A huge wave of translation from one language into another happens because of social, political and ideological forces. Scholarly interest in foreign ideas is not enough on its own. To explain why a society suddenly translates almost everything a foreign culture wrote on some subjects, look at who held power and what they needed.
What a culture chooses to translate follows what it needs. In this case almost all the foreign books on practical and scientific subjects were translated, including astrology, alchemy, medicine, botany and physics. Literature and history were largely left out. Translation served applied knowledge first, and theoretical knowledge alongside it.
Large-scale translation is organized labor, not the work of lone scholars. It depends on material resources, a supply of skilled translators and an existing cultural base. Patrons commission and pay for the work. The relationship between patrons, translators and the finished translations decides what gets made.