Hi again,

So just one more thing that I thought was interesting: there’s a reading list on Saudi Aramco World’s website and they recommend this book:

1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World. Al-Hassani, Salim T. S.. 2006, Mega Basim, 978-0-9552426-1-8 (2nd ed.), $59.50/£29.50 hbIn 1993, Donald Cardwell, an eminent historian of science at Manchester University, challenged Salim Al-Hassani, an engineering professor at the university, to bring to light Muslim contributions to science and civilization, virtually ignored in the West, dating from the seventh to the 17th century. Fifteen years later, Al-Hassani has met the challenge—and then some—creating a foundation and a Web site (MuslimHeritage.com) that give a detailed, lively and easily understood encyclopedia of the achievements of Muslim astronomers, doctors, mathematicians, philosophers, geographers, architects and other scientists. This book is the outgrowth of a touring exhibition that reminds the world of the pivotal role Arab and Persian scholars had in European civilization, and is a gold mine of revelations: from 10th-century physicist Ibn al-Haitham’s finding that light emanates from objects and not the eye itself to the 14th-century astronomer Ibn al-Shatir anticipating Copernicus’s sun-centered theory of the solar system by more than a century. And who knew that 12th-century author Ibn Tufayl recounted the tale of a solitary individual on a deserted island some 600 years before Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe? (Richard Covington) (SO08)

And I found another one:

Arab Influence in Medieval Europe. Agnius, Dionisius A. and Richard Hitchcock, eds. Ithaca Press, 1996, 0-86372-213-X, £12.95, pbSeven essays from the 1990 Oxford confer ence of the same name chart the gradual infusion of Muslim knowledge of the arts, commerce and science into Christian Europe. A particularly interesting chapter evalu ates possible Muslim literary influences on Dante’s Divine Comedy, which demonstrates the often-underestimated degree to which ideas crossed cultural boundaries during that era. Other essays discuss trade, mechanics, geography, divination and song. (MA97)

Aristotle’s Children: How Christians, Muslims and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated t. Rubenstein, Richard E. 2003, Harcourt, 0-15-100720-9, $27 hb; 0-15-603009-8, $15 pbThe author of this history of medieval thought is a professor of conflict resolution, and he brings an unexpected modern flavor to his subject, showing us how conflict resolution lay at the heart of the heated debate between faith and reason in the young universities of Europe. The scientific and philosophical writings of the great Greek thinker Aristotle were lost to the West after the fall of Rome. But his works were saved in the East, translated into Syriac and then Arabic, and used to ignite a great era of scientific discovery in the Arab–Islamic world in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Arabic versions of Aristotle and the works of his Muslim commentators were later translated into Latin at Toledo and other centers, and found their way into the universities at Paris, Montpelier, Oxford, Padua and Bologna. Four centuries before Francis Bacon and René Descartes, a recognizably modern, rational perspective, based on Aristotle and his greatest Arab commentators—particularly Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroës)—swept through the universities, advanced largely by Dominican and Franciscan clerics. Religious conservatives sought to stem the tide. The resulting struggle between faith and reason became a culture war in Europe, leading eventually to the scientific revolution, the Protestant reformation and other sweeping changes. The author keeps his story relevant, lively and at times surprising: It’s rare to find a book that mentions both George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and Augustine of Hippo’s view of evil in the same sentence. (Robert W . Lebling) (SO04)

Okay, I’ll stop here but there is a MASSIVE reading list on this site, check it out. All three look super awesome, I wonder if we could find them in any bookstores in Vancouver?

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201001/

Celeste

Posted: 01|23|10 at 5:08 pm. Filed under: Uncategorized.
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