2. Outline of a Program for Future Research

Nevertheless, despite the progress that I have just outlined rapidly, the field of Islamic science as an academic discipline seems to get winded on the institutional level and suffers from a real isolation in the academic world and among the general public. Besides general reasons linked to cultural remains, one of the reasons of this deplorable situation is to be found in the inflation of textual and philological concerns, and the isolation of science from the spiritual, cultural, and material components of Islamic civilisation. In this respect, it is not by chance if the sociological analysis of Islamic science is yet almost inexistent even though a very large amount of original texts and critical literature is available since several decades.

Given this situation, I think it is time to open a new phase in the history of Islamic science and technology, by putting the focus on the interconnected fields of mechanics, technology and engineering with the ambition to stress the scientific and technological dimensions of the material culture of the Islamic civilisation, especially in what concerns objects, artifacts, machines and instruments, whether this analysis concerns instruments already scrutinized by historians or those still to be investigated. It is not easy to outline a detailed program of research in such a limited time. Therefore I mention just a short insight of what we might do together through the cooperation that I enjoy with my colleagues in the FSTC in order to contribute to the renewal of our knowledge of the contribution of Islamic civilization to the exciting and successful human adventure of science and technology.

This cooperation will focus on three main domains:

1. To reconstruct the history of mechanics, technology and engineering in the classical civilisation of Islam in a global approach including the Islamic West. A lot of information is already available but it still needs to be organized and systematized. In this respect, special attention should be paid to the real extent the influence of the Islamic technology had upon medieval and pre-modern Europe. This decisive influence is proven in science (mathematics, astronomy, optics), but in technology we don’t as yet know precisely if and how something similar had occurred. For instance, as far as we know, no Latin translation of Al-Jazarī’s text was performed, but the knowledge of Arabic in Europe until the 17th century was far more developed than what we may think now. Given the wide circulation of Al-Jazarī’s treatise in the Islamic world, as it is proven by the numerous existing manuscripts that were preserved, we shouldn’t discard the very plausible hypothesis that the text attracted the attention of European travelers in the 15th or 16th centuries and was brought to Europe. A systematic research in the European archives, especially in Italy, may yield a great surprise in this respect.

Figure 6a: A sophisticated water raising machine of Al-Jazarī, from manuscript to virtual reconstruction: see Salim Al-Hassani et al. (2008), Al-Jazari’s Third Water-Raising Device. © FSTC and www.MuslimHeritage.com.

Figure 6b: The six-cylinder water pump of Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Ma’rūf: manuscript drawing and virtual design. See : The Six-Cylinder Water Pump of Taqi al-Din by Salim Al-Hassani et al. (2008). © FSTC and www.MuslimHeritage.com.

On the other hand, special interest will be devoted to the work the 11th century Andalusian ‘Alī Ibn Khalaf al-Murādī, author of the unique technological manuscript we received from the brilliant Andalusian tradition. The text is entitled Kitāb al-asrār fī natā’ij al-afkār; it is preserved in the Codex Medicea-Laurenziana Or. 152, Florence, Italy. It was copied and used at the court of Alphonse VI in Christian Spain in the 14th century, where Arabs, Jews and Christian scholars worked together for decades. Even if the manuscript is presently in a bad material shape, it deserves close scrutiny and should be checked carefully. Only one of its machines was described by Spanish scholars led by Juan Vernet; the rest will certainly repay investigation.

Figure 7: Two pages from the MS of al-Murādī’s treatise Kitāb al-asrār fī natā’ij al-afkār preserved in the Codex Or. 152 preserved in the Library Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy.

Figure 8: Two views from the graphical reconstruction of al-Murādī’s clock by Spanish scholars: see J. Vernet, R. Casals and V.M. Villuendas,Awraq (Madrid ), no. 5-6, 1982-83.
Figure 9: Original drawing of a clock from al-Murādī’s manuscript and its reconstruction by J. Vernet, R. Casals and V.M. Villuendas.

