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Islamic Science : An Illustrated Study
This is the first illustrated study of the whole of Islamic science ever undertaken. Basing himself on the traditional Islamic concept of science and its transmission and classification, the author discusses various branches of the Islamic sciences. The author then turns to the application of the Islamic sciences to such domains as medicine, pharmacology, alchemy, agriculture, and various forms of technology. In the fina section of the work, the author discusses the role of the human being in the universe. The book combines an account of the morphology and brief history of the various sciences with illustrations drawn from sources spread throughout the Islmaic world. Contains over 160 color photographs.
290 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
3 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
247 books725 followersSeyyed Hossein Nasr was born on April 7, 1933 (19 Farvadin 1312 A.H. solar) in Tehran into a family of distinguished scholars and physicians. His father, Seyyed Valiallah, a man of great learning and piety, was a physician to the Iranian royal family, as was his father before him. The name "Nasr" which means "victory" was conferred on Professor Nasr's grandfather by the King of Persia. Nasr also comes from a family of Sufis. One of his ancestors was Mulla Seyyed Muhammad Taqi Poshtmashhad, who was a famous saint of Kashan, and his mausoleum which is located next to the tomb of the Safavid king Shah Abbas, is still visited by pilgrims to this day.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. is one of the most important and foremost scholars of Islamic, Religious and Comparative Studies in the world today. Author of over fifty books and five hundred articles which have been translated into several major Islamic, European and Asian languages, Professor Nasr is a well known and highly respected intellectual figure both in the West and the Islamic world. An eloquent speaker with a charismatic presence, Nasr is a much sought after speaker at academic conferences and seminars, university and public lectures and also radio and television programs in his area of expertise. Possessor of an impressive academic and intellectual record, his career as a teacher and scholar spans over four decades.
Professor Nasr began his illustrious teaching career in 1955 when he was still a young and promising, doctoral student at Harvard University. Over the years, he has taught and trained an innumerable number of students who have come from the different parts of the world, and many of whom have become important and prominent scholars in their fields of study.
He has trained different generations of students over the years since 1958 when he was a professor at Tehran University and then, in America since the Iranian revolution in 1979, specifically at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1979 to 1984 and at the George Washington University since 1984 to the present day. The range of subjects and areas of study which Professor Nasr has involved and engaged himself with in his academic career and intellectual life are immense. As demonstrated by his numerous writings, lectures and speeches, Professor Nasr speaks and writes with great authority on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from philosophy to religion to spirituality, to music and art and architecture, to science and literature, to civilizational dialogues and the natural environment.
For Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the quest for knowledge, specifically knowledge which enables man to understand the true nature of things and which furthermore, "liberates and delivers him from the fetters and limitations of earthly existence," has been and continues to be the central concern and determinant of his intellectual life.
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, currently University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University, Washington D.C. is one of the most important and foremost scholars of Islamic, Religious and Comparative Studies in the world today. Author of over fifty books and five hundred articles which have been translated into several major Islamic, European and Asian languages, Professor Nasr is a well known and highly respected intellectual figure both in the West and the Islamic world. An eloquent speaker with a charismatic presence, Nasr is a much sought after speaker at academic conferences and seminars, university and public lectures and also radio and television programs in his area of expertise. Possessor of an impressive academic and intellectual record, his career as a teacher and scholar spans over four decades.
Professor Nasr began his illustrious teaching career in 1955 when he was still a young and promising, doctoral student at Harvard University. Over the years, he has taught and trained an innumerable number of students who have come from the different parts of the world, and many of whom have become important and prominent scholars in their fields of study.
He has trained different generations of students over the years since 1958 when he was a professor at Tehran University and then, in America since the Iranian revolution in 1979, specifically at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1979 to 1984 and at the George Washington University since 1984 to the present day. The range of subjects and areas of study which Professor Nasr has involved and engaged himself with in his academic career and intellectual life are immense. As demonstrated by his numerous writings, lectures and speeches, Professor Nasr speaks and writes with great authority on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from philosophy to religion to spirituality, to music and art and architecture, to science and literature, to civilizational dialogues and the natural environment.
For Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the quest for knowledge, specifically knowledge which enables man to understand the true nature of things and which furthermore, "liberates and delivers him from the fetters and limitations of earthly existence," has been and continues to be the central concern and determinant of his intellectual life.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 5, 2025
This is the 15th book by SH Nasr and the second coffee-table book that I’ve read. More than five years ago, I’ve read another coffee-table book entitled ISTAC Illuminated by Sharifah Shifa al-Attas which depicts the history, architecture and culture during the earliest stage of the institute.
