Islam And Science

From Musa al-Khwarizmi who developed algebra in 9th century Baghdad to al-Jazari, a 13th-century Turkish engineer whose achievements include the crank, the camshaft and the reciprocating piston, Science and Islam tells the story of one of history’s most misunderstood yet rich and fertile periods in science: the extraordinary Islamic scientific revolution between 700 and 1400 CE.

This title was first published in 2002. This text seeks to provide the necessary background for understanding the contemporary relationship between Islam and modern science. Presenting an authentic discourse on the Islamic understanding of the physical cosmos, Muzaffar Iqbal explores God's relationship to the created world and the historical and cultural forces that have shaped and defined Muslim attitudes towards science. What was Islamic in the Islamic scientific tradition? How was it rooted in the Qur'anic worldview and whatever happened to it? These are some of the facets of this account of a tradition that spans eight centuries and covers a vast geographical region. Written from within, this ground-breaking exploration of some of the most fundamental questions in the Islam and science discourse, explores the process of appropriation and transformation of the Islamic scientific tradition in Europe during the three centuries leading up to the Scientific revolution.

Recent historical research and new perspectives on the Islamic scientific tradition.

"In this wide-ranging and masterly work, Ahmad Dallal examines the significance of scientific knowledge and situates the culture of science in relation to other cultural forces in Muslim societies. He traces the ways the realms of scientific knowledge and religious authority were delineated historically. For example, the emergence of new mathematical methods revealed that many mosques built in the early period of Islamic expansion were misaligned relative to the Ka'ba in Mecca; this misalignment was critical because Muslims must face Mecca during their five daily prayers. The realization of a discrepancy between tradition and science often led to demolition and rebuilding and, most important, to questioning whether scientific knowledge should take precedence over religious authority in a matter where their realms clearly overlapped"--Page 2 of cover.

The rise and fall of the Islamic scientific tradition, and the relationship of Islamic science to European science during the Renaissance. The Islamic scientific tradition has been described many times in accounts of Islamic civilization and general histories of science, with most authors tracing its beginnings to the appropriation of ideas from other ancient civilizations—the Greeks in particular. In this thought-provoking and original book, George Saliba argues that, contrary to the generally accepted view, the foundations of Islamic scientific thought were laid well before Greek sources were formally translated into Arabic in the ninth century. Drawing on an account by the tenth-century intellectual historian Ibn al-Naidm that is ignored by most modern scholars, Saliba suggests that early translations from mainly Persian and Greek sources outlining elementary scientific ideas for the use of government departments were the impetus for the development of the Islamic scientific tradition. He argues further that there was an organic relationship between the Islamic scientific thought that developed in the later centuries and the science that came into being in Europe during the Renaissance. Saliba outlines the conventional accounts of Islamic science, then discusses their shortcomings and proposes an alternate narrative. Using astronomy as a template for tracing the progress of science in Islamic civilization, Saliba demonstrates the originality of Islamic scientific thought. He details the innovations (including new mathematical tools) made by the Islamic astronomers from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries, and offers evidence that Copernicus could have known of and drawn on their work. Rather than viewing the rise and fall of Islamic science from the often-narrated perspectives of politics and religion, Saliba focuses on the scientific production itself and the complex social, economic, and intellectual conditions that made it possible.

Science and Islam provides a detailed account of the relationship between Islam and science from the emergence of the Islamic scientific tradition in the eighth century to the present time. This relationship has gone through three distinct phases. The first phase began with the emergence of science in the Islamic civilization in the eighth century and ended with the rise of modern science in the West; the second period is characterized by the arrival of modern science in the Muslim world, most of which at that time was under colonial occupation; and the third period, which began around 1950, is characterized by a more mature approach to the major questions that modern science has posed for all religious traditions. Based on primary sources, the book presents a panorama of Islamic views on some of the major issues in the current science and religion discourse. Written in accessible language, Science and Islam is an authentic account of the multi-faceted and complex issues that arise at the interface of Islamic intellectual tradition and science. Rich in historical details, the book is a fascinating survey of the interaction of Islamic beliefs with the enterprise of science.

This book is the first rigorous attempt to explain the cross-fertilization of scientific and religious thought in Islamic civilization. Winner of the Iranian World Prize for Book of the Year in Islamics Studies 2009

This is a study of science in Muslim society from its rise in the 8th century to the efforts of 19th-century Muslim thinkers and reformers to regain the lost ethos that had given birth to the rich scientific heritage of earlier Muslim civilization. The volume is organized in four parts; the rise of science in Muslim society in its historical setting of political and intellectual expansion; the Muslim creative achievement and original discoveries; proponents and opponents of science in a religiously oriented society; and finally the complex factors that account for the end of the 500-year Muslim renaissance. The book brings together and treats in depth, using primary and secondary sources in Arabic, Turkish and European languages, subjects that are lightly and uncritically brushed over in non-specialized literature, such as the question of what can be considered to be purely original scientific advancement in Muslim civilization over and above what was inherited from the Greco–Syriac and Indian traditions; what was the place of science in a religious society; and the question of the curious demise of the Muslim scientific renaissance after centuries of creativity. The book also interprets the history of the rise, achievement and decline of scientific study in light of the religious temper and of the political and socio-economic vicissitudes across Islamdom for over a millennium and integrates the Muslim legacy with the history of Latin/European accomplishments. It sets the stage for the next momentous transmission of science: from the West back to the Arabic-speaking world of Islam, from the last half of the 19th century to the early 21st century, the subject of a second volume.