 |
||
|
||
|
||
Book translated by S. I. Salem and A. Kumar University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1991.
Review by Rajen S. Anand
Long Beach, California - An Indo-American professor, along with a colleague, has translated and eleventh- century book published in Islamic Spain which documents the contribution of scientific knowledge from India, Greece, Persia, Rome, Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.
During the Middle Ages, a thriving center for learning and research existed in Muslim Spain, where students gathered to consult Arabic manuscripts of earlier scientific works and study with famous teachers.
One of these teachers was Sa'id-al-Andalusi (Sa'id of Andalusia), who in 1068 wrote Kitab Tabaqut al-Umam (Book of Categories of Nations) and recorded the contributions to science by these nations.
Today, it is one of the very rare Spanish Muslim texts. The book was recently translated by Sema'an-I-Salem and Alok Kumar, both professors at California State University at Long Beach.
Titled SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD, the book compiles the contributions of India and other countries to science. The information of Greece, Egypt and Rome is well-known to the scientific community in western countries.
However, [knowledge by the West of the] role of scientists and philosophers from such countries as India, Spain, the Middle East and the contribution of Islam to science is new and important.
Medicine, Astronomy, Numbers, Chess Invention
According to the manuscript, Indians are "of sublime pensiveness, universal apologues, and useful and rare inventions." The book also validates the earlier-known facts that chess was invented in India and Indians "surpassed all other people in their knowledge of medical science and the strengths of various drugs."
It also documents India's contributions to astronomy and mathematics, and confirms that the so-called Arabic numerals originated in India.
Salem and Kumar have made a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the history of science by translating this ancient book.
The book contains important information on the exchanges of scientific information from India to Persia, and the Islamic empire of Harun-al-Rashid. It also opens a unique window on the Islamic gifts to science and its role in the European Renaissance Period.
SCIENCE IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD, though written in a reference style, reveals the multinational nature of science. Modern science did not spring with existence full-grown with the Renaissance in Europe. It was influenced by the work of many people from the Middle East and Asia. Their contributions have often been ignored in science history courses taught in the western world.
The book, published by the University
of Texas Press, sheds plenty of light on the multicultural aspect of scientific
contribution and confirms the glorious past of India and the other so-called
Third World countries.
|
||
|
||
|
||