Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Science and Islam

Introduction and Course Goals The study of science and religion has been dominated by specic views and ideas, which developed in the context of European History. This seminar examines these views critically and studies the different debates and controversies through analyzing historical cultural phenomena and investigating how these debates, exchanges and controversies existed and developed in the Middle East and the Islamic world from the Middle Ages till the modern and contemporary period. Focusing on both theory and practice, the seminar will address the intellectual and philosophical debates as well as the effect of religious laws and traditions on the practice of science and the inuence of science and technology on the religious and theological discourse and practice. Through careful comparisons with similar debates and questions in Europe, India and China, we will try to arrive at better understanding and deeper analysis. Students will be encouraged to pursue projects engaging with different periods and/or regions using the discussions in the seminar.

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Science and Islam

Schedule
1.Introduction to the seminar and general discussion of the syllabus. 2.Historical Introduction
In this session, we will walk through some of the most important moments and periods in the history of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. This session serves as a background for the rest of our discussion. Readings Muhammad Qasim Zaman. The Caliphs, the ulam, and the Law: Dening the Role and Function of the Caliph in the Early Abbasid Period. Islamic Law and Society vol. 4, N 1, 1997. Pp. 1-36. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/3399239 Hamilton A. R. Gibb. Arab-Byzantine Relations under the Umayyad Caliphate. Dumbarton Oaks papers vol. 12, 1958. Pp. 219+221-233. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1291121 Amalia Levanoni. The Mamluks' Ascent to Power in Egypt. Studia Islamica, N 72, 1990. Pp. 121-144. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1595777 Taqy Al-Dn Al-Maqrz. Towards a Shi'i Mediterranean Empire: Fatimid Egypt and the Founding of Cairo. In Jiwa, Shainool (Ed.). London: I. B. Tauris, 2009. Pp. 66-86 P. M. Holt. The Position and Power of the Mamluk Sultan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Supplementary Studies vol. 38, N 2, 1975. Pp. 237-249. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/613211 Said Amir Arjomand. The Crisis of the Imamate and the Institution of Occultation in Twelver Shiism: A Sociohistorical Perspective. International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 28, N 4, 1996. Pp. 491-515. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/176150

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Science and Islam

Unit I-Themes

On Knowledge and Authority

3.Knowing Knowledge: Knowledge in the Classical Age of Islamic Sciences
With the translation of Greek and Persian works to Arabic and the boom of intellectual production known as The Classical Age of Islamic Sciences, central questions posed themselves on the intellectual scene: what is knowledge? What are the proper sources of knowledge? What is the value of knowledge? How can we acquire knowledge and how can we use it? These questions were not only philosophical questions but also political and cultural determining the distribution of resources to different disciplines and shaping the relation between the scientic and the religious discourses under the sovereignty of religiously-legitimized political regimes. We will compare our ndings in Islamdom with medieval Europe and medieval China. Readings Al-Ghazl. The Book of Knowledge. In Faris, Nabih Amin (Ed.). Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1966. 30-72 http://discovery.lib.harvard.edu//?itemid=%7clibrary%2fm%2faleph%7c000963897 Franz Rosenthal. The Classical Heritage in Islam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. 54-75 http://books.google.com/books?id=I1mkhQYvPIoC&lpg=PR1&pg=PR6#v=onepage&q&f=false Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Tufayl, Abu'l Walid Muhammad Ibn Rushd. Two Andalusian Philosophers. New York: Kegan Paul International, 1999. Pp. 3-72. Dimitri Gutas. Medical Theory and Scientic Method in the Age of Avicenna. In Reisman, David C., Al-Rahim, Ahmed H. (Ed.) Before and after Avicenna: Proceedings of the First Conference of the Avicenna Study Group. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Pp. 145-163.