I took around one week to finish this book on Islamic Science (1976). This book was initially published in conjunction with Festival of the World of Islam in London and it is a complementary book for another work by Nasr entitled Science and Civilisation in Islam.
Nasr divided the book into five chapters - history, cosmology, mathematics, applied science and environment. Here, Nasr dissected the origin, history and earliest works written by Muslim scholars in each particular field. The book is rich with diagrams which helps a lot in understanding the texts and make the flow of reading smooth. Nevertheless, one need at least, a basic background in geometry, mathematics and Arabic language in order to understand few of the diagrams.
The most intriguing chapter is the chapter on medicine and pharmacology. Nasr explained that the earliest hospital in Islam is in Baghdad (7th century, Harun al-Rashid), then followed by Rayy (10th century, al-Razi), Damascus (12th century, Nur al-Din al-Zanji), Cairo (13th century, Saladin, Qalawun), Marrakech (13th century, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd) and others in Tunisia, Algeria and Bursa (14th century, Mehmet II, Bayazid II).
Some of the earliest works on the history of medicine in Islam is compiled in ‘Uyun al-Anba’ by Ibn Abi Usaybi’ah, Tarikh al-Hukama by Ibn al-Qifti and Wafayat al-A’yan by Ibn Khallikan. Interestingly, Zakariyya al-Razi compiled his own daily clinical observations and experiment (rather than theory) in al-Hawi while Ibn Sina divided his al-Qanun fi al-Tibb into five chapters; general principles (philosophy, anatomy, physiology, hygiene), simple drugs, disorders (internal and external organs), illness (general body) and compound drugs. Ibn Sina also discovered meningitis, psychosomatic disorder, manner of spread of epidemics and contagious nature of tuberculosis.
Nasr also added that Galen divides the spirit (ruh) into three kinds; i) Vital spirit (heart), ii) Animal/Psychic spirit (brain) and iii) Natural spirit (liver).
In the field of astronomy, Nasr mentioned the functions of astrolabe which is to determine the altitude of stars, moon, sun and other planets other than to tell time, measure height of mountains and depths of wells.
In the field of occult science (hidden/khafiyyah), Nasr classified it into five branches according to al-Kashifi; kimiya’ (alchemy), limiya’ (magic), himiya’ (subjugating of souls), simiya’ (producing visions) and rimiya’ (jugglery and tricks).
Nasr believes, the essence of the Islamic message is the doctrine of Unity (al-Tawhid). Islamic arts reflects Unity, not merely naturalism (external emulation of natural forms). In the field of mathematics, God is One; hence the number “one” in the series of numbers is the most direct and most intelligible symbol of the Source. And the series of numbers themselves is a ladder by which man ascends from the world of multiplicity to the One. In the field of environment, the advancement in technology need the preserve two things; energy and environment.
All in all, this book is surprisingly much easier to read than his earlier book, Science and Civilisation in Islam (1968) because his earlier book focus more on the original texts of the manuscripts in every field of Islamic science while this book highlights more on the timeline of Islamic science. I would also recommend Pathfinders by Jim al-Khalili, Science in Medieval Islam by Howard Turner and Science and Islam by Ehsan Masood for the topics on the history of science in Islam.
I took around one week to finish this book on Islamic Science (1976). This book was initially published in conjunction with Festival of the World of Islam in London and it is a complementary book for another work by Nasr entitled Science and Civilisation in Islam.
Nasr divided the book into five chapters - history, cosmology, mathematics, applied science and environment. Here, Nasr dissected the origin, history and earliest works written by Muslim scholars in each particular field. The book is rich with diagrams which helps a lot in understanding the texts and make the flow of reading smooth. Nevertheless, one need at least, a basic background in geometry, mathematics and Arabic language in order to understand few of the diagrams.
The most intriguing chapter is the chapter on medicine and pharmacology. Nasr explained that the earliest hospital in Islam is in Baghdad (7th century, Harun al-Rashid), then followed by Rayy (10th century, al-Razi), Damascus (12th century, Nur al-Din al-Zanji), Cairo (13th century, Saladin, Qalawun), Marrakech (13th century, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd) and others in Tunisia, Algeria and Bursa (14th century, Mehmet II, Bayazid II).
