Date of Release :

Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance

This is essential to understand the place of science in the world of Islam and its fundamental importance to the development of modern science in the Western world.

According to rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website):The Muslim world is currently going through enormous changes. This is not entirely surprising, as more than half the population in the Middle East, and in much of the larger Muslim world, is under the age of 25. This is also the first generation to have been fully affected by the spread of mass education in the region and the global technological revolution of the past two decades. It is therefore not a leap to predict that this generation will interpret Islam and shape its relation to the modern world for decades to come, and that these interpretations will be influenced by global concerns and technological developments.

 

Biography of the Dr. George Saliba:

George Saliba is a historian of Arabic and Islamic Science. He has been teaching at Columbia University since 1978. After completing a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.A. at the American University of Beirut, he received another M.A. and his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. Saliba studies the development of scientific ideas from late antiquity to early modern times, with a special focus on the transmission of astronomical and mathematical ideas from the Islamic world to Renaissance Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He received the History of Astronomy Prize from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science in 1996, and the History of Science Prize given by the Third World Academy of Science in 1993. He has also been selected as Distinguished Senior Scholar at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress (2005-6), and at the Carnegie Scholars Program (2009-10).He is the author of Late Arabic Scientific Commentaries: Their Role and Their Originality (2014) and Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007).

About the book “Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance “

https://archive.org/details/GeorgeSalibaIslamicScienceAndTheMakingOfTheEuropeanRenaissanceTransformationsStu

 

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-Nadīm 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 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 understanding 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.

Here are some endorsements for his book “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, The University of Chicago.

“Saliba’s book is essential reading for those who wish to understand the remarkable phenomenon of the ‘rise’ and ‘fall’ of the Islamic scientific tradition. His analysis takes place against the backdrop of the broader question of what produces scientific activity in a society, what sustains it and enables it to flourish. Saliba’s singular achievement derives as much from the stimulating questions he raises as from his provocative answers. His iconoclastic views will fuel scholarly debates for decades to come.” —Gül A. Russell, Department of Humanities in Medicine, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, editor of The ‘Arabick’ Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England He is the author or editor of six other books in Arabic and English.

Professor George Saliba Lecture at  The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, co-ordinated by 1001 Inventions.

First part of presentation: 

 

The complete video of representation: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16eYEdmSh0A

More treatises: 

1 ) The History of al-Tabari Vol. 35: The Crisis of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate: The Caliphates of al-Musta’in and al-Mu’tazz A.D. 862-869/A.H. 248-255 (SUNY series in Near Eastern Studies) (translator)

2 ) A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam (New York University Studies in Near Eastern Civilization)

3 ) The Arts of Fire: Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance (as contributor)

4 ) Home Recording and All About It (Radio-Craft Library No. 10)

5 ) Late Arabic Scientific Commentaries: Their Role and Their Originality : Works of Shams al-Din al-Khafri (1550 C.E./956 A.H.) (Lectures) (Arabic Edition)

6 ) Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, Publisher: The MIT Press

7 ) “The Crisis of the Abbasid Caliphate” (Tabari, Ta’rikh Al-Rusul Wa’l-Muluk; annotated translation), State University of New York Press (November 1985) ISBN 0-87395-883-7(Hardcover), ISBN 0-7914-0627-X (paperback)

8 ) “The Ash’arites and the Science of the Stars” in Richard G. Hovannisian and George Sabagh (eds.), Religion and Culture in Medieval Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 79-92.

 

sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.columbia.edu

http://www.muslimheritage.com

http://www.amazon.com

 

DUA: Allah please accept this from us. You are All-Hearing and All-Knowing. You are The Most Forgiving.You are The Most Relenting and repeatedly Merciful. Allah grant us The Taufiq to read all the 5 prayers with sincerity.
(Taken from: To Be Earnest In Prayers By Amina Elahi)
■ Feel Free to Share the posts with your Friends…
■ You too can take part and help us in sharing the knowledge…
■ May ALLAH SWT reward you for conveying His Message To Mankind

Share to :


  1. selection of modern and classic books waiting to be discovered. All free and available in most ereader formats. download free books https://www.skylineuniversity.ac.ae/advisory-council says:

    I have read so many posts about the blogger lovers howeverthis post is really a good piece of writing, keep it up.

    Great

Latest News