4.Knowledge; old and new: Knowledge in modern and contemporary Middle East
With the meaning of knowledge, its tools and its use shifting in Europe and in other parts of the world, debates about the new characters of knowledge were central to the modernization efforts in the Middle East and Islamic World. In this session, we will look at how the understanding of knowledge in all its forms developed and was reformulated during this period in relation to different modernization projects and in relation to the formulation of new states and new identities. We will compare our ndings in the larger Islamic world with similar developments in Europe, China, India, Tibet and Japan. Readings Marwa S. Elshakry. Knowledge in Motion: The Cultural Politics of Modern Science Translations in Arabic. Isis vol. 99, 2008. Pp. 701-730. Hatsuki Aishima, Armando Salvatore. Doubt, Faith and Knowledge: The Reconguration of the Intellectual Field in Post-Nasserist Cairo. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute vol. 15, N 1, 2009. Pp. 41-56. http://ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=aph&AN=44099244&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Ebrahim Moosa. Shaykh Ahmad Shakir and the Adoption of a Scientically-Based Lunar Calendar. Islamic Law and Society vol. 5, N 1, 1998. Pp. 57-89. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/3399353 Roxanne Leslie Euben. A Counternarrative of Shared Ambivalence: Some Muslim and Western Perspectives on Sicnece and Reason. Common Knowledge vol. 9, N 1, 2003. Pp. 50-77. http://muse.jhu.edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/journals/common_knowledge/summary/v009/9.1euben.html Fauzi M. Najjar. Ibn Rushd and the Egyptian Enlightment Movement. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies vol. 31, N 2, 2004. Pp. 159-213. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/4145508 Mohammed Sawaie. Rifa Ra Al-Tahtawi and His Contribution to the Lexical Development of Modern Literary Arabi. International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 32, N 3, 2000. Pp. 395-410. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/259515

Science and Islam

5.Madrasas, Hospitals and Sheikhs: Authority and institution in medieval Islamdom

The intellectual and cultural development, which started in the ninth century, was marked and inuenced by the development of specic institutions of learning and of intellectual production, which included madrasas, hospitals, observatories, libraries and cathedral mosques. This also allowed for the appearance of a new and a very diverse intellectual class, which enjoyed overwhelming epistemic authority and shaped through its debates and controversies the intellectual scene in the Islamic world. In this session, we will see how these institutions inuenced the intellectual scene and helped shape different debates in this historical context. We will also look at epistemic authority, its meaning and how different actors enjoyed and used this authority. Readings Adam Sabra. Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam: Mamluk Egypt 1250 - 1517. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp. 69-100. Tzvi Y. Langermann. Criticism of Authority in the Writings of Moses Maimonides and Fakhr Al-Din Al-Razi. Early Science and Medicine vol. 7, N 3, 2002. Pp. 255-275. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/4130441 Anne F. Broadbridge. Academic Rivalry and the Patronage System in Fifteenth-Century Egypt: Al-ayn, Al-Maqrz and Ibn ajar Al-asqaln. Mamluk Studies Review vol. 3, 1999. Pp. 85-107. Yasser Tabbaa. The Functional Aspects of Medieval Islamic Hospital. In Bonner, Michael David, Ener, Mine, Singer, Amy (Ed.) Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. Pp. 95-119. George Makdisi. Muslim Institutions of Learning in Eleventh Century Baghdad. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies vol. 24, N 1, 1961. Pp. 1-56. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/610293

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

George Makdisi. The Scholastic Method in Medieval Education: An Inquiry into Its Origins in Law and Theology. Speculum vol. 49, N 4, 1974. Pp. 640-661. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/2852031

Science and Islam

6.Rethinking Authority: Science and Islam in modern and contemporary Middle East
Under European occupation and/or Imperial inuence, intellectual elites in the south in general and in the Islamic world in particular worked to change and to reformulate the educational and scientic institutions and to remodel the identity and the role of intellectual elites themselves. These debates and efforts reshaped the intellectual community and produced different relations and different views about the new scientic, philosophical and religious discourses. In this session, we will look at these changes and developments from the early modern to contemporary periods in different parts of the Islamic world from Morocco to Central Asia. We will also look at similar developments in India, China and Tibet. Readings Benjamin C. Fortna. Islamic Morality in Late Ottoman Secular Schools. Studies vol. 32, N 3, 2000. Pp. 369-393. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/259514 International Journal of Middle East