2. The second mission regards research related to the restoration of machines and technological remains, in order to show that these were not just toys or ornaments, but real machines that worked at their time and were identical to the historical descriptions we have in the sources where they were described. Examples here are numerous. The most significant of them are several clocks disseminated around the Islamic world, from Damascus in Syria to Fez in Morocco. Some of these machines are the oldest of their kind in the world, like the Bouanania clock in Fez, and should be taken care of not only by Muslims but by humanity at large. The restoration of these jewels of ancient technology will not only make them live again, in their original milieu, but will also produce a tremendous cultural and symbolic impact on the people living in their vicinity.

3. The third aspect of our collaboration regards the reinforcement of the use of the internet as a media to popularise the results of professional research and to introduce the debate on Islamic science and technology in education, mass media and culture. This means that we continue our policy of putting different materials on the internet and to improve it by providing free access to more sophisticated materials such as original and translated texts, virtual museums, pictures and video presentations. The aim is to attain a critical mass of materials in order to make the presence of Islamic science on electronic media effective and not just symbolic. In this respect, a special attention should be devoted to building a digital library of scientific and technological texts, with the tools available now to the last generation of data bases, like a technical dictionary, powerful search facilities, analytic short articles, appropriate links to the existing materials on the net, etc.

The work in this field has begun several years ago and the websites of the FSTC are massively visited every day. Our common ambition is to enlarge the community that benefits from the work done so far and gain new visitors, like the scholars and experts who, for the most, work as individuals or in small groups, and receive little feedback on their academic work.

Figure 10: Scheme of the program “Electronic Media at the service of Muslim Heritage”.

The new methodological shift to orient the history of Muslim science and technological heritage will certainly correct the philological and textual inflation that marked the history of Islamic science as a discipline and turned it out as a narrow domain of research for scholars cut from other parts of historical knowledge and from present day life.

On another level, we should think also of the way to promote Muslim heritage and popularize it in the Arab and Muslim world. I am attempting this in Morocco, where the young people and students have a great thirst to learn and are highly receptive. Within our collaboration and with the conjunction of our efforts, I am sure we will achieve great results.

Click here to view the next page of References and further readings.

