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Post 0

Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 2:07pmSanction this postReply
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Let's try that again:

Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance

 
George Saliba (MIT Press 2007)


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Post 1

Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 5:24pmSanction this postReply
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"Islamic Science" is a contradiction in terms, though some Persians, Arabs and other peoples did have knowledge of mathematics, medicine, and other sciences.

Post 2

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 6:05amSanction this postReply
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Hi Jeff,

 

Astronomy is the science.

 

One reviewer writes:

George Saliba has for more than thirty years written some of the most original and advanced studies of the sciences in Arabic. In this remarkable book, which he calls a historiographic essay, he addresses the question of the origin of Islamic science, using accounts of early Islamic scholars to show the essential roles of government bureaucracies; the great enlargement of Greek science, particularly astronomy, in the Islamic world; and new evidence for the paths of transmission of Arabic science to Europe, shown most clearly in the work of Copernicus. Finally, Saliba considers the so-called decline of Arabic science, showing that well into the fifteenth and even sixteenth centuries there was no decline, but rather that the sciences of Europe left behind the more traditional sciences, not only of Islamic civilization, but of the entire world. This is an essential book for understanding the place of science in the world of Islam and its fundamental importance to the development of modern science in the Western world.
N. M. Swerdlow, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago  

 

From Chapter One:

The observation that determined that the inclination of the ecliptic was not 23;51,20° (as was reported in Ptolemy’s Almagest) or 24° (as was reported in the Indian sources), but that it was about 23;30° (as was determined during the first half of the ninth century). That could not have come about as a result of the efforts of inexperienced astronomers who were conducting those observations for the first time. Such precision could only be achieved by mature astronomers who knew exactly what they were doing. That their value for the inclination is still in circulation today is a testament to the ingenuity of those ninth-century observers.

 

In the same vein, the determination of the new value for the precession parameter as 1°/66 years or for the value of the solar equation, or the motion of the solar apogee—supposed to be fixed by Ptolemy—also could not have come about at the hands of inexperienced astronomers who were trying their hands on the discipline for the first time just as the major texts of that discipline were being translated. All these results must presuppose a longer acquaintance with such methods of observations, such new notions of precision, and such reflection on the function of instruments in determining new parameters. In sum, they must presuppose a much longer period of instruction and acquaintance with such concepts before the efforts would begin to yield such fruits.

 

Add to that the critique of the Greek observational as well as theoretical approaches to astronomy that were leveled by Muhammad b. Musa b. Shakir and his brothers Ahmad and Hasan. Muhammad, the first of the three brothers, would critique Ptolemy for his incoherent description of the physical operations among the celestial spheres, and would deem such motions physically impossible. And the three brothers together, or someone in their circle, would critique the method by which Ptolemy determined the position of the solar apogee. These are not efforts that could happen all at once without previous experience with observational techniques, acquaintance with instruments, critical judgment of the sources of error, a developed concept of precision, and a well-thought-out connection between the observations and the theoretical results that were being achieved.

 

See also, by George Saliba:

A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam


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Monday, November 12, 2007 - 6:29amSanction this postReply
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PS

On Professor Saliba's  use of the terms Islamic science and Arabic astronomy, see the Preface shown at the MIT Press site.


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Post 4

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 7:40amSanction this postReply
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Christian Science, anyone?

Post 5

Monday, November 12, 2007 - 12:59pmSanction this postReply
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"The terms 'Islamic science' and 'Arabic astronomy,' used extensively in this book, call for an explanatory comment. 'Islamic science,' is intended to designate those sciences that were developed in the Islamic civilization and which did not fall within the sphere of disciplines usually designated with the Arabic expression al-ulum al-islamya (Islamic sciences). The latter group usually dealt with religious Islamic thought proper and thus is not of central concern in this volume. In contrast, the 'Islamic sciences' studied here were considered as part of the 'foreign' or 'rational' sciences (ulum alawa-il or al-ulum al-aqlya), or even the 'philosophical' sciences (al-ulum al-falsafya or al-hikmya), in classical Islamic times, and did not in any way designate the religious, juridical, exegetical, linguistic, or Qur-anic sciences that were usually separately classified as al-Ulum al-naqlya (the transmitted sciences). 'Islamic' is therefore used in this more complex civilizational sense and not in the religious sense." from the Preface


In other words, the Islamic Science is only Islamic Science when it's non-Islamic. I.e. a contradiction in terms. QED





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Post 6

Thursday, January 3, 2008 - 6:52amSanction this postReply
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Reply to post # 1.

Beware of the Presentist Fallacy. Things were not the same in the Islamic Domains between the 7th and 12th centuries (c.e.) as they are now. There was a time when Islam (the religion) actually encourage sound scientific thinking. Much of the mathematical advance over Greek geometrically based math started in the Islamic domains -- algebra (al Jabir) and algorithms (named after al Kwarizmi). Al Hazan founded the science of optics which was a major advance over the Greeks.

I point out the most of the European scientists of the 16 th, 17 th and 18 th centuries were Believers. Isaac Newton, who followed the anti-Trinitarian so-called heresy was a God Phreak of the first magnitude. That did not prevent him from inventing physics As We Know It and the basic mathematical tool of understanding motion, the differential equation.

Scientists of all ages have been expert at compartmentalizing their thinking.

Bob Kolker


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Post 7

Monday, January 19, 2009 - 4:33amSanction this postReply
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Related Work
Copernicus and Arabic Astronomy; Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Glimpses
A, B, C


(Edited by Stephen Boydstun on 1/19, 5:04am)


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Friday, June 10, 2011 - 9:01amSanction this postReply
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Related to #6: Dimitri Gutas has remarked on the misleading uniformity insinuated in the title of the journal Islam and Science.

Prof. Gutas has argued elsewhere (pp. 82–83) that the name “Islamic philosophy” should be replaced with the name “Arabic philosophy,” contra the author in endnote 2 here.


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Post 9

Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 3:27amSanction this postReply
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Some Books that maybe of interest:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933859911/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_7

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1846141613/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5

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Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 6:25amSanction this postReply
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Thank you, Michael Philip, for those links. The second one, Pathfinders - The Golden Age of Arabic Science looks like a good companion to the book heading this thread.

Saliba's 2007 book is on (i) science* in Arabic-language civilization from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries and (ii) its transmission into Europe. It will be natural to link in this thread also the wonderful article of Dag Nikolaus Hasse on the influence of Arabic and Islamic philosophy in the Latin West. Samples from the article: Transmission and Essence and Existence, Universals and Individuals.

* The science of astronomy is the focus of this book. On the science of optics: a, b.


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