Mobin M. Shorish. The Islamic Revolution and Education in Iran. Comparative Education Review vol. 32, N 1, 1988. Pp. 58-75. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1188473 John W. Livingston. Western Science and Educational Reform in the Thought of Shaykh Rifaa Al-Tahtawi. International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 28, N 4, 1996. Pp. 543-564. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/176152 Af I. Tannous. Missionary Education in Lebanon: A Study in Acculturation. Social Forces vol. 21, N 3, 1943. Pp. 338-343. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/info/2570673 David C. Kinsey. Efforts for Educational Synthesis under Colonial Rule: Egypt and Tunisia. Comparative Education Review vol. 15, N 2, 1971. Pp. 172-187. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1186728 Fatma Muge Gocek. Ethnic Segmentation, Western Education and Political Outcomes: Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Society. Poetics Today vol. 14, N 3, 1993. Pp. 507-538. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1773283 Armando Salvatore. Social Differentiation, Moral Authority and Public Islam in Egypt: The Path of Mustafa Mahmud. Anthropology Today vol. 16, N 2, 2000. Pp. 12-15. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/2678235

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Science and Islam

Unit II-Actors and Agents

Questions of Self and Other

7.The Intellectual Self
In this session, we will discuss the process of identication at the intellectual level. In other words, we will see how particular disciplines become disciplines and how they fragment, divide and unite. We will see how the denitions and the meanings of religion, science, theology, etc were created and developed across time. We will also focus on the formation of intellectual identities, questions of heresy or non-scienticity, etc. We will investigate specic incidences and historical events, which inuenced and/or symbolized these differentiations. Readings Sherman A. Jackson. On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam: Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali's Faysal Al-Tafriqa Bayna Al-Islam Wa Al-Zandaqa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 85-132 Al-Frb. Alfarabi, the Political Writings: Selected Aphorisms and Other Texts. In Butterworth, Charles E. (Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. 93-113 Ahmad Dallal. The Origins and Objectives of Islamic Revivalist Thought, 1750-1850. Oriental Society vol. 113, N 3, 1993. Pp. 341-359. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/605385 Journal of the American

Marwa S. Elshakry. The Gospel of Science and American Evangelism in Late Ottoman Beirut. Past and Present, N 196, 2007. Pp. 137-214. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/25096683 Ronald Nettler. A Modern Islamic Confession of Faith and Conception of Religion: Sayyid Qutb's Introduction of the Tafsir, Fi Zilal Al-Quran. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies vol. 21, N 1, 1994. Pp. 102-114. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/195569 Nasr Hamid Abu-Zeid. The Sectarian and the Renaissance Discourse. Alif: Journal of comparative poetics, N 19, 1999. Pp. 203-222. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/521920

8.The Racial Self

When did race as a category of differentiation appear? How was/is it understood within the frameworks of knowledge production and consumption? How is race part of the denition of the self and how does it affect the intellectual self, as discussed before? Readings Josiah Blackmore. Imaging the Moor in Medieval Portugal. Diacritics vol. 36, N 3, 2006. Pp. 27-43. http://muse.jhu.edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/journals/diacritics/v036/36.3-4.blackmore.html

