Picture
only if you insist.

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George Saliba

Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science
Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures
Columbia University
606 West 122nd Str. Room 312
New York, NY 10027

Tel: (212) 854-4166
E-Mail: gsaliba@columbia.edu

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, Georgetown University, 1999. [Picture of cover]

The Origin and Development of Arabic Scientific Thought, [Arabic], Balamand University, 1998. [Picture of cover if
you want]

A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam, New York University
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, Beirut, 1990, 1995.

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, Louvain, 2004, pp. 251-268.

 

“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.