3. References and further readings

3.1 Theoretical mechanics

  • Abattouy, Mohammed 1997. Arabic Tradition of Mechanics and Engineering: General Survey and Prospects for Future Research. Berlin: Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Preprint no. 76.
  • Abattouy, M. 1999. “The Arabic Tradition of Mechanics: Textual and Historical Characterization.” Review of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities in Fez (Fez), vol. 12, pp. 75-109.
  • Abattouy, M. 2000. “La tradition arabe de la balance: Thābit Ibn Qurra et al-Khāzinī”. In: Jawanib min tatawur al-afkar al-‘ilmiya hata ‘l-‘asr al-wasit. Rabat, pp. 49-61 (French section).
  • Abattouy, M. 2000. “Al-Muzaffar al-Isfizari ‘alim mikaniki min al-qarnayn 5-6 H (11-12 CE) mu’allif Irshad dhawi al-irfan ila sina’at al-qaffan“. In: Jawanib min tatawur al-afkar al-‘ilmiya hata ‘l-‘asr al-wasit. Rabat, pp. 135-175 (Arabic section).
  • Abattouy, M. 2000. “Sur quelques démonstrations grecques et arabes de la loi du levier: transmission et transformation”. In: Aliyat al-istidlal fi ‘l-‘ilm. Rabat, pp. 7-43 (French section).
  • Abattouy, M. 2000. 2000. “Mechane vs. hiyal: Essai d’analyse sémantique et conceptuelle.” In: Al-khayal wa dawruhu fi taqaddum al-ma’rifa al-‘ilmiya. Rabat, pp. 127-151. Published in Berlin: Max Planck Institut für Wissenschatsgeschichte, 2000, Preprint no. 152.
  • Abattouy, M. 2001. “Nutaf min al-hiyal: An Arabic Partial Version of Pseudo-Aristotle’s Problemata mechanica.” Early Science and Medicine (Brill) vol. 6: pp. 96-122.
  • Abattouy, M. 2001. “Greek Mechanics in Arabic Context: Thābit Ibn Qurra, al-Isfizārī and the Arabic Traditions of Aristotelian and Euclidean Mechanics”. Science in Context (Cambridge University Press) vol. 14: pp. 179-247.
  • Abattouy, M. 2002. “The Arabic Science of Weights: A Report on an Ongoing Research Project.” BRIIFSvol. 4, no. 1: pp. 109-130.
  • Abattouy, M. 2002. “The Aristotelian Foundations of Arabic Mechanics: From the Ninth to the Twelfth Century.” In The Dynamics of Aristotelian Natural Philosophy from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century.Edited by C. Leijenhorst, C. Lüthy and H. Thijssen. (Medieval and Early Modern Science, vol. 5). Leiden: Brill, pp. 109-140. [Published in Berlin: Max Planck Institut für Wissenschatsgeschichte, Preprint no. 195, 2002].
  • Abattouy, M. 2003. “‘Ulum al-mikanika fi al-gharb al-islami al-wasit: dirasa awwaliya”. Al-fikr al-ilmi al-‘l-Maghrib. Rabat, pp. 91-121.
  • Abattouy, M. 2004. “Al-Khāzinī.” In: Lexikon bedeutender naturwissenschaftler. Heidelberg-Berlin: Spektrum Academischer Verlag, vol. 2, pp. 310-311.
  • Abattouy, M. 2004. “Science des poids et hisba: Prolégomènes à l’étude des structures sociales de la mécanique arabe médiévale.” In: Paradigmatic Elements in Scientific Thought. Rabat, pp. 119-130.
  • Abattouy, M. 2004. “Islāh comme un mode éditorial d’appropriation: La tradition arabe de Maqāla fī ‘l-mīzān un traité sur la théorie du levier attribué à Euclide.” Review of the Faculty of Letters and Humanities in Fez (Fez), vol. 13, pp. 153-193.
  • Abattouy, M. 2004. “Min ‘ilm al-hiyal ila ‘ilm al-athqal: wilada thaniya li-‘l-mikanika”. Mafhum al-taqaddum fi ‘l-ilm. Rabat, pp. 89-109.
  • Abattouy, M. 2005. ” Al-Qistās al-mustaqīm: la balance droite de ‘Umar al-Khayyām.” Farhang. Quarterly Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (Tehran) vol. 18 (no. 53-54): pp.155-166.
  • Abattouy, M. 2006. The Arabic Transformation of Mechanics: The Birth of the Science of Weights.
  • Abattouy, M. 2007. “La tradition arabe de Maqāla fī ‘l-mīzān un traité sur la théorie du levier attribué à Euclide.” Ayené-ye Miras (Mirror of Heritage). Quarterly Journal of Book Review, Bibliography and Text Information (Tehran) New series vol. 5: no. 1.
  • Abattouy, M. 2007. The Arabic Partial Version of Pseudo-Aristotle’s Mechanical Problems.
  • Abattouy, M. (editor) 2007. Etudes d’Histoire des Sciences Arabes. Textes réunis et présentés par Mohammed Abattouy. Casablanca: Publications of King Abdulaziz Foundation for the Humanities and Islamic Studies.
  • Abattouy, M. (editor) 2007. La science dans les sociétés islamiques: approches historiques et perspectives d’avenir. Edité par Mohammed Abattouy. Casablanca: Publications of King Abdulaziz Foundation for the Humanities and Islamic Studies.
  • Abattouy, M. 2007. L’Histoire des sciences arabes classiques: une bibliographie sélective commentée.Casablanca: Publications of King Abdulaziz Foundation for the Humanities and Islamic Studies.
