Download or read book Polymaths of Islam written by James Pickett and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Polymaths of Islam analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a shared culture that integrated Central Asia, Iran, and India from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth. James Pickett demonstrates that Islamic scholars were simultaneously mystics and administrators, judges and occultists, physicians and poets. This integrated understanding of the world of Islamic scholarship unlocks a different way of thinking about transregional exchange networks. Pickett reveals a Persian-language cultural sphere that transcended state boundaries and integrated a spectacularly vibrant Eurasia that is invisible from published sources alone. Through a high cultural complex that he terms the "Persian cosmopolis" or "Persianate sphere," Pickett argues that an intersection of diverse disciplines shaped geographical trajectories across and between political states. In Polymaths of Islam he paints a comprehensive, colorful, and often contradictory portrait of mosque and state in the age of empire.
Download or read book Polymaths of Islam written by James Pickett and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Polymaths of Islam analyzes the social and intellectual power of religious leaders who created a shared culture that integrated Central Asia, Iran, and India from the mid-eighteenth century through the early twentieth. James Pickett demonstrates that Islamic scholars were simultaneously mystics and administrators, judges and occultists, physicians and poets. This integrated understanding of the world of Islamic scholarship unlocks a different way of thinking about transregional exchange networks. Pickett reveals a Persian-language cultural sphere that transcended state boundaries and integrated a spectacularly vibrant Eurasia that is invisible from published sources alone. Through a high cultural complex that he terms the "Persian cosmopolis" or "Persianate sphere," Pickett argues that an intersection of diverse disciplines shaped geographical trajectories across and between political states. In Polymaths of Islam he paints a comprehensive, colorful, and often contradictory portrait of mosque and state in the age of empire.
Download or read book Polymaths of Islam written by James Pickett and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Shows that the Central Asian city of Bukhara was the pivot of a transregional zone of Perso-Islamic cultural exchange, a role that endured and even expanded under Russian imperial rule"--
Download or read book Al Biruni written by Bridget Lim and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Al-Biruni was an Islamic scholar who served on the courts of more than six caliphs. Like many of the great thinkers of the Islamic world’s Golden Age, his quest for truth motivated him to seek knowledge through research and innovation. He did this in the name of Allah. Al-Biruni set himself apart from his peers through his sheer range of expertise and drive for perfection. His considerable progress in astronomy, mathematics, geography, comparative religion, physical sciences, and history earned the respect of his colleagues, influenced countless academic followers, and remains as an inspiration to all who study his work today.
Download or read book The Qur an and the Bible written by Gabriel Said Reynolds and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 1029 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "While the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are understood to be related texts, the sacred scripture of Islam, the third Abrahamic faith, has generally been considered separately. Noted religious scholar Gabriel Said Reynolds draws on centuries of Qur'anic and Biblical studies to offer rigorous and revelatory commentary on how these holy books are intrinsically connected."--Dust jacket.
Download or read book Islam Authoritarianism and Underdevelopment written by Ahmet T. Kuru and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes Muslim countries' contemporary problems, particularly violence, authoritarianism, and underdevelopment, comparing their historical levels of development with Western Europe.
Download or read book Lost Enlightenment written by S. Frederick Starr and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 694 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.
Download or read book The Polymath written by Waqas Ahmed and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-01-04 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every human is born with multifarious potential. Why, then, do parents, schools and employers insist that we restrict our many talents and interests; that we 'specialise' in just one? We've been sold a myth, that to 'specialise' is the only way to pursue truth, identity, or even a livelihood. Yet specialisation is nothing but an outdated system that fosters ignorance, exploitation and disillusionment and thwarts creativity, opportunity and progress. Following a series of exchanges with the world’s greatest historians, futurists, philosophers and scientists, Waqas Ahmed has weaved together a narrative of history and a vision for the future that seeks to disrupt this prevailing system of unwarranted ‘hyper-specialisation.’ In The Polymath, Waqas shows us that there is another way of thinking and being. Through an approach that is both philosophical and practical, he sets out a cognitive journey towards reclaiming your innate polymathic state. Going further, he proposes nothing less than a cultural revolution in our education and professional structures, whereby everyone is encouraged to express themselves in multiple ways and fulfil their many-sided potential. Not only does this enhance individual fulfilment, but in doing so, facilitates a conscious and creative society that is both highly motivated and well equipped to address the complexity of 21st century challenges.
Download or read book Pathfinders written by Jim Al-Khalili and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2010-09-30 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In Pathfinders, Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. All scientists have stood on the shoulders of giants. But most historical accounts today suggest that the achievements of the ancient Greeks were not matched until the European Renaissance in the 16th century, a 1,000-year period dismissed as the Dark Ages. In the ninth-century, however, the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Abu Ja'far Abdullah al-Ma'mun, created the greatest centre of learning the world had ever seen, known as Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom. The scientists and philosophers he brought together sparked a period of extraordinary discovery, in every field imaginable, launching a golden age of Arabic science. Few of these scientists, however, are now known in the western world. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a polymath who outshines everyone in history except Leonardo da Vinci? The Syrian astronomer Ibn al-Shatir, whose manuscripts would inspire Copernicus's heliocentric model of the solar system? Or the 13th-century Andalucian physician Ibn al-Nafees, who correctly described blood circulation 400 years before William Harvey? Iraqi Ibn al-Haytham who practised the modern scientific method 700 years before Bacon and Descartes, and founded the field of modern optics before Newton? Or even ninth-century zoologist al-Jahith, who developed a theory of natural selection a thousand years before Darwin? The West needs to see the Islamic world through new eyes and the Islamic world, in turn, to take pride in its extraordinarily rich heritage. Anyone who reads this book will understand why.
