Ancient Authority in Arabic-Islamic Scientific Writing and Practice
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Saira Malik
Abstract
The process of Islamic “ideas on the move” occurred within the intellectual space created initially by the industrial-scale translation activity of the “Greco-Arabic Translation Movement” (8th–10th centuries). Translation of Greek works by those such as Euclid, Ptolemy, and Aristotle rendered their names as ancient authorities in this Islamic intellectual space. These ancient authorities were used and re-used — shaped and re-shaped — in a myriad of ways and forms in this Islamic intellectual space. In this essay, I use the medical writings of Ibn Sīnā (Latin Avicenna, d. c. 1037 CE) and the optical writings of Ibn al-Haytham (Latin Alhazen, d. c. 1040 CE) to show how these ancient Greek authorities were appropriated.
Abstract
The process of Islamic “ideas on the move” occurred within the intellectual space created initially by the industrial-scale translation activity of the “Greco-Arabic Translation Movement” (8th–10th centuries). Translation of Greek works by those such as Euclid, Ptolemy, and Aristotle rendered their names as ancient authorities in this Islamic intellectual space. These ancient authorities were used and re-used — shaped and re-shaped — in a myriad of ways and forms in this Islamic intellectual space. In this essay, I use the medical writings of Ibn Sīnā (Latin Avicenna, d. c. 1037 CE) and the optical writings of Ibn al-Haytham (Latin Alhazen, d. c. 1040 CE) to show how these ancient Greek authorities were appropriated.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- List of Figures and Tables IX
- Prologue: of Friendship and Fishponds 1
- Introduction 5
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Part I: Historiography, Disciplinary Categories, and Anachronism
- Greco-Roman Histories of Astronomy, Their Genres, and Their Afterlives 15
- When was Cosmology? The Curious History of a Disciplinary Category 33
- Surmise or Certainty: Women in Science in Antiquity 51
- Deep Reading of Kepler’s New Astronomy: An Exercise in Computational History of Science 65
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Part II: Scientific Writing: Genres, Authority, Authorship, and Audiences
- Narrative Elements in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 83
- Style and Intended Readership of Theophrastus’ On Fire (De igne) 95
- Strategies of Moralising in the Pseudo-Vergilian Aetna 115
- Leonides of Alexandria’s Isopsephic Epigrams: An Astronomical Art? 131
- Faithful Marriages and Wild Unions: Palladius’ On Grafting 153
- Ancient Authority in Arabic-Islamic Scientific Writing and Practice 169
- “A Cabinet of Many Rare Secrets”: The Uses and Abuses of Aristotle’s Masterpiece 191
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Part III: Counting and Measuring: Tools, Diagrams, and Replicas
- The Various Uses of Numbers and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt 219
- Greek Sexagesimals and Zeros 231
- The Diagrams and Replicas of Richard of Wallingford’s Clock 253
- Measuring Magnetism: Retrospective on Theories and Instruments from Lucretius to Blackett and Bullard 279
- Ancients and Moderns in Tycho Brahe’s Astronomy 295
- Bibliography
- Index
- Index Locorum
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Acknowledgements
- Contents VII
- List of Figures and Tables IX
- Prologue: of Friendship and Fishponds 1
- Introduction 5
-
Part I: Historiography, Disciplinary Categories, and Anachronism
- Greco-Roman Histories of Astronomy, Their Genres, and Their Afterlives 15
- When was Cosmology? The Curious History of a Disciplinary Category 33
- Surmise or Certainty: Women in Science in Antiquity 51
- Deep Reading of Kepler’s New Astronomy: An Exercise in Computational History of Science 65
-
Part II: Scientific Writing: Genres, Authority, Authorship, and Audiences
- Narrative Elements in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals 83
- Style and Intended Readership of Theophrastus’ On Fire (De igne) 95
- Strategies of Moralising in the Pseudo-Vergilian Aetna 115
- Leonides of Alexandria’s Isopsephic Epigrams: An Astronomical Art? 131
- Faithful Marriages and Wild Unions: Palladius’ On Grafting 153
- Ancient Authority in Arabic-Islamic Scientific Writing and Practice 169
- “A Cabinet of Many Rare Secrets”: The Uses and Abuses of Aristotle’s Masterpiece 191
-
Part III: Counting and Measuring: Tools, Diagrams, and Replicas
- The Various Uses of Numbers and Mathematics in Ancient Egypt 219
- Greek Sexagesimals and Zeros 231
- The Diagrams and Replicas of Richard of Wallingford’s Clock 253
- Measuring Magnetism: Retrospective on Theories and Instruments from Lucretius to Blackett and Bullard 279
- Ancients and Moderns in Tycho Brahe’s Astronomy 295
- Bibliography
- Index
- Index Locorum