  • Abattouy, M. 2008. Bibliography on Taqi Al-Din.
  • Aghayani Chavoshi, Jafar, & Bancel, Faïza 2000. “Omar Khayyām et l’Hydrostatique”. Farhang. Quarterly Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies (Tehran) vol. 12: pp. 33-49.
  • [Archimedes and Philon] 2001. Archimedes and Philon in the Arabic Tradition. Texts and Studies.Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. (Natural Sciences in Islam, 37). Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften.
  • Bauerreis, Heinrich 1914. Zur Geschichte des spezifischen Gewichtes im Altertum und Mittelalter.Erlangen: Jung & Sohne.
  • Berggren, Lennart J. 1983. “The Correspondence of Abū Sahl al-Kūhī and Abū Ishāq al-Sābī: A Translation with Commentaries.” Journal for the History of Arabic Science vol. 7: pp. 39-124. [Edition and translation of a scientific correspondence of the 10th century].
  • Brown, Joseph E. 1967. The ‘Scientia de Ponderibus’ in the Later Middle Ages. PhD dissertation. Madison: The University of Wisconsin. [Major work, still unpublished; deals in part with certain aspects of the Latin tradition of Arabic mechanics, especially that of the Liber karastonis, the Latin translation of Kitāb fī ‘l-qarastūn by Thābit Ibn Qurra].
  • Büchner, E. 1920-21. “Die Schrift über den Karastun von Thabit b. Qurra”, Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-Medizinischen Sozietät in Erlangen part 52-53, pp. 141-188. [Edition of the Liber Karastonis, the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona of Kitāb fī ‘l-qarastūn by Thābit Ibn Qurra, with commentaries].
  • Clagett, Marshall 1959. The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
  • Curtze, Maximilian 1874. “Das angebliche Werk des Euklides über die Waage.” Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik vol. 19: pp. 262-63.
  • Curtze, M. 1900. “Zwei Beitrege zur Geschichte der Physik im Mittelalter. 1. Das Buch Euclids de gravi et levi. 2. Der Tractatus de fractionibus et flexionibus radiorum des Robertus Linconiensis.” Bibliotheca mathematica vol. 3: pp. 51-59.
  • Drachmann A.G. 1963. “Fragments from Archimedes in Hero’s Mechanics.” Centaurus vol. 8: pp. 91-146.
  • Heinen, Anton 1983. “At the Roots of the Medieval Science of Weights. A Report on an Edition Project.” The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies (Tokyo) vol. 1: pp. 44-55.
  • Héron d’Alexandrie 1988. Les Mécaniques ou l’élévateur des corps lourds. Texte arabe de Qustā Ibn Lūqā établi et traduit par B. Carra de Vaux. Introduction de D.R. Hill. Commentaires par A.G. Drachmann. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. Reprint of the editio princeps with French translation published in the Journal Asiatique (1893, reissued in volume in Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1894).
  • Heron von Alexandria 1976. Heronis Alexandrini Opera quae supersunt. 5 vols. Vol. 2: Mechanica et catoprica. Edited by L. Nix and W. Schmidt. Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner. Reprint of the first edition: Leipzig, 1899-1914.
  • [Heronis arabus] 2001. Hero of Alexandria in the Arabic tradition. Texts and Studies. Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. (Natural Sciences in Islam, 38). Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften.
  • Ibel, Thomas 1908. Die Wage im Altertum und Mittelalter. Erlangen: K.B. Hof und Univ. Buchdruckerei von Junge und Sohn. [In origin a doctorate dissertation, Die Waage bei den Alten, Erlangen University, 1906 (Midden-Oosten Weegwerktuigen, Programm des K. Luitpoldprogymnasiums, Forchheim); general study on the Ancient and medieval history of the balances. Reprinted in [Ibel 2001]. The Knowledge of Weights in the Islamic World. Texts and Studies. Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. 2 vols. (Natural Sciences in Islam, 45-46). Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften. Vol. 1 contains: Thomas Ibel, Die Wage im Altertum und Mittelalter (1908) et H. Bauerreiss, Zur Geschichte des spezifischen Gewichtes… (1914).
  • Jackson, David E.P. 1970. The Arabic Version of the Mathematical Collection of Pappus Alexandrinus Book VIII. Doctorate Thesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
  • Jackson, D.E.P. 1987-88. “Scholarship in Abbasid Baghdad with Special Reference to Greek Mechanics in Arabic.” In: Quaderni di Studi Arabi, Atti del XIII Congresso dell’Union Européenne d’Arabisants et d’Islamisants (Venezia, 29 Settembre-4 Ottobre 1986). Venezia: Universitá degli Studi di Venezia, pp. 369-390.
