Science in Islamic civilization

Chapter 1

The sciences in classical Islam and the periodisation of the history of science

Roshdi Rashed

Chapter 2

Burning mirrors, anaclastic and dioptric

Roshdi Rashed

• 1. The reception of the Greek tradition on burning mirrors: from the geometry of conics to the catoptric

• 2. The burning mirrors in the 9th–11th centuries: from anaclastic to dioptre

• 3. The geometric theory of lenses of Ibn Sahl

• 4. Ibn al-Haytham and the development of the dioptre

• 5. The burning sphere and the introduction of algorithmic methods: Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī

• 6. Conclusions

Chapter 3

Ibn al-Haytham and the new physics

Hossein Masoumi Hamedani

• 1. Light and vision before Ibn al-Haytham

• 2. The foundational ideas of the science of light

• 3. Example of a physical research

Chapter 4

Statics

Fayza Bancel, Mariam Rozhanskaya

• 1. The Greek heritage: the Aristotelian and Archimedean traditions

• 2. Arabic statics and its place among the sciences

• 3. Theoretical statics

• 4. The theory of leverage

• 5. Hydrostatics and the calculation of specific gravity

• 6. Applied statics

Chapter 5

Dynamics

Marwan Rashed

• 1. The ‘laws’ of the fall of the weights from Philoponus to Galilean

• 2. Avicenna: science in waiting or ontology of movement?

• 3. Ibn al-Haytham and the overcoming of Aristotle’s ‘law’

Chapter 6

Kinematics

Hélène Bellosta

• 1. Thābit ibn Qurra, al-Bīrūnī and the concept of instantaneous velocity

• 2. Al-Qūhī, critic of Aristotle

• 3. Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī and the Ṭūsī couple

Chapter 7

Engineering

Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, Donald R. Hill

• 1. Civil engineering

• 2. Mechanical engineering

• 3. Fine technology

Chapter 8

Chemical technology

Ahmad Y. al-Hassan

• 1. Sources on Arabic chemical technology

• 2. Acids and alkalis – Vitriols, alums and sal ammoniac – Nitric acid – Mineral and organic acids – Alkalis

• 3. Alcohol

• 4. The perfume industry

• 5. Petroleum products

• 6. Soap

• 7. Glass

• 8. Ceramics

• 9. Pigments and inks

• 10. Dyes

• 11. Military fires and gunpowder

• 12. Paper

• 13. Leather and bookbinding

• 14. The sugar industry

• 15. The food industry

• 16. Metallurgical industries

Chapter 9

Technology and mechanics: al-Murādī and the Andalusian tradition

Josep Casulleras

Chapter 10

Optics

A. Mark Smith, Graziella Federici Vescovini, Eyal Meiron

• 1. The Latin extension of Arabic optics

• 2. The Arab optics in the Italian tradition: the debut of the perspectiva pingendi

• 3. The appropriation of Greek-Arabic optics by Jewish scholars

Chapter 11

Dynamics

Jürgen Sarnowsky, Ruth Glasner

• 1. The Latin extension

• 2. Hebrew extension