Forcada, Miquel

Suhayl International Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

  
Suhayl 2014 (13), pp. 213-224 
Reviews 
 
IQBAL, Muzzafar (ed.), Studies 
in the Making of Islamic Science: 
Knowledge in Motion, XXIII + 
552 pp., ISBN: 978-0-7546-
2916-0. Vol. 4 of Muzaffar Iqbal 
(ed.), Islam and Science: Historic 
and Contemporary Perspectives, 
Farnham-Burlington: Ashgate, 
2012. 
 
This volume brings to an end a 
series devoted to gathering recent 
(in the sense given to the term in 
historical disciplines) scholarship 
on the history of Islamic science 
and the interrelation between 
science and Islam. The articles 
compiled here present the state-of-
the-art of a wide range of issues 
addressed by leading historians of 
Arabic and Islamic Science during 
the 1990s and early 2000s, save one 
exception, an article by Rashed 
dated in 2008. The contributors are: 
P. Kunitzsch, J. Vernet, J. Samsó, 
B.R. Goldstein, J. L. Berggren, A.I. 
Sabra, G. Saliba, R. Rashed, D.A. 
King, H. Hugonnard-Roche and F. 
Sezgin. The chronological selection 
of their papers allows the editor to 
present materials which, after 
having passed a preliminary filter of 
time, need little or no updating and 
have demonstrated both their con-
sistency and their topicality.    
The theme underpinning the 
whole series is the legitimate vin-
dication of the role of Islamic 
civilization as a historical catalyst 
of scientific progress, a much debat-
ed question which, even today, 
many people tend to view through 
the prejudices of nineteenth-century 
Eurocentric positivism 
Indeed, the present book and its 
predecessors are not aimed (at least 
not primarily) at either specialists 
on the subject, who are deemed to 
know the true dimensions of the  
Islamic contribution, or at a general 
public who would be, in principle, 
deterred by excessively scholarly 
material. Iqbal’s main target seems 
to rather be the numerous learned 
non-specialists who are directly or 
indirectly concerned with the area 
of Islam and science. Probably for 
this reason, the editor has  wisely 
included in the volume several 
synthesis articles borrowed from the 
most helpful Encyclopedia of the 
History of Arabic Science edited by 
R. Rashed in 1996, together with 
other articles that reflect on the 
significance, extent, and appraisal 
of Islamic contribution to science. 
Two articles by A.I.Sabra on these 
topics constitute a tribute homage to 
this recently deceased master; and 
the same may be said of Juan 
Vernet’s presence in the volume. 
214 Reviews 
The blend of synthesis, essay and 
pure research that the editor offers 
the reader is interesting, although 
for those who are unfamiliar with 
the history of Arabic and Islamic 
Science, it may be slightly hard to 
follow.    
In previous volumes, the editor 
explored several aspects of the 
compatibility between Islam and 
science, and showed that inno-
vations accompanied the science 
produced in Islamic civilization for 
longer than is generally acknow-
ledged. In this fourth volume, he 
focuses on the dynamism of the 
Islamic contribution to science. Put 
another way, Islamic Civilization 
was not a passive recipient of 
something invented by others but an 
active crucible which assimilated 
and then transformed this heritage.  
This key idea – well known to 
specialists – is expanded in a 
classical three-act structure that 
encompasses eighteen articles: 1. 
Greek into Arabic (setup); 2. 
Naturalization, transformation, and 
originality (confrontation); 3. The 
transfer of Islamic science to the 
West (resolution). Despite the 
length of the volume, not all the 
possible aspects of the main subject 
are dealt with; one of the omissions, 
for instance, is a part devoted to 
medicine and the natural sciences. 
Also missing are some of the recent 
debates among the historians of 
Arabic and Islamic sciences – most 
of whom are contributors to the 
present volume – regarding crucial 
issues such as the acculturation of 
the Greek legacy or Islamic Cosmo-
logy. The editor’s introduction fills 
these gaps on some occasions, yet 
not to the extent that the topics 
addressed demand. This notwith-
standing, Muzaffar Iqbal succeeds 
in conveying a rich portrait of this 
extremely complex subject that 
avoids simplification and propa-
ganda. The non-specialist but 
learned readership will find in this 
volume a consistent set of argu-
ments in favor of the vitality and 
originality of the Islamic contri-
bution to science that should foster 
further reflection. The volume may 
also be of great interest to 
specialists, given that it puts the 
results of research in the context of 
a larger debate of both academic 
and social concern which we cannot 
disregard.  
 
Miquel Forcada 
 
 
VAN DALEN, Benno, Islamic 
Astronomical Tables. Mathe-
matical Analysis and Historical 
Investigation. Ashgate, Variorum. 
Farnham, Surrey- Burlington, 
2013. XII + 350 pp. 
 
In 1968 E.S. Kennedy published 
a paper in Centaurus entitled “The 
Digital Computer and the History of 


IQBAL, Muzzafar (ed.), Studies in the Making of Islamic Science: Knowledge in Motion, XXIII + 552 pp., ISBN: 978-0-7546- 2916-0. Vol. 4 of Muzaffar Iqbal (ed.), Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives, Farnham-Burlington: Ashgate, 2012

IQBAL, Muzzafar (ed.), Studies in the Making of Islamic Science: Knowledge in Motion, XXIII + 552 pp., ISBN: 978-0-7546- 2916-0. Vol. 4 of Muzaffar Iqbal (ed.), Islam and Science: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives, Farnham-Burlington: Ashgate, 2012

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