Islamic Medical and Scientific Tradition, (4 Volume Set)

Islam developed over the course of its history one of the world’s most innovative and interesting scientific and medical traditions. In this context, the term Islam should not simply be understood as referring to the religion of the prophet Muhammad, but rather to a civilization which was once surprisingly open to foreign influences, and eager to engage with the proverbial Other. Yet Islam is often perceived as being opposed to (Western) science and methodology.

Islamic Medical and Scientific Tradition presents a selection of works that illustrate the intellectual curiosity and theoretical vigour with which Arabs and non-Arabs living in the medieval Muslim world pursued scientific endeavours. The focus is firmly on scholarship published within the last twenty years, during which period the discipline has enjoyed a new bloom.

Starting with the theoretical framework of the sciences in Islamic philosophy and theology, this new collection from Routledge elucidates the position of mathematics, physics, and medicine within the hierarchy of the sciences. Another topic discussed is Ancient (or Greek) versus traditional (or Muslim) sciences; and Islamic theological views on the pure pursuit of knowledge. The life sciences of Biology, Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine are examined, as are those of the physical sciences: Physics and Astronomy. The occult ‘sciences’ of Astrology, Alchemy, and Geomancy are also discussed. Close attention is paid to the mathematical sciences of Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Optics (including the introduction of zero, the invention of algebra, the squaring of the circle, conics, and the nature of vision). The practical sciences, Agriculture, Engineering, and Horticulture, are also examined in detail.

Fully indexed, and with a comprehensive introduction newly written by the editor, that places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, this is an essential work destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital one-stop reference resource.

Volume I

Part 1 : The Theoretical Framework : The Sciences in Islamic Philosophy and Theology
Chapter 1 : Medical Theory and Scientific Method in The Age of Avicenna, Before and After Avicenna : Proceedings of The First Conference of The Avicenna Study Group
Chapter 2 : Medieval Arabic Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy, The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy : Proceedings of The Bar-Ilan University Conference
Chapter 3 : Knowledge of Universals and Particulars in The Baghdad School’, Documenti e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale
Chapter 4 : etaphysics and MaThematics in Classical Islamic Culture : Avicenna and his Successors, God, Life, and The Cosmos

Part 2 : The Life Sciences : Biology, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine
Chapter 5 : The Origins of The Islamic Hospital : Myth and Reality’, Bulletin of The History of Medicine
Chapter 6 : Islamic Hospitals in The Time of al-Muqtadir, Abbasid Studies II : Occasional Papers of The School of Abbasid Studies, Leuven
Chapter 7 : Medical Methodology and Hospital Practice : The Case of Tenth-century Baghdad, In The Age of al-Farabi : Arabic Philosophy in The 4th/10th Century
Chapter 8 : Ar-Razi, The Clinical Physician (Al-Razi al-tabib al-Ikliniki)’, Al-Masriq
Chapter 9 : Graeco-Roman Case Histories and Their Influence on Medieval Islamic Clinical Accounts’, Social History of Medicine
Chapter 10 : Practice Versus Theory : Tenth-century Case Histories from The Islamic Middle East’, The Year 1000 : Medical Practice at The End of The First Millennium
Chapter 11 : Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam’, Journal of The History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Chapter 12 : The Physical World and The Writer’s Eye : al-Tanukhi and Medicine, Writing and Representation in Medieval Islam : Muslim Horizons
Chapter 13 : Arabic Plague Chronologies and Treatises : Social and Historical Factors in The Formation of a Literary Genre’, Studia Islamica

