Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science.

• Author: BERGGREN, J. L.
• Position: Review

Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. Edited by ROSHDI RASHED, in collaboration with REGIS MORELON. Three volumes. New York: ROUTLEDGE, 1996. Pp. xiv + 1105. $250.

These three volumes contain articles on a wide range of topics, from "geometry and algebra" to "botany and agriculture," written by a group of internationally acknowledged experts in their respective fields. To give an adequate description of the riches of the volumes would be an undertaking far exceeding the scope of this review. Suffice it to say that one expects, and finds, material of high quality, when one sees in the first volume treatments by R. Morelon and G. Saliba of Arabic astronomy proper; by D. King and E. S. Kennedy of, respectively, astronomy in Islamic society and mathematical geography; by J. Vernet and J. Samso on Arabic science in Andalusia; and by H. Grosset-Grange on Arabic nautical sciences. In volume two the reader will find articles on mathematics by authorities such as A. S. Saidan, on numeration and arithmetic; B. Rosenfeld and A. You-schkevitch, on geometry, J.-C. Chabrier and M. Rozhanskaya, on music and statics; M.-Th. Debarnot, on trigonometry, algebra and a host of other topics ; and including sections on geometrical optics by R. Rashed and physiological optics by G. Russell. Finally, volume three contains articles on engineering, by D. R. Hill; geography, by A. Miquel; botany and agriculture, by Toufic Fahd; Arabic alchemy, by G. Anawati; medicine, by E. Savage-Smith; scientific institutions in the medieval Near East, by E Micheau; classifications of the sciences, by J. Jolivet; and a historiographical postface, by M. Mahdi.

Additionally, the volumes contain informative articles on the Islamic heritage in other cultures by B. Goldstein (on the heritage of Arabic science in Hebrew) and by H. Hugonnard-Roche, A. Allard, D. Lindberg, R. Halleux, and D. Jacquart, on the Western reception of various Arabic sciences.

Although many able authors have contributed valuable articles, the work as is whole is flawed, to such an extent that one hesitates to recommend it as a general reference on the subject for non-specialists. The flaws are of an editorial nature, and the first is the title chosen for the work. It is no disservice to Arabs (modern or medieval) to point out that non-Arabs (principally Persians and Turks) also played important roles in the development of medieval Islamic science, and these roles should be acknowledged in the choice of...