ISCI490/ASTU400M Science and Civilization in Islam

This is our presentation schedule as of now, however dates may change and a couple students still need to be slotted in. The guidelines are in the syllabus and the rubric is on a separate page.

Topics:

Week 5: Thursday, February 4

The translation movement (Hilary)

Engineering (Raheem)

Week 6

Mathematics (Celeste)

Pharmacology (Reem)

Week 7

Astronomy & Physics (Muhamad)

Geography (Dalia)

Week 8

Optics (Yasmeen)

Medicine (Reema)

 

Week 10:

Chemistry(Aalia)

Psychology?(Behazad)

Hi all,

I read this article for my RELG340 class (Heritage of Islam) and thought it had an interesting, if not controversial perspective on the reason for the “decline” of the Islamic Sciences. It was written by Fazlur Rahman, from his Islam 2nd ed. book in “Chapter 11: Education”. I attached the PDF file here : Fazlur – Islamic Education

I hope it worked… It starts are the very bottom of page 185 and continues until the end. It’s mostly about the education system, but of course education systems are hugely influential on intellectual output. In a nutshell, Fazlur attributes the “inner constitution of these religious sciences… [that were] created as to make them apparently absolutely self-sufficient… All other knowledge was superfluous, if not utterly condemnable” (186). The focus on maintaining a specific understanding of Islam (primarily by the `ulama) stifled any other types of intellectual exploration and led to the stagnation and eventual decline of this scientific renaissance.

I don’t necessarily agree with what Fazlur has to say, schools such as Mu’tazili were focused on the importance of human reasoning and were greatly influenced by Aristotelian thought… Also, the religious sciences paved the way for a fresh arena of theological and philosophical debate that probably influenced the intellectual culture at the time. What do you guys think?

Note: Figured out how to find the article, on the top of the page, in the blog bar, there is a ‘media’ option, hover your mouse over that and it’ll give you an option to go the the ‘library’, click on it, and the article, titled: ‘Fazlur – Education’ will be there.

Celeste

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

Hi again everyone,

So this post is kind of unrelated to our class, but just wanted to tell you all about this magazine I subscribe to called ‘Saudi Aramco World’. It’s basically a general interest magazine discussing research in various fields except it focuses on Islamic and Middle Eastern topics. Besides the article about Dr. Ahmed Zewail, I also thought this one was pretty interesting: http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200904/desktop.archeology.htm

Basically, it’s about how archaeologists are using Google Earth to examine large-scale ruins (that would easily be overlooked if standing on the ground) over the Saudi and Jordanian deserts. Look at the pictures of these formations – these massive ‘walls’ were precisely designed and measured out hundreds of years ago. At this time, the writers weren’t positive on who built them, and when and why they were built, but the straightness of the lines and exactness of the shapes must have taken considerable mathematic skills – especially considering the massive proportions!

Here’s what they look like on the ground level:

Celeste

Hey everyone,

Found this interesting article on modern scientific work: Dr. Ahmed Zewail was the first scientist to record molecular chemical reactions, thus establishing the field of femtochemistry and in 1999  he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Femtochemistry is the study of microscopic chemical reactions taking place under an extremely short period of time – a femtosecond (one millionth of a billionth of a second). Dr. Zewail began his career studying coherence, which is instrumental in predicting chemical reactions and from there moved on to chemical bonds. He developed a laser camera that could take pictures of molecules at the moment of breaking or forming bonds. The Swedish Academy of Sciences and Nobel Prize committee noted the ramifications of his discoveries as, ‘enabling scientists to see, understand and predict the movement of atoms and chemical reactions’.

The article goes on to mention that, “in 2009, his career will come full circle when he is named one of the first three “scientist-diplomats” in the United States’ new Science Envoy program, aimed at forging scientific and technological partnerships in the Muslim world to help meet global challenges in health, energy, the environment and water and resource management.”

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201001/the.world.s.fastest.scientist.htm

Hope you enjoy!

This is the website and blog for the Student Directed Seminar “Science and Civilization in Islam.” This page will serve as a gateway to the course syllabus, readings, assignment descriptions and deadlines and the class writing and video blog. All students will need to create an account with UBC blogs in order to contribute to the blog and the use of this site will be described either in class or through e-mail.

Course E-mail:intsci490@gmail.com

Worth Considering for the course:

“”History, Science and Philosophy all make us aware of the great collective achievements of mankind. It would be well if every civilized human being had a sense of these achievements and a realization of the possibility of greater things to come, with the indifference which must result as regards the petty squables upon which the passions of indiviudals and nations are wastefully squandered.”-Bertrand Russell in An Outline of Philosophy(1995)

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