Description
Book SynopsisIn times of widespread Islamophobia, there is an understandable motivation for constructing scientific achievement as a counternarrative in popular discourse about Islam. Yet doing so has tended to impose an anachronistic conception of science onto pre-modern practices while also obscuring wider views of the intellectual, philosophical, and particularly the material context of medieval scientific achievement. An exemplary case study for this phenomenon is the figure of ''Abbas Ibn Firnas (d. 887), a celebrated early scientist, Córdoban courtier, and polymath. Ibn Firnas is best known today for conducting an early aeronautics experiment, which was commemorated by NASA. Some historians have called it the first successful human flight. The earliest and fullest account of Ibn Firnas'' career in the Umayyad court includes the aeronautics experiment, and a great deal more on his achievements in the arts and design but has yet to receive sustained scholarly attention. That account, as preserv
Trade ReviewGlaire D. Anderson's book about 'Abbas Ibn Firnas is substantial and truly inventive. It describes the process and context in which he developed his work and the implications for all future investigations on this theme, exploring how medieval Islamic intellectuals likely informed the Italian Renaissance. A Caliphal Daedalus is an extraordinary contribution to its field. * Renata Holod, University of Pennsylvania *
A fascinating exploration of the world of medieval Islamic science and art. Glaire D. Anderson, using the ninth century Andalusi polymath 'Abbas Ibn Firnas as her starting point, takes us on a journey through the connections between science and the visual arts, poetry and mechanical devices, engineering and design to traditional crafts, eventually revealing an intellectual milieu that was based on linking these endeavors in marvelous ways. This is a remarkably innovative and fresh look at medieval Islamic culture that should interest readers from many different fields and specializations. * Dwight Reynolds, University of California, Santa Barbara *