Download or read book Higher Learning in Islam written by Charles Michael Stanton and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 1990 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western scholars have ignored the contributions of the Golden Age of medieval Islamic civilization prior to the rise of colleges and universities in the West. In Higher Education in Islam, Charles Stanton describes the tremendous debt that western civilization owes to that astonishingly brilliant period of medieval Islam, when the arts and sciences, philosophy and theology, and literature in general reached the pinnacle of their development. In an engaging, lucid style, Stanton provides an excellent synthesis of current research on this important era of Islamic cultural, religious and intellectual matters.
Download or read book The House of Wisdom written by Jim Al-Khalili and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A myth-shattering view of the Islamic world's myriad scientific innovations and the role they played in sparking the European Renaissance. Many of the innovations that we think of as hallmarks of Western science had their roots in the Arab world of the middle ages, a period when much of Western Christendom lay in intellectual darkness. Jim al- Khalili, a leading British-Iraqi physicist, resurrects this lost chapter of history, and given current East-West tensions, his book could not be timelier. With transporting detail, al-Khalili places readers in the hothouses of the Arabic Enlightenment, shows how they led to Europe's cultural awakening, and poses the question: Why did the Islamic world enter its own dark age after such a dazzling flowering?
Download or read book The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition written by Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-08-30 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time in English, a catalog of the world through fourteenth-century Arab eyes—a kind of Schott’s Miscellany for the Islamic Golden Age An astonishing record of the knowledge of a civilization, The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition catalogs everything known to exist from the perspective of a fourteenth-century Egyptian scholar and litterateur. More than 9,000 pages and thirty volumes—here abridged to one volume, and translated into English for the first time—it contains entries on everything from medieval moon-worshipping cults, sexual aphrodisiacs, and the substance of clouds, to how to get the smell of alcohol off one’s breath, the deliciousness of cheese made from buffalo milk, and the nesting habits of flamingos. Similar works by Western authors, including Pliny’s Natural History and Diderot’s Encyclopédie, have been available in English for centuries. This groundbreaking translation of a remarkable Arabic text—expertly abridged and annotated—offers a look at the world through the highly literary and impressively knowledgeable societies of the classical Islamic world. Meticulously arranged and delightfully eclectic, it is a compendium to be treasured—a true monument of erudition. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book Medieval Islamic Medicine written by Peter E. Pormann and published by New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys. This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An up-to-date survey of medieval Islamic medicine offering new insights to the role of medicine and physicians in medieval Islamic culture.
Download or read book The Quran and the Secular Mind written by Shabbir Akhtar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-10-31 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with the rationality and plausibility of the Muslim faith and the Qur'an, and in particular how they can be interrogated and understood through Western analytical philosophy. It also explores how Islam can successfully engage with the challenges posed by secular thinking. The Quran and the Secular Mind will be of interest to students and scholars of Islamic philosophy, philosophy of religion, Middle East studies, and political Islam.
Download or read book The Last Polymath of the Islamic World Shaykh Ahmed Raza Khan written by Naseeb Ahmed Siddiqui and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaykh Ahmed Raza Khan (1856-1921) is an Indian, Sunni, Hanafi, Maturidi, and a Sufi scholar who is recognized as the leader of Ahle Sunnah Wal Jammat in the subcontinent. His following dominates the social religious domain of the Muslims of several countries around the world including, especially India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the UK, Africa, and others. This book introduces Shaykh Ahmed Raza Khan as the last polymath of the Islamic world by contextualizing his encyclopedic academic contribution in the modern context. By venturing to write in more than 56 branches of knowledge like Islamic Jurisprudence, Hadith, Quran translation, Mathematics, Astronomy, Philosophy, Theology, Politics, Physics, Chemistry, literature, poetry, and so on, therefore, representing the last polymath of the Islamic world. The book, also, for the first time provides the known list of works in the English language along with a synopsis. The book aims to de-construct the popular notion about his personality and put his contribution in front of modern science and the political changes the last century has gone through. This analogy highlights the importance and value of his argument that was proposed during the First World War in British India. That how he single-handedly defended the Islamic creed from Wahabism and the challenges posed by modern science. This book will be a paradigm shift in understanding the Islamic intellectual history in the 20th century.
Download or read book The Millennial Sovereign written by A. Azfar Moin and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the sixteenth century and the turn of the first Islamic millennium, the powerful Mughal emperor Akbar declared himself the most sacred being on earth. The holiest of all saints and above the distinctions of religion, he styled himself as the messiah reborn. Yet the Mughal emperor was not alone in doing so. In this field-changing study, A. Azfar Moin explores why Muslim sovereigns in this period began to imitate the exalted nature of Sufi saints. Uncovering a startling yet widespread phenomenon, he shows how the charismatic pull of sainthood (wilayat)—rather than the draw of religious law (sharia) or holy war (jihad)—inspired a new style of sovereignty in Islam. A work of history richly informed by the anthropology of religion and art, The Millennial Sovereign traces how royal dynastic cults and shrine-centered Sufism came together in the imperial cultures of Timurid Central Asia, Safavid Iran, and Mughal India. By juxtaposing imperial chronicles, paintings, and architecture with theories of sainthood, apocalyptic treatises, and manuals on astrology and magic, Moin uncovers a pattern of Islamic politics shaped by Sufi and millennial motifs. He shows how alchemical symbols and astrological rituals enveloped the body of the monarch, casting him as both spiritual guide and material lord. Ultimately, Moin offers a striking new perspective on the history of Islam and the religious and political developments linking South Asia and Iran in early-modern times.
