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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010294090 | BP190.5.S3 F74 2011 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Long before the European Renaissance, while the Western world was languishing in what was once called the "Dark Ages," the Arab world was ablaze with the knowledge, invention, and creativity of its Golden Age. Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians, and alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge was carried from Samarkand and Baghdad to Cordoba and beyond, influencing Western thinkers from Thomas Aquinas to Copernicus and helping to inspire the cultural phenomenon of the Renaissance. John Freely's spellbinding story is set against a background of the melting pot of the cultures involved and concludes with the decline of Islam's Golden Age, which led the West to forget the debt it owed to the Muslim world and the influence of medieval Islamic civilization in forging the beginnings of modern science.
Author Notes
John Freely was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 26, 1926. During World War II, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy. He studied physics at Iona College and New York University and did thermonuclear research at the Forrestal Research Center, Princeton University. In 1960, he took a post teaching theoretical physics at Robert College, Istanbul. He wrote numerous books during his lifetime including Strolling Through Istanbul written with Hilary Sumner-Boyd, Jem Sultan, Storm on Horseback, The Grand Turk, Aladdin's Lamp, Light from the East, and Before Galileo. He died on April 20, 2017 at the age of 90.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews 1
Choice Review
While Europe spent the 6th through the 11th centuries gripped in the Dark Ages, the Islamic world basked in a Golden Age of scholarship in science, particularly astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. Freely (physics and history of science, Bosphorus Univ., Turkey; Aladdin's Lamp, CH, Jul'09, 46-6165; The Grand Turk, CH, Aug'10, 47-7040) has put together a scholarly but accessible and clear account of how Islamic scholars preserved ancient Greek and Egyptian knowledge while greatly adding to it. He then tells of how Islamic knowledge reached Europe to spark the Renaissance. One of Freely's main points is that the West has forgotten the debt it owes to the Islamic world. This well-documented history of Islamic science, with extensive chapter notes, will be a valuable resource for history of science scholars. The text can also stand alone as a good read for anyone interested in this period of Middle Eastern and European culture. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; general readers. C. G. Wood formerly, Eastern Maine Community College
Table of Contents
| List of Plates | p. vii |
| Prologue: The Scriptorium at the Süleymaniye | p. ix |
| 1 Science Before Science: Mesopotamia and Egypt | p. 1 |
| 2 The Land of the Greeks | p. 9 |
| 3 The Roads to Baghdad | p. 23 |
| 4 'Abbasid Baghdad: The House of Wisdom | p. 36 |
| 5 'Spiritual Physick' | p. 48 |
| 6 From Baghdad to Central Asia | p. 59 |
| 7 The Cure of Ignorance | p. 70 |
| 8 Fatimid Cairo: The Science of Light | p. 81 |
| 9 Ayyubid and Mamluk Cairo: Healing Body and Soul | p. 91 |
| 10 Ingenious Mechanical Devices | p. 103 |
| 11 Islamic Technology | p. 113 |
| 12 Al-Andalus | p. 122 |
| 13 From the Maghrib to the Two Sicilies: Arabic into Latin | p. 133 |
| 14 Incoherent Philosophers | p. 146 |
| 15 Maragha and Samarkand: Spheres Within Spheres | p. 155 |
| 16 Arabic Science and the European Renaissance | p. 164 |
| 17 Copernicus and his Arabic Predecessors | p. 172 |
| 18 The Scientific Revolution | p. 181 |
| 19 The Heritage of Islamic Science | p. 194 |
| Notes | p. 203 |
| Bibliography | p. 217 |
| Index | p. 231 |