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Jere L. Bacharach. African Military Slaves in the Medieval Middle East: The Case of Iraq (869-955) and Egypt (868-1171). International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 13, N 4, 1981. Pp. 471-495. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/162910 Osman Turan. The Ideal of World Domination among the Medieval Turks. Studia Islamica, N 4, 1955. Pp. 77-90. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1595052 Ulrich Haarmann. Rather the Injustice of the Turks Than the Righteousness of the Arabs: Changing 'Ulama' Attitudes Towards Mamluk Rule in the Late Fifteenth Century. Studia Islamica, N 68, 1988. Pp. 61-77. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1595758 Reinhold Grimm. Two African Saints in Medieval Germany. Die Unterrichtspraxis/ Teaching German vol. 25, N 2, 1992. Pp. 127-133. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/3531906 Randall L. Pouwels. The Medieval Foundations of East African Islam. Historical Studies vol. 11, N 2, 1978. Pp. 201-226. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/217437 The International Journal of African

Science and Islam

Abbas Haji Gnamo. Islam, the Orthodox Church and Oromo Nationalism (Ethiopia). Cahiers d'tudes Africaines vol. 42, 2002. Pp. 99-120. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/4393188

9.The Gendered Self

Gender and sexuality as categories of differentiation changed in meaning and signicance along with different socio-political, economic and socio-intellectual factors. Here, we will see how the historically-developing denitions of gender and sexuality affected the intellectual identication and the intellectual authority and how these denitions were inuenced by and inuenced different understandings of knowledge. Readings Ruth Roded. Bint Al-Shati's "Wives of the Prophet": Feminist or Feminine? Studies vol. 33, N 1, 2006. Pp. 51-66. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/20455425 British Journal of Middle Eastern

Marilyn Booth. "May Her Likes Be Multiplied": "Famous Women" Biography and Gendered Prescription in Egypt, 1892-1935. Signs vol. 22, N 4, 1997. Pp. 827-890. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/3175222 Gayane Karen, Afsaneh Najmabadi. Zulaykha and Yusuf: Whose "Best Stories"? International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 29, N 4, 1997. Pp. 485-508. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/164399 Beth Baron. Unveiling in Early Twentieth Century Egypt: Practical and Symbolic Consideration. Middle Eastern Studies vol. 25, N 3, 1989. Pp. 370-386. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/4283318

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies Unit III-Cases, Debates and Controversies

In this unit, we will focus on a number of debates, controversies and case-studies, where we can trace the development of these debates and questions in view of the previously discussed themes and how these debates can add to our understanding of the question of science and religion. Relevant discussions in Europe, China, India, Japan and Tibet will be brought in the discussion.

Science and Islam

10.Sacred Texts and Interpretations

Scientic interpretation of different scriptures and/or religious and sacred texts has been a very important intellectual practice, where agents and institutions engaged in interpreting the historical and sacred text in manners compatible with newer deemed-scientic intellectual production. In this session, we will look closely at how this practice, how it changed and developed across history and what it signies. Readings Averroes. The Book of the Decisive Treatise Determining the Connection between the Law and Wisdom ; &, Epistle Dedicatory. In Butterworth, Charles E. (Ed.). Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2001. 1-33 Andreas Christmann. "The Form Is Permenant, but the Content Moves": The Quranic and Its Interpretation(S) in Mohamad Shahrour's 'Al-Kitab Wa 'L Quran'. Die Welt des Islams, New Series vol. 43, N 2, 2003. Pp. 143-172. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/20140662 Charles D. Smith. The 'Crisis of Orientation': The Shift of Egyptian Intellectuals to Islamic Subjets in the 1930's. International Journal of Middle East Studies vol. 4, N 4, 1973. Pp. 382-410. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/162311 Cyril Elgood. Tibb-Ul-Nabbi or Medicine of the Prophet. Osiris vol. 14, 1962. Pp. 33-192. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/301867 (Selections)