Volume II

Chapter 14 : Ibn al-Nafis’s Perfected Book on Ophthalmology and His Treatment of Trachoma and its Sequelae’, Journal for The History of Arabic Science
Chapter 15 : Dietetics in Medieval Islamic Culture’, Medical History
Chapter 16 : How Effective Were Cough Remedies Known to Medieval Egyptians?’, Korot
Chapter 17 : Al-Razi (d : 925) on The Benefits of Sex : A Clinician Caught between Philosophy and Medicine, O Ye Gentlemen : Arabic Studies on Science and Literary Culture, in Honour of Remke Kruk
Chapter 18 : Some Opinions on The Physician’s Remuneration in Medieval Islam’, Bulletin of The History of Medicine
Chapter 19 : Medical Education in Islamic Lands from The Seventh to The Fourteenth Century’, Journal of The History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Chapter 20 : Anatomical Illustration in Arabic Manuscripts, Arab Painting : Text and Image in Illustrated Arabic Manuscripts
Chapter 21 : The Physician and The OTher : Images of The Charlatan in Medieval Islam’, Bulletin of The History of Medicine
Chapter 22 : Jewish and Muslim Traditions of Music Therapy, Music as Medicine : The History of Music Therapy Since Antiquity
Chapter 23 : Spiritual Medicine in Music and Healing in Islam and its Influence on Western Medicine, Musical Healing in Cultural Contexts
Chapter 24 : Usama ibn Munqidh and OTher Witnesses to Frankish and Islamic Medicine in The Era of The Crusades, Ha-Refu’ah bi-Yerushalayim le-doroteha
Chapter 25 : La querelle des médecins arabistes et hellénistes et l’héritage oublié, Lire les médecins grecs à la Renaissance : Aux origines de l’édition médicale, Actes du colloque international de Paris
Chapter 26 : The Human Embryo in Arabic Scientific and Religious Thought, The Human Embryo : Aristotle and The Arabic and European Traditions
Chapter 27 : Human Biological Reproduction in The Medicine of The Prophet : The Question of The Provenance and Formation of The Semen, The Diffusion of Greco-Roman Medicine into The Middle East and The Caucasus
Chapter 28 : Ibn abi-l-Ash’ath’s Kitab al-hayawan : A Scientific Approach to Anthropology, Dietetics and Zoological systematics’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaften
Chapter 29 : The Influence of The Arabic Tradition of Falconry and Hunting on European Culture, Islamic Crosspollinations : Interactions in The Medieval Middle East
Chapter 30 : ‘Theomnestus of Magnesia, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and The Beginnings of Islamic Veterinary Science, Islamic Reflections, Arabic Musings : Studies in Honour of Professor Alan Jones

Volume III

Part 3 : The Physical Sciences : Physics, Astronomy, Geodesy
Chapter 31 : Two Arabic Theories of Impetus, Awraq Klasikiya
Chapter 32 : Islamic Astronomy, Astronomy before The Telescope
Chapter 32 : Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy : An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science’, Osiris
Chapter 33 : Configuring The Universe : Aporetic, Problem Solving, and Kinematic Modeling as Themes of Arabic Astronomy’, Perspectives on Science
Chapter 34 : Arabic versus Greek Astronomy : A Debate over The Foundations of Science’, Perspectives on Science
Chapter 35 : The Book of Bodies and Distances of Habash al-Hasib’, Centaurus
Chapter 36 : The New Astronomy of Ibn al-Haytham’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy

Part 4 : The Occult Sciences : Astrology, Alchemy, Geomancy
Chapter 37 : Harry Potter in The Gulf : Contemporary Islam and The Occult’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Chapter 38 : Abu Masar, al-Kindi and The Philosophical Defense of Astrology’, Recherches de théologie et philosophie médiévales
Chapter 39 : A Hellenistic Astrological Table Deemed Worthy of Being Penned in Gold Ink : The Arabic Tradition of Vettius Valens’ Auxiliary Function for Finding The Length of Life, Studies in The History of The Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree
Chapter 40 : The Arabic Original of Liber de compositione alchemiae : The Epistle of Maryanus, The Hermit and Philosopher, to Prince Khalid bin Yazid’, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy
Chapter 41 : Origin and History of Liber de stellis beibeniis, Hermetism from Late Antiquity to Humanism
Chapter 42 : The Tome of Images : An Arabic Compilation of Texts by Zosimos of Panopolis and a Source of The Turba Philosophorum’, Ambix
Chapter 43 : Islamic Alchemy According to al-Khwarizmi’, Ambix
Chapter 44 : Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory Device : AnoTher Look, Magic and Divination in Early Islam

Volume IV

Part 5 : The MaThematical Sciences : Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Optics
Chapter 45 : Geometry and The Rebirth of Philosophy in Arabic’, Words, Texts, and Concepts Cruising The Mediterranean Sea : Studies on The Sources, Contents and Influences of Islamic Civilization and Arabic Philosophy and Science Dedicated to Gerhard Endress on His Sixty-fifth Birthday
Chapter 46 : Vision, Light, and Color in al-Kindi, Ptolemy and The Ancient Commentators
Chapter 47 : Indian Numerals in The Mediterranean Basin in The Twelfth Century, with Special Reference to The "Eastern Forms"), From China to Paris : 2000 Years’ Transmission of MaThematical Ideas
Chapter 48 : Applied MaThematics in Eleventh Century Al-Andalus : Ibn Muadh al-Jayyani and His Computation of Astrological Houses and Aspects’, Centaurus

Part 6 : The Practical Sciences : Agriculture, Cartography, Engineering
Chapter 49 : Arabic Mechanical Engineering : Survey of The Historical Sources
Chapter 50 : The "Nabatean Agriculture" : AuThenticity, Textual History and Analysis’, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften
Chapter 51 : Geoponica and Nabatean Agriculture : A New Approach into Their Sources and Authorship
Chapter 52 : The Book of Curiosities : A Newly Discovered Series of Islamic Maps’, Imago Mundi