Occult sciences and medicine

Haq, Saiful

doi:10.1017/chol9780521838245.025

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 317 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Some while ago, I had brought into focus the mind-boggling diversity of medieval Arabic writings that have traditionally been summarily lumped together as "alchemical" without due attention to their enormous internal variety, their differing thrusts, and their methodological plurality. 149 When we look at this lumped Arabic alchemical corpus, we see a thick jungle of writings with all kinds of interlocking growth: obscure here, bright and open there; at times unmistakably Aristotelian, wrapped in Hermetic lore at other times. Indeed, Jābir ibn H ayyān and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (313 AH/925 CE) are the most important figures in this jungle, but for very different reasons.…”

Section: Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current debates and emerging trends in the history of science in premodern Islamicate societies

Fancy,

Stearns,

Brentjes

et al. 2023

Hist Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This roundtable brings together contributions from nine senior, mid-career and junior scholars who work on the history of science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies. The contributions reflect upon some of the challenges that have historically constrained the subfield, how they have sought to overcome them, and what they see as some of the more productive and fruitful turns the field has taken and/or should take in the future. A central trend in all contributions is how they seek to confront the combined weight of colonialism, Orientalism, and the teleological history of science that continues to haunt contemporary discussions in both academia and the general public with regards to science in pre-1800 Islamicate societies. Without diminishing the pioneering achievements of the generations of historians who have preceded us, and upon whose work we continue to rely, this combined weight has tended a) to marginalize the study of occult sciences in Islamicate societies; b) to emphasize investigations of content from an etic perspective of how we got to the present, which is primarily seen as how the scientific content is connected to the rise of modern science in Europe; and c) to concomitantly marginalize the study of science in post-1200 Islamicate societies, particularly those with little to no connection to the rise of “Western” science. The contributions build upon conversations that took place among participants in December 2019 at a workshop at New York University (NYU), Abu Dhabi Institute in New York City, funded by a grant from NYU Abu Dhabi.

show abstract

Section: Fundingmentioning

confidence: 99%