BA Ancient History

The relationship between science and Islam is as hotly debated topic today as it was in the nineteenth century when the question first gained currency among European and Muslim intellectuals. Even today the question tends to polarise thinkers along progressive and conservative lines. European narratives about ‘Islamic science’ are used as evidence of Islam’s decline after its “enlightened” “Golden Age”. Muslim parties to the debate accept the Golden Age narrative, insisting that Islam is itself amenable to scientific speculation, and hold Muslims and Muslim cultures responsible for science’s untimely demise in Islamic world.

So, what’s really going on? Was there really a decline in the wake of a “Golden Age”? Are science and reason inimical to Islam? What roles does science play in Muslim societies, past and present? What is the legacy of European colonialism on the development of science in Muslim societies? What is the future of science in contemporary Muslim societies?

This unit will introduce students to contemporary debates about science and Islam. It will show students what roles science played in Muslim societies in the past and will document how attitudes towards science and the role it plays in modern Islam have transformed. Students will be introduced to the ideas of key Islamic scientists and innovators. Students will also be asked to think critically about the political underpinnings of current debates about science and Islam today. Among topics to be discussed are the Qur’an and scientific language, science, faith and reason, modern and premodern cosmologies, science and prophecy, and Islam and the environment.

• To introduce students to central debates in and about Islam and science today
• To familiarise students with key concepts and figures in these debates
• To understand the enduring legacy of European colonialism among Muslims
• To appreciate the complexity and diversity of viewpoints among contemporary Muslims thinkers

Knowledge transfer in lectures will be augmented and consolidated by means of group work on classic texts in seminar.

• Demonstrate a deeper understanding of key concepts, figures, and themes in contemporary discourses about science and Islam
• Demonstrate an understanding of the link between European colonialism and contemporary Islamic thought
• Appreciate the enormous variety of viewpoints within Islam in the Muslim world

• Enhance your ability to formulate clear and convincing arguments in essays.
• Demonstrate a greater ability to problematise intellectual positions that philosophers have taken.
• Learn to critically engage with both primary and secondary sources with a view to forming your own opinions.

• Debate the value and implications of key concepts, movements and thinkers in a group setting.
• Conduct research by using more extensive primary and secondary material.

• Have increased confidence in public speaking skills.
• Form reasoned arguments in other contexts.
• Recognise and critique other arguments or positions. 

Dallal A (2010) Islam, Science and the Challenge of History. Yale University Press: New Haven.

El Shakry O (2017) The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt. Princeton University Press: Princeton. 

Hourani A (1967) Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Kassab E S (2010) Contemporary Arabic Thought: Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective. Columbia University Press: New York.

Pormann P E, Savage-Smith, E (2007) Medieval Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh Univeristy Press: Edinburgh.

Said E (1978) Orientalism. Pantheon: New York.

Saliba G (2007) Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance. MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Stolz D (2018) The Lighthouse and the Observatory: Islam, Science, and Empire in Late Ottoman Egypt. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.