Some of the earliest works on the history of medicine in Islam is compiled in ‘Uyun al-Anba’ by Ibn Abi Usaybi’ah, Tarikh al-Hukama by Ibn al-Qifti and Wafayat al-A’yan by Ibn Khallikan. Interestingly, Zakariyya al-Razi compiled his own daily clinical observations and experiment (rather than theory) in al-Hawi while Ibn Sina divided his al-Qanun fi al-Tibb into five chapters; general principles (philosophy, anatomy, physiology, hygiene), simple drugs, disorders (internal and external organs), illness (general body) and compound drugs. Ibn Sina also discovered meningitis, psychosomatic disorder, manner of spread of epidemics and contagious nature of tuberculosis.
Nasr also added that Galen divides the spirit (ruh) into three kinds; i) Vital spirit (heart), ii) Animal/Psychic spirit (brain) and iii) Natural spirit (liver).
In the field of astronomy, Nasr mentioned the functions of astrolabe which is to determine the altitude of stars, moon, sun and other planets other than to tell time, measure height of mountains and depths of wells.
In the field of occult science (hidden/khafiyyah), Nasr classified it into five branches according to al-Kashifi; kimiya’ (alchemy), limiya’ (magic), himiya’ (subjugating of souls), simiya’ (producing visions) and rimiya’ (jugglery and tricks).
Nasr believes, the essence of the Islamic message is the doctrine of Unity (al-Tawhid). Islamic arts reflects Unity, not merely naturalism (external emulation of natural forms). In the field of mathematics, God is One; hence the number “one” in the series of numbers is the most direct and most intelligible symbol of the Source. And the series of numbers themselves is a ladder by which man ascends from the world of multiplicity to the One. In the field of environment, the advancement in technology need the preserve two things; energy and environment.
All in all, this book is surprisingly much easier to read than his earlier book, Science and Civilisation in Islam (1968) because his earlier book focus more on the original texts of the manuscripts in every field of Islamic science while this book highlights more on the timeline of Islamic science. I would also recommend Pathfinders by Jim al-Khalili, Science in Medieval Islam by Howard Turner and Science and Islam by Ehsan Masood for the topics on the history of science in Islam.
July 3, 2023
I came across this book in a mosque in New Orleans. I skimmed through the pages, looking at photographs. Later, I bought it.
This book is written like a survery of the Islamic Sciences in the dar-al-Islam (the Islamic world). It is noted that the uloom (branches of knowledge) were connected to each other organically in such a way that makes it harder to separate them, and the branches of knowledge also are very much linked to and sometimes subservient to religion and spirituality. However, this book focuses only on the branches that are more closely linked to modern definitions of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Botany, Zoology, Medicine and Astronomy, etc. (This book does not discuss Law and Art as primary subjects for example.) It talks about some key figures in each field and their contributions, how the past knowledge became part of the Muslim world, and to some extent how it influenced knowledge later on in the Western world.
It is unfortunate that although I resolved to take separate notes while reading books, I could not this time, and I have become very slow in reading, so a brief list of key points, with a high possibility of some big omissions:
- Discussion of how the Muslim world was the heir to knowledge from Greece, China, and ancient India, how they incorporated knowledge from these sources and accepted this knowledge with such open arms that it is hard to find any example that matches that today despite the world's modern universities and institutes and what not. Of course, all this was seen with an Islamic lens, but one finds so much tolerance of ideas that I even felt maybe some of the branches were forbidden and it would have been better if Muslims would have stayed away from them.
- We in the Muslim world sometimes think, especially with post-Colonial education and erasure of history that Muslims were only good in art or poetry and these sort of things. This is especially true when we imagine the history of Pakistan. "Mughals had great architecture and art, but they were scientifically worthless" or some variation. This is quite untrue, as this book talks about.
- The book also discusses what are now considered pseudosciences (astrology) and gives a better, more accurate view of sciences that had not only the 'modern science' element but also elements of spirituality or occult that were part and parcel of that science. For example, alchemy, although used substances and in the process created many instruments and chemicals, is a much broader field than just the study of chemicals.
- Although I myself consider some of the things e.g. Astrology to be false, it was very interesting to read about how they were treated in the Islamic world and it was suprising to know that it wasn't black and white, Halal and Haram, as it is now.
- I consider some of the things to be very true e.g. this world being only one part of reality, and it was interesting to see all this was interlinked to the sciences. And despite differences, how there was not much tension between the jurist (mufti) and the scientist, is very interesting. Not only that, you would find many figures in history who would be both - performing an important function related to core aspects of religion, and writing treatises about sciences - (Ibn e Sina for example). Compare this to the tension between the Church and the scientist in the Western world.
