Picture |
George Saliba Professor of Arabic and Islamic
Science Tel: (212) 854-4166 |
I study the development of scientific ideas from late antiquity till early
modern times,
with a special focus on the various planetary theories that were developed within
the Islamic civilization
and the impact of such theories on early European astronomy.
My web accessible, and relatively recent research [file in 5 sections], deals with some
of the latest findings
regarding the transmission of astronomical and mathematical ideas from the Islamic world to Renaissance Europe
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. See publications below.
Representative Publications:
BOOKS AND OCCASIONAL PAPERS
Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance, MIT Press, 2007 [Picture of brochure if you want]
Rethinking the Roots of Modern Science: Arabic Scientific Manuscripts in
European Libraries, Occasional Paper,
Center for Contemporary Arabic Studies,
The Origin and Development of Arabic Scientific Thought, [Arabic],
you want]
A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden
Age of Islam,
Press, 1994, paper, 1995. [Picture of cover if you
want]
The Astronomical Work of Mu'ayyadal-Din al-'Urdi (d. 1266): A
Thirteenth Century Reform of Ptolemaic Astronomy,
markaz dirasat al-Wahda al-'Arabiya,
From Deferent to Equant: A Volume of Studies in the History of Science in
the Ancient and Medieval Near East in
Honorof E. S.Kennedy, co-editor Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
NY, 1987.
The Crisis of The Abbasid Caliphate, an annotated translation of Tabari's
caliphate of al-Musta'in and al-Mu'tazz
(862 - 869 A.D.), SUNY Press, 1985.
Planispheric Astrolabes from the National Museum of American History, coauthor, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984.
ARTICLES
“L’astronomie Arabe,” in L’Age d’or des sciences arabes, Actes Sud, Insitut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 2005, pp. 53-67.
“Aristotelian Cosmology
and Arabic Astronomy,” in De Zenon d’Elee a Poincare, ed,
Regis Morelon et Ahmad Hasnawi,
Peeters,
“The World of Islam and Renaissance Science and Technology,” in The Arts of Fire: Islamic
Influence on Glass and
Ceramic of the Italian Renaissance, ed. Catherine Hess with contributions
by Linda Komaroff
and George Saliba, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2004, pp. 55-73.
“Greek Astronomy and the
Medieval Arabic Tradition,” American Scientist, 2002, 90,4: pp.
360-367.
Spanish version, “La Astronoma Griega y la Traditin rabe medieval”,
in Investigacin y Ciencia, Junio 2003, pp. 42-50.
German version, Spektrum der Wissenschaft, “Der Schwierige Weg von
Ptolemus zu Kopernikus,” September 2004, pp. 76-83.
“Arabic Planetary
Theories after the Eleventh Century AD,” Encyclopedia of the
History of Arabic
Science, Routledge, (London, 1996),pp. 58-127.
“Early Arabic Critique of
Ptolemaic Cosmology: A Ninth-Century Text on the Motion of the Celestial
Spheres,” Journal for the History of Astronomy, 1994, 25:
115-141.
“A Sixteeenth-Century
Arabic Critique of Ptolemaic Astronomy: The Work of Shams al-Din
al-Khafri,” Journal for the
History of Astronomy, 1994, 25: 15-38.
“Al-Qushji's Reform of the Ptolemaic Model for Mercury,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 1993, 3: 161-203.
“The Role of the Astrologer in Medieval Islamic Society,” Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales, 1992, 44: 45-68.
“The Astronomical
Tradition of Maragha: A Historical Survey and Prospects for Future
Research,” Arabic Sciences and
Philosophy, 1991, 1: 67-99.
“A Medieval Arabic Reform
of the Ptolemaic Lunar Model,” Journal for the History of Astronomy, 1989,
20: 157-164.