11.Our Place under the sun

The position of man in the universe and the perception of the universe, whether as an outside reality, a product of a Divine agent or a g of imagination, were central questions, which inuenced different discourses and intellectual formations. In this session, we will look at how views, theories and perceptions of the universe (such as in astronomy and cosmology) interacted and developed through history. Readings Seyyed Hossein Nasr. An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrine. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. Pp. 44-74 Fakhr Al-Dn Muammad Al-Rz. Imm Rz's 'Ilm Al-Akhlaq. Islamabad: Islamic Research Institute, 1969. Pp. 63-74 Lynn Thorndike. The True Place of Astrology in the History of Science. Isis vol. 46, N 3, 1955. Pp. 273-278. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/226346 Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010) 8

Debates, Approaches and Controversies

Robert G. Mourison. The Portrayal of Nature in a Medieval Qur'an Commentary. Studia Islamica, N 94, 2002. Pp. 115-137. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1596214

Science and Islam

12.The Human and the Non-Human

In our understanding of the limits of ourselves or the nonexistence thereof, different views about the human and the non-human were developed. The relations between these different entities were at the core of theories like evolution and spontaneous generation, and the different theories and doctrines about the soul, its meaning and its value. Readings Avicenna. A Compendium on the Soul. In Van Dyck, Edward Abbott (Ed.). Verona, 1906. http://books.google.com/books?id=-HcXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false (24-40) Ab Bakr Muammad Ibn Zakariyy Al-Rz. The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes. London: J. Murray, 1950. Pp. 93-102 Kimberley C. Patton. "He Who Sits in the Heavens Laughs": Recovering Animal Theology in the Abrahamic Traditions. The Harvard Theological Review vol. 93, N 4, 2000. Pp. 401-434. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1510165 Albert Z. Iskandar. A Doctor's Book on Zoology: Al-Marwaz's abi Al-ayawn (Nature of Animals) Re-Assessed. Oriens vol. 27, 1981. Pp. 266-312. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/1580569

13.Pain, Disease and Healing

Why and how do we feel pain or experience disease? How can we use our knowledge (in its different meanings) to alleviate or to cause pain and disease? Is pain bad? How does pain affect our bodies and our knowledge? Do we all feel pain and disease similarly? Who can and should be trusted? Beth Baron. The Origins of Family Planning: Aziza Hussein, American Experts, and the Egyptian State. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies vol. 4, N 3, 2008. Pp. 31-57. http://ezp1.harvard.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/pqdweb? did=1537344021&Fmt=7&clientId=11201&RQT=309&VName=PQD Soheir A. Morsy. Islamic Clinics in Egypt: The Cultural Elaboration of Biomedical Hegemony. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series vol. 2, N 4, 1988. Pp. 355-369. http://www.jstor.org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/stable/648939 Dariusch Atighetchi. Islamic Bioethics: Problems and Perspectives. The Netherlands: Springer, 2007. (selections)

14.The Living and Dead Bodies

What is the meaning of life? Where and when does it start? What is death and how it happens? Is death related to pain or to disease? Are we similar or different in our death(s)? Who can and should be trusted?

Science and Islam-Debates, Approaches and Controversies (Spring 2010)

Debates, Approaches and Controversies Special Sessions

Special Sessions are extra-class meetings, open to the public, where we discuss various questions related in some manner to the class work and to the readings. Participants are encouraged to suggest more sessions, different formats and/or guest speakers Attendance is optional and times will be scheduled to suit all the participants. Discussions will take a workshop format and will cover different traditions, periods and regions.

Science and Religion

The Apocalypse and Apocalypticism

The apocalypse or the end of the world was a preoccupation of many intellectuals from different scientic and religious disciplines throughout history. How did these views exchange and communicate? How did they develop and what did they signify?

The Utopia
The Perfect World, how it looks like and whether it is possible, were some of the most important questions that occupied and continue to occupy scientic, religious and philosophical production. We will discuss how the image of the perfect world was and is constructed and how it changed over time.

Science, Religion and The Empire

The relation between science and religion took different turns throughout history and played an important role in the political and intellectual projects of different empires through history. This session will discuss how science, religion and their relations affected and gured in the different imperial projects through history and in different regions of the world.