Ficino’s astrological letters, and several books on astrology and philosophy in Middle Ages and Renaissance.

"The material presented here originally was an introduction that I wrote to a volume of Project Hindsight translations called The Record of the Early Sages in Ancient Greek. It consisted of fragments and quotations that either were directly from the oldest sources in Middle Eastern and Western astrology, or were paraphrases of material that derived from these sources.

"The first of the names given above is the original Persian, more or less. The second is the Latin version which is derived from adding the Arabic article 'al' to 'firdar'. The last version of the word is the Anglicized form. There are many variants of all of the above forms of the word. These are a system of planetary periods which appear to be of Persian origin. They are first described as far as we know by Abu Mashar in various works and have their origin in a system of mundane cycles intended for the long term prediction of historical events.

"From astrology’s beginnings, it is evident from virtually all sources (e.g. Persian, Greek, Hindu and Egyptian) that quantum-like divisions of time and space were given to the planets and signs. Since time is nothing more than a counting system, why can we not use arc allotments or the years allotted to signs and planets to count time or vice versa? What could be more natural than to create some kind of scheme for relating them?

"I began to study astrology in 1972. The Foundation for the Study of Cycles listed several stock market cycles such as 9.3 and 18.6 years. I noted that the Lunar Node has a half-period and a full period of those lengths. It appeared that planetary cycles were linked to price cycles. After two years, I began to apply the planets to prices. All of the previous books and studies that I had accumulated suffered from several drawbacks.

"Imagine the world as it might appear from the perspective of an ant wandering on-stage during a performance of Shakespeare's "Midsummer's Night's Dream." All around you there unfolds a great drama, replete with exotic colors, sounds, and complex happenings; yet because of your limited perspective, the meaning of it all escapes you. You can’t comprehend the multi-layered significance of this drama, nor grasp how these diverse elements fit into a greater unfolding narrative that is being played out over several acts.

"Does God mind if we use astrology? Is astrology evil, or merely naughty? Will God smite us if we look into the future?
Or does the Bible tell us that God actually wants us to pay attention to his signs in the sky? Is astrology a gift from God? I hope this brief article will serve as a jumping off place for folks to consider an alternative viewpoint."