The Lighthouse and the Observatory


Book Description

This history of astronomy in Egypt reveals how modern science came to play an authoritative role in Islamic religious practice.







The Observatory in Islam


Book Description




Astronomy and Astrology in the Islamic World


Book Description

It was the astronomers and mathematicians of the Islamic world who provided the theories and concepts that paved the way from the geocentric theories of Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD to the heliocentric breakthroughs of Nicholas Copernicus and Johannes Kepler in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Algebra, the Arabic numeral system, and trigonometry: all these and more originated in the Muslim East and undergirded an increasingly accurate and sophisticated understanding of the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. This nontechnical overview of the Islamic advances in the heavenly sciences allows the general reader to appreciate (for the first time) the absolutely crucial role that Muslim scientists played in the overall development of astronomy and astrology in the Eurasian world.




Astronomy in the Service of Islam


Book Description

Delineates the two very different traditions of astronomy in medieval Islam: legal scholars watched the crescent moon to keep the calendar, and used shadows to keep the hours and direction of prayer, while astronomers constructed elaborate theories and mathematical tables to approach ever more precision in times and directions. The articles are reproduced from their original publication in various journals, 1982-91.




A Survey of Islamic Astronomical Tables


Book Description

The source material for the study of medieval oriental astronomy consists of Byzantine Greek, Sanscrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Turkish astronomical and astrological manuscripts. If one desires to build up a detailed picture of Islamic astronomy, one can choose material from these available manuscripts. Of these manuscripts it is possible to isolate a group of works, the "zijes". A "zij" consists of the numerical tables and accompanying explanation sufficient to measure time and to compute planetary and stellar positions, appearance, and eclipses. This paper is a survey of the number, distribution, contents, and relations between "zijes" written in Arabic or Persian during the period from the 8th through the 15th centuries. Illustrations. Oversize.




Islam, Science Fiction and Extraterrestrial Life


Book Description

The Muslim world is not commonly associated with science fiction. Religion and repression have often been blamed for a perceived lack of creativity, imagination and future-oriented thought. However, even the most authoritarian Muslim-majority countries have produced highly imaginative accounts on one of the frontiers of knowledge: astrobiology, or the study of life in the universe. This book argues that the Islamic tradition has been generally supportive of conceptions of extra-terrestrial life, and in this engaging account, Jörg Matthias Determann provides a survey of Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu texts and films, to show how scientists and artists in and from Muslim-majority countries have been at the forefront of the exciting search. Determann takes us to little-known dimensions of Muslim culture and religion, such as wildly popular adaptations of Star Wars and mysterious movements centred on UFOs. Repression is shown to have helped science fiction more than hurt it, with censorship encouraging authors to disguise criticism of contemporary politics by setting plots in future times and on distant planets. The book will be insightful for anyone looking to explore the science, culture and politics of the Muslim world and asks what the discovery of extra-terrestrial life would mean for one of the greatest faiths.




Religions and Extraterrestrial Life


Book Description

In the twenty-first century, the debate about life on other worlds is quickly changing from the realm of speculation to the domain of hard science. Within a few years, as a consequence of the rapid discovery by astronomers of planets around other stars, astronomers very likely will have discovered clear evidence of life beyond the Earth. Such a discovery of extraterrestrial life will change everything. Knowing the answer as to whether humanity has company in the universe will trigger one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in history, not the least of which will be a challenge for at least some terrestrial religions. Which religions will handle the discovery of extraterrestrial life with ease and which will struggle to assimilate this new knowledge about our place in the universe? Some religions as currently practiced appear to only be viable on Earth. Other religions could be practiced on distant worlds but nevertheless identify both Earth as a place and humankind as a species of singular spiritual religious importance, while some religions could be practiced equally well anywhere in the universe by any sentient beings. Weintraub guides readers on an invigorating tour of the world’s most widely practiced religions. It reveals what, if anything, each religion has to say about the possibility that extraterrestrial life exists and how, or if, a particular religion would work on other planets in distant parts of the universe.




A History of Arabic Astronomy


Book Description

A History of Arabic Astronomy is a comprehensive survey of Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century based on recent manuscript discoveries. George Saliba argues that the medieval period, often called a period of decline in Islamic intellectual history, was scientifically speaking, a very productive period in which astronomical theories of the highest order were produced. Based on the most recent manuscript discoveries, this book broadly surveys developments in Arabic planetary theories from the eleventh century to the fifteenth. Taken together, the primary texts and essays assembled in this book reverse traditional beliefs about the rise and fall of Arabic science, demonstrating how the traditional “age of decline” in Arabic science was indeed a “Golden Age” as far as astronomy was concerned. Some of the techniques and mathematical theorems developed during this period were identical to those which were employed by Copernicus in developing his own non-Ptolemaic astronomy. Significantly, this volume will shed much-needed light on the conditions under which such theories were developed in medieval Islam. It clearly demonstrates the distinction that was drawn between astronomical activities and astrological ones, and reveals, contrary to common perceptions about medieval Islam, the accommodation that was obviously reached between religion and astronomy, and the degree to which astronomical planetary theories were supported, and at times even financed, by the religious community itself. This in stark contrast to the systematic attacks leveled by the same religious community against astrology. To students of European intellectual history, the book reveals the technical relationship between the astronomy of the Arabs and that of Copernicus. Saliba’s definitive work will be of particular interest to historians of Arabic science as well as to historians of medieval and Renaissance European science.




Signs in the Heavens


Book Description

Many scientists have come to realize that science and religion can nurture each other. One example was the flowering of science in the first centuries of Islam. For Dr. Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, a Muslim and an astronomer, studying the universe is an expression of faith. Scientists and non-scientists should appreciate the insights in this passionate and lucid book. Dr. Ahmad's book has been widely acclaimed for its insights into the Islamic approach to science and the spiritual foundations of Western scientists such as Galileo, Newton and Einstein. A Palestinian trained at Harvard, he offers a unique perspective of the role of religion in science.