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Rothberg International School

Hebrew University of Jerusalem


Division of Graduate Studies
Spring Semester 2017
01640 Islam and Science
Dr Leigh Chipman
Class hours: Wed 16:30-18:00, room TBA
Office hours: By appointment via e-mail: leigh.chipman@gmail.com
Prerequisites: course on Islamic religion, course on history of the Middle East [students lacking one of these
courses should contact lecturer in advance for reading that will make up some of this gap]
Requirements: Oral presentation 25%, take home exam 60%, participation 15%
General description: Is Iran going nuclear? Why do so many scientific terms begin with al-, the in Arabic?
Science and technology have been important components of all human cultures, yet many have resisted their
impact in the name of religious values. This course will introduce the students to the enterprise of science in
Islamic cultures, from the Greek translation movement to the present day. We will study the Islamic
contribution to the exact sciences, medicine and life sciences, and technology. Particular attention will be paid
to questions of historiography, both Western and native Islamic, such as nomenclature (Islamic science?
Arabic science? Graeco-Islamic science?), the periodization of scientific activity in Islamic culture, contacts
between Islam and the West, and the influence of Islam as a religion on the attitude to science in the past and
in the present. While we will be discussing many places and periods, the emphasis will be on the formative
period of the first three centuries of Islam (seventh-ninth centuries CE) and on the current engagement of
Muslims with modern Western science and technology.
Please read the assigned articles/book chapters before class as the readings will serve as the basis
for classroom discussions. It is impossible to cover everything within the limitations of the readings in the
syllabus. Therefore, from the Passover vacation onward, each student will give an oral presentation (10-15
minutes) on an aspect of the class topic, deepening or broadening the general reading. A written version of
the presentation must be submitted to Moodle within a week after delivery in class. Exploration of primary
sources in translation is encouraged, and the presentation can serve as a starting point for seminar papers.
The main assessment for the course will be in the form of a take-home exam, due on July 6, 2017, at 10
p.m., and to be submitted via Moodle.
Please note that in order to facilitate your research, both for the presentation/seminar and the exam,
visiting the Edelstein Collection for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the National
Library (Givat Ram campus) is highly recommended.
Syllabus:
1 March: Introduction: science as the subject of historical enquiry
Background: Science in the pre-Islamic Middle East

Elective reading (but highly useful): Lindberg, D.C. The Beginnings of Western Science: The
European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, 600 B.C.
to A.D. 1450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007, pp. 82-131. 509 L742
8 March: The translation movement
Gutas, D. Greek Thought, Arab Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in
Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries). New York: Routledge, 1998,
pp. 28-60. 297.93 G983 ; E-Book 001841577
15 March: Philosophy and the classification of the sciences
Biesterfeldt, H.H. Medieval Arabic Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy, in S. Harvey (ed).
The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2000, pp.
77-98. Main Library BM 538 S3 M42 2000
Bosworth, C.E. A Pioneer Arabic Encyclopedia of the Sciences: Al Khwarizmi's Keys of the
Sciences. Isis 54 (1963), pp. 97-111. E-JOURNAL
22 March: Graeco-Islamic(?) science
Sabra, A.I. The appropriation and subsequent naturalization of Greek science in medieval Islam: a
preliminary statement. in: idem., Optics, Astronomy and Logic. Variorum, 1994, article I.
ERESERVE 001458711
28 March: Final date for signing up for a presentation topic (via Moodle)
29 March-18 April: Passover vacation. I strongly encourage you to use this time to work on your
presentation!
19 April: The Andalusian tradition of agriculture
The Fila Text Project: http://www.filaha.org/introduction.html
Extracts from Arb b. Sad (tenth century), Calendar of Cordoba:
http://www.filaha.org/calendar_of_cordoba_english_translation_revised.html
Ab al-Khayr al-Ishbl, On the Olive, Kitb al-Fila:
http://www.filaha.org/khayr_final_translation_revised.html
26 April: The impact of Islamic science in the West I
Montgomery, Scott L. Science in Translation: Movements of Knowledge through Culture and
Time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. pp. 138-185. 500 M787 ; ERESERVE
001458712
3 May: The decline theory
Huff, T. The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West. 2nd ed. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 209-239. 509 H889
OR
Yousefi, Najm al-Din. Secular Sciences and the Question of Decline. Iranian Studies 41 (2008),
pp. 559-579. E-JOURNAL
10 May: Science under the Mongols and Mamluks
Allsen, T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2001, pp. 141-175. 303.47 A442; E-BOOK 001772540
OR

F. Jamil Ragep, F. Jamil. Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on
Science. Osiris 16(2001), pp. 4971. E-JOURNAL
17 May: The impact of Islamic science in the West II
Saliba, G. Whose science is Arabic science in Renaissance Europe?, on-line at
http://www.columbia.edu/~gas1/project/visions/case1.html [accessed 10 July 2016]
24 May: Student Day no classes
31 May: Shavuot vacation
7 June: Developments in the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran
Shefer, Miri. Ottoman Medicine: Healing and Medical Institutions, 1500-1700. Albany: SUNY
Press, 2009, pp. 63-100 E-BOOK 001833766
OR
Newman, A. Baqir al-Majlisi and Islamicate Medicine: Safavid Medical Theory and Practice Reexamined. in: idem. (ed.). Society and Culture in the Early Modern Middle East, Studies on Iran
in the Safavid Period. Leiden: Brill, 2003, pp. 371-396. E-Book 001779436
14 June: The engagement with modern science in the nineteenth century: India and Egypt
Irfan Habib, S. Reconciling science with Islam in 19th century India. Contributions to Indian
Sociology 34 (2000), pp. 63-92. ERESERVE 001458716
OR
Livingston, J.W. Muhammad 'Abduh on science. Muslim World 85 (1995), pp. 215-234. EJOURNAL
21 June: Science, technology and Islam today I: engagement and ethics
Golshani, M. Values and ethical issues in science and technology: a Muslim perspective. Islamic
Studies (Karachi) 42 (2003), pp. 317-330. ERESERVE 001458717
28 June: Science, technology and Islam today II: Islamization of science
Kalin, I. The sacred versus the secular: Nasr on science. in: Lewis Edwin Hahn, Randall E. Auxier,
Lucian W. Stone (eds.) The philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Chicago: Open Court, 2001, pp.
445-468. ERESERVE 001458719
Elshakry, M. Muslim hermeneutics and Arabic views of evolution. Zygon 46 (2011), pp. 330-344.
E-JOURNAL
6 July: Final date of submission for take home exam

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