  • Jaouiche, Khalil 1974. “Le Livre du qarastūn de Thābit Ibn Qurra: Etude sur l’origine de la notion de travail et du calcul du moment statique d’une barre homogène.” Archive for the History of Exact Sciences vol. 13: pp. 325-347.
  • Jaouiche, K. 1976. Le Livre du qarastūn de Thābit Ibn Qurra. Etude sur l’origine de la notion de travail et du calcul du moment statique d’une barre homogène. Leiden: Brill.
  • Khanikoff, N. 1860. “Analysis and Extracts of Kitāb mīzān al-hikma, an Arabic Work on the Water-balance, written by al-Khāzinī in the Twelfth Century. By the Chevalier N. Khanikoff, Russian Consul-general at Tabriz, Persia.” Journal of the American Oriental Society vol. 6: pp. 1-128.
  • Khāzinī, al-, Abu ‘l-Fath Abdurahman 1359 H [1940]. Kitāb mīzān al-hikma. Hyderabad: Da’irat al-ma’arif al-‘uthmaniya.
  • Khāzinī, al-, 2001. Mīzān al-hikma by Abū ‘l-Fath ‘Abdarrahmān al-Khāzinī (d. after 1121). Texts and Studies. Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. (Natural Sciences in Islam, 47). Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften.
  • Knorr, Wilbur R. 1982. Ancient Sources of the Medieval Tradition of Mechanics: Greek, Arabic and Latin Studies of the Balance. Supplemento agli Annali dell’Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza (Monografia no. 6). Florence: Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza.
  • Mazahéri, Ali 1960. “L’origine chinoise de la balance ‘romaine’.” Annales. Economies-Sociétés-Civilisations(Paris) no. 5: pp. 51-83.
  • Moody, Ernst and Clagett, Marshall 1952. The Medieval Science of Weights (Scientia de Ponderibus). Treatises Ascribed to Euclid, Archimedes, Thābit Ibn Qurra, Jordanus and Blasius of Parma. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 2nd edition 1960.
  • Rozhanskaya, Mariam M. 1987. “On a Mathematical Problem in al-Khāzinī’s Book of the Balance of Wisdom.” In: From Deferent to Equant, edited by D.A. King and G. Saliba, pp. 427-436.
  • Rozhanskaya, M.M. 1991. Abū ‘l-Fath ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Khāzinī (XIIth Century). Moscou: Nauka. [Bio-bibliographical study on al-Khāzinī; in Russian].
  • Rozhanskaya, M.M. 1996. “Statics”. In: Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Science, edited by R. Rashed. London: Routledge, vol. III, pp. 614-642.
  • Rozhanskaya, M.M. 1997. “Les méthodes infinitésimales dans la mécanique Arabe.” Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences vol. 47: pp. 255-270.
  • Sauvaire, Henri 1877. “A Treatise on Weights and Measures by Eliya Archbishop of Nisibin.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society vol. 9: pp. 291-313.
  • Sauvaire, H. 1880. “A Treatise on Weights and Measures by Eliya Archbishop of Nisibin. Supplement.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society vol. 12: pp. 25-110. [The two articles of Sauvaire consist in a French translation with commentaries of the treatise of weights by Ilyā al-Matrān (11th century). Reprinted in The Knowledge of Weights in the Islamic World. Texts and Studies. Collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin et al. (Frankfurt: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, vol. 2, 2001)].
  • Steinschneider, S. 1863. “Intorno al Liber Karastonis“, Annali di matematica pura ed applicata (Roma) vol. 5: pp. 54-58.
  • Wiedemann, Eilhard 1910. “Über die Kenntnisse der Muslime auf dem Gebiet der Mechanik und Hydrostatik.” Archiv für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften vol. 2: pp. 394-398.
  • Wiedemann, E. 1911-12. “Die Schrift über den Qarastun.” Biblioteca Mathematica vol. 12: pp. 21-39. [German translation of Kitāb fī ‘l-qarastūn by Thābit Ibn Qurra].
  • Wiedemann, E. 1913-16. “Al-Mīzān.” In: Encyclopedia of Islam, First Edition. Leiden: Brill, vol. 5, pp. 530-539.
  • Wiedemann, E. 1913-16. “Al-Karastūn.” In: Encyclopedia of Islam, First Edition. Leiden: Brill, vol. 4, pp. 757-760.
  • Woepcke, Franz 1851. “Notice sur des traductions arabes de deux ouvrages perdus d’Euclide.” Journal asiatique vol. 18: pp. 217-247. [Publication of the Arabic texts of two short treatises attributed to Euclid: Maqāla fī ‘l-mīzān (pp. 220-225) (with French translation: pp. 225-232) and the Division of figures (pp. 233-246)].
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