Islamic Medical and Scientific Tradition.

Varisco, Daniel Martin

Islamic Medical and Scientific Tradition. Edited by PETER E. PORMANN. Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies. 4 vols. London: ROUTLEDGE, 2011. Pp. xviii + 380 (vol. 1), ix + 427 (vol. 2), viii + 428 (vol. 3), viii + 240 (vol. 4). $1.295.

There was a time when scholars studying the history of the sciences in Islamic contexts had no choice but to spend numerous hours in university libraries or special manuscript collections. The more esoteric the topic, such as al-Kindi on optics or Ibn al-Haytham on plane trigonometry, the less likely a published study would be found in major journals dealing with Islam. Anthologies have been available on a variety of Islamic subjects, but rarely on the sciences. Now Peter Pormann has assembled a massive four-volume compilation of fifty-three previously published articles, of which thirty-six have appeared in the last decade. Three of the articles are published for the first time in English. This effort draws from journals, edited volumes, and miscellaneous monograph series that only a few libraries would have on their shelves. An anthology of this kind would be an excellent reference for a library, even at the high cost for all four volumes. Individual scholars would greatly benefit as well, but few will be able to afford the price.

There are six specific parts to the overall text, entitled (1) "The Theoretical Framework: The Sciences in Islamic Philosophy and Theology" (four articles); (2) "The Life Sciences: Biology, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine" (twenty-six articles); (3) "The Physical Sciences: Physics, Astronomy, Geodesy" (seven articles); (4) "The Occult Sciences: Astrology, Alchemy, Geomancy" (eight articles); (5) "The Mathematical Sciences: Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Optics" (four articles); and (6) "The Practical Sciences: Agriculture, Cartography, Engineering" (four articles). The general objective of the collection is to provide access to articles that "illustrate the intellectual curiosity and theoretical vigour with which Arabs and non-Arabs living in the medieval Muslim world pursued scientific endeavors" (vol. 1, p. 1). Rather than attempting to provide a comprehensive overview, Pormann has chosen to provide studies that "sample some of the delights and delicacies" (vol. 1, p. 2) and highlight debates in recent scholarship.

Half of the articles fall in part two, which is not surprising, given Pormann's expertise in Islamic medicine. The editor recognizes this personal bias in the topics that interested him, providing reprints of five of his own articles and noting that "this may well smack of nepotism and navel-gazing" (vol. 1, p. 21). It would be easy to quibble with the editor about articles left out or the lack of coverage of certain sciences (e.g., botany). As a specialist in the history of Arab agriculture and irrigation, I find the section on agriculture weak, with its emphasis only on the well-traveled Nabatean Agriculture; the rich traditions in Andalusia, Egypt, and Yemen are completely ignored. The obvious value of an anthology is that it provides ready access to material that is scattered and may not even all be available in a single library. But there is potentially a problem of academic canonization in which excellent articles are left out or more useful articles by a scholar are not chosen. Nevertheless, the bibliographies and endnotes for each article indicate a range of significant sources on a topic. The four volumes provide an informative and at times entertaining introduction to the range of issues in current study of the sciences in Islamic contexts.

Although not apparent in the title, the articles all deal with the so-called "medieval Muslim world," with a focus on the period before the end of the 'AblAsid caliphate. The one notable exception is Remke Kruk's "Harry Potter in the Gulf: Contemporary Islam and the Occult" (no. 38), which discusses a recent Saudi magical text. Several well-known Muslim scholars are discussed, including Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Ibn al-Haytham (who is missing from the index), Ibn al-Nafis, Ibn Sind, al-Khwarizmi, al-Kindi, and al-RAzi, but there are also articles dealing with textual genres, schools of thought, institutions, particular sciences, and specific texts. A full list of contents is available on the publisher's website.

One of the stated aims of the editor is to emphasize the interchange of ideas between Muslim scholars and scholarship in the West. As Pormann observes, "we cannot write the history of European and Enlightenment science without taking the rich Arabo-Islamic heritage into consideration" (vol. 1, p. 8). This is especially true for mathematics and astronomy, as noted in articles by David King (no. 32), Jamil Ragep (no. 33), George Saliba (no. 35), and Christian Houzel (no. 37). Pormann is concerned about a recent resurrection of Ernest Renan's nineteenth-century contention that Islam had little or no role in transmitting and improving upon Greek science; this was put forth in the 2007 book by the French medievalist Sylvain Gouguenheim, who argued that Christians rather than Muslims were responsible for preserving the Greek sciences he claimed were alien to Islamic thought. For a book that asserts one cannot follow Jesus and Muhammad, Gouguenheim's political agenda is thinly disguised and has been warmly received in Islamophobic circles as well as several mainstream media outlets. Polemical counterpoint would no doubt serve little purpose in reducing this bias, but sound scholarship can provide a balance. It is therefore a pity that the articles here are not accessible to a general audience.

In recent years the archival potential of the Internet has made it possible for most scholars to increasingly avoid libraries and read published sources and manuscripts at home through online access. The proliferation of pdf piracy, especially of articles in obscure and often expensive academic journals, has posed a problem for publishers, who either seek to make a profit or at least hope to break even. In this climate it is legitimate to ask if anthologies such as that put together by Pormann are still viable. For this specific set the answer is definitely positive, since I did not find any of the articles readily available, even through JSTOR or similar subscription-based services. The high price for the set suggests that the publisher realizes there will be only a limited amount of sales. But budget cuts in many college and university libraries will further hinder accession of these volumes.

In an undertaking of this extent transliteration errors have been kept to a minimum (e.g., Tibb for Tibb (vol. 1, p. 331 n. 10), even though all the articles have been retyped. It should be noted that in retyping there may be differences from the transliteration in the original articles. It would have been useful to include a chart of the transliteration system, since there are some inconsistencies. One finds al-Khwarizmi (vol. 1, p. 53), al-Khwarizmi (vol. 4, p. 231), al-Hwarazmi (vol. 1, p. 17), or the name left without transliteration (vol. 3, p. 312). At times the jim is presented as j and other times as g (e.g., Gamal al-Din al-Afgani [vol. 1, p. 2]); similarly the ghayn may be gh or g and the dhal either d or dh. These differences would be understandable if the original articles were published in facsimile, but consistent transliteration would better serve this anthology. It is worth noting that the final article (no. 53) by Jeremy Johns and Emilie Savage-Smith from 2003 can be updated with reference to an online version of "The Book of Curiosities" at the Bodleian Library website (http://cosmos.bodley.ox.ac.uk/hms/home.php).

DANIEL MARTIN VARISCO

HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY