The enterprise of science in Islam : new perspectives / edited by Jan P. Hogendijk and Abdelhamid I. Sabra.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Hogendijk, J. P.

Sabra, A. I.

Series:

Dibner Institute studies in the history of science and technology

Dibner Institute for the history of science and technology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science, Medieval.

Science--Islamic countries--History.

Science.

Islamic countries.

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 386 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2003]

Summary:

Between A.D. 800 and 1450, the most important centers for the study of what we now call "the exact sciences" -- including the mathematical sciences of arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry and their applications in such fields as astronomy, astrology, geography, cartography, and optics -- were not in Europe but in the vast, multinational Islamic world. Research from the last few decades has profoundly changed our understanding of the Islamic scientific tradition. We now know that it was even richer and more profound and had more complex relations to other cultures than we had previously thought. This book offers an overview of this newly energized field of historical investigation. The topics discussed include cross-cultural transmission; transformations of Greek optics; the philosophy and practice of mathematics; numbers, geometry, and architecture; the transmission of astronomy; and science and medicine in the Maghrib. The emphasis throughout the book is on the transmission of scientific knowledge, either from one culture to another or within the medieval Islamic world.

Contents:

I Cross-Cultural Transmission 1

1 The Transmission of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Reconsidered / Paul Kunitzsch 3

2 The Transmission of Arabic Astronomy via Antioch and Pisa in the Second Quarter of the Twelfth Century / Charles Burnett 23

II Transformations of Greek Optics 53

3 The Many Aspects of "Appearances": Arabic Optics to 950 ad / Elaheh Kheirandish 55

4 Ibn al-Haytham's Revolutionary Project in Optics: The Achievement and the Obstacle / A. I. Sabra 85

III Mathematics: Philosophy and Practice 119

5 Mathematics and Philosophy in Medieval Islam / Gerhard Endress 121

6 Tenth-Century Mathematics through the Eyes of Abu Sahl al-Kuhi / J. Lennart Berggren 177

IV Numbers, Geometry, and Architecture 197

7 Quadratus Mirabilis / Jacques Sesiano 199

8 Calculating Surface Areas and Volumes in Islamic Architecture / Yvonne Dold-Samplonius 235

V Seventeenth-Century Transmission of Astronomy 267

9 The Sarvasiddhantaraja of Nityananda / David Pingree 269

10 On the Lunar Tables in Sanjaq Dar's Zij al-Sharif / Julio Samso 285

VI Science and Medicine in the Maghrib and al-Andalus 307

11 A Panorama of Research on the History of Mathematics in al-Andalus and the Maghrib between the Ninth and Sixteenth Centuries / Ahmed Djebbar 309

12 Another Andalusian revolt? Ibn Rushd's Critique of al-Kindi's Pharmacological Computus / Y. Tzvi Langermann 351.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0262194821

OCLC:

50252039