- You also get a glimpse of a claim being made that the modern science's attack on past sciences is disingenuous. Although some past sciences might still be utterly false, but I don't know why I took the description by modern texts of past sciences at their face value. As an example: it was not literally believed that things are composed of earth, air, fire, water: rather these are classifications or characteristics. The same way mainstream modern science criticizes religion, it is possible it criticizes other sciences in much the same way.
- A friend of mine once said that although modern man has accomplished great feats due to his knowledge, in the past there was more of it in the sense that there were many more uloom or branches of knowledge. Reading this book made me realize how right he was. (e.g. there is one field mentioned in name only that studies how people's faces relate to their personalities)
- All of this is accompanied by beautiful photographs of manuscripts, objects, places and diagrams. I doubt this would have as much an impact on me if it was not for the photographs and illustrations.
This book is written like a survery of the Islamic Sciences in the dar-al-Islam (the Islamic world). It is noted that the uloom (branches of knowledge) were connected to each other organically in such a way that makes it harder to separate them, and the branches of knowledge also are very much linked to and sometimes subservient to religion and spirituality. However, this book focuses only on the branches that are more closely linked to modern definitions of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Botany, Zoology, Medicine and Astronomy, etc. (This book does not discuss Law and Art as primary subjects for example.) It talks about some key figures in each field and their contributions, how the past knowledge became part of the Muslim world, and to some extent how it influenced knowledge later on in the Western world.
It is unfortunate that although I resolved to take separate notes while reading books, I could not this time, and I have become very slow in reading, so a brief list of key points, with a high possibility of some big omissions:
- Discussion of how the Muslim world was the heir to knowledge from Greece, China, and ancient India, how they incorporated knowledge from these sources and accepted this knowledge with such open arms that it is hard to find any example that matches that today despite the world's modern universities and institutes and what not. Of course, all this was seen with an Islamic lens, but one finds so much tolerance of ideas that I even felt maybe some of the branches were forbidden and it would have been better if Muslims would have stayed away from them.
- We in the Muslim world sometimes think, especially with post-Colonial education and erasure of history that Muslims were only good in art or poetry and these sort of things. This is especially true when we imagine the history of Pakistan. "Mughals had great architecture and art, but they were scientifically worthless" or some variation. This is quite untrue, as this book talks about.
- The book also discusses what are now considered pseudosciences (astrology) and gives a better, more accurate view of sciences that had not only the 'modern science' element but also elements of spirituality or occult that were part and parcel of that science. For example, alchemy, although used substances and in the process created many instruments and chemicals, is a much broader field than just the study of chemicals.
- Although I myself consider some of the things e.g. Astrology to be false, it was very interesting to read about how they were treated in the Islamic world and it was suprising to know that it wasn't black and white, Halal and Haram, as it is now.
- I consider some of the things to be very true e.g. this world being only one part of reality, and it was interesting to see all this was interlinked to the sciences. And despite differences, how there was not much tension between the jurist (mufti) and the scientist, is very interesting. Not only that, you would find many figures in history who would be both - performing an important function related to core aspects of religion, and writing treatises about sciences - (Ibn e Sina for example). Compare this to the tension between the Church and the scientist in the Western world.
- You also get a glimpse of a claim being made that the modern science's attack on past sciences is disingenuous. Although some past sciences might still be utterly false, but I don't know why I took the description by modern texts of past sciences at their face value. As an example: it was not literally believed that things are composed of earth, air, fire, water: rather these are classifications or characteristics. The same way mainstream modern science criticizes religion, it is possible it criticizes other sciences in much the same way.
- A friend of mine once said that although modern man has accomplished great feats due to his knowledge, in the past there was more of it in the sense that there were many more uloom or branches of knowledge. Reading this book made me realize how right he was. (e.g. there is one field mentioned in name only that studies how people's faces relate to their personalities)
- All of this is accompanied by beautiful photographs of manuscripts, objects, places and diagrams. I doubt this would have as much an impact on me if it was not for the photographs and illustrations.
Want to read
June 1, 2012I was inspired to buy this book because of my fascination with Al Biruni, the brilliant scientist who lived in Persia over a thousand years ago. In this book there are some beautiful illustrations he made of the phases of the moon. Long before the renaissance, Al Biruni's skeptical and rational thinking makes him stand out as a giant in mankind's quest to understand nature, right alongside Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and Feynman. In fact I think of Al Biruni as very much the Feynman of his day, unwilling to let dogma get in the way of the piercing clarity of his thought. Among his many accomplishments, Al Biruni was able to precisely calculate the circumference of the Earth, without the benefit of a telescope or any advanced equipment, by measuring the angle from the peak of a mountain to the horizon. I am hoping Lishbi will like it as she grows up!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews