Description
Book SynopsisLong before the European Renaissance, while the western world was languishing in what was once called the 'Dark Ages', the Arab world was ablaze with the creativity of its Golden Age. This is the story of how Islamic science, which began in eighth-century Baghdad, enhanced the knowledge acquired from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China. Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians and alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge influenced western thinkers from Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and helped inspire the Renaissance and give birth to modern science.
Trade Review'John Freely is a virtuoso of cultural narration. His Light from the East stands as a towering achievement that chronicles the process of awakenings in the Western world under the impetus of Islamic sciences.' - Talat S. Halman, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters, Bilkent University 'A thorough and wide-ranging account of pre-Islamic and Islamic science as well as of the considerable debt that Western scientific thinking owes to the Arabs.' - Robert Irwin, Middle East editor, Times Literary Supplement
Table of ContentsPrologue. The Scriptorium at the Süleymaniye Chapter 1. Science Before Science, Mesopotamia and Egypt Chapter 2. The Land of the Greeks Chapter 3. The Roads to Baghdad Chapter 4. ‘Abbasid Baghdad: The House of Wisdom Chapter 5. Spiritual Physick Chapter 6. From Baghdad to Central Asia Chapter 7. The Cure of Ignorance Chapter 8. Fatimid Cairo: The Science of Light Chapter 9. Ayyubid and Mamluk Cairo: Healing Body and Soul Chapter 10. Ingenious Mechanical Devices Chapter 11. Islamic Technology Chapter 12. Al-Andalus: Muslim Spain Chapter 13. From the Maghrib to the Two Sicilies: Arabic into Latin Chapter 14. Incoherent Philosophers Chapter 15. Mongol Maragha and Samarkand: Spheres Within Spheres Chapter 16. Arabic Science and the European Renaissance Chapter 17. Copernicus and His Arabic Predecessors Chapter 18. The Scientific Revolution Chapter 19. The Heritage of Islamic Science Notes Bibliography
