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Science and Mithāl: Demonstrations in Arabic and Persian Scientific Traditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Elaheh Kheirandish
Elaheh Kheirandish*
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
E-mail: kheirand@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Addressing the Arabic and Persian scientific traditions in eastern Islamic lands, this study focuses on the nature and place of demonstrations in optics and mechanics, sub-disciplines of geometry. A focus on the comparative context of demonstrations facilitates clearer understanding of local coordinates that affected the development of these fields, which are shown to have had distinct, and sometimes opposite, cases of transmission and application in Islamic and European lands. Sample demonstrations are presented in an appendix to highlight the concept and terminology of “mithāl” to identify shifts from geometrical to experimental methods in the case of optics, and from physical productions to model duplications in the case of mechanics.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 4: Sciences, Crafts, and the Production of Knowledge: Iran and Eastern Islamic Lands (ca. 184–1153 AH/800–1740 CE) , September 2008 , pp. 465 - 489
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2008

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References

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5 The choice for the periods and regions was occasioned by teaching two successive courses: “From Alexandria to Baghdad: Classical Sciences in Islamic Lands,” and “From Baghdad to Isfahan: Classical Sciences in Persian Lands” (Harvard: 2005–08). See also Supplement Exhibit: Windows into Early Science (Spring 2008). The choice for the subjects was provided by conducting parallel projects on the history of optics and mechanics (NSF: 2005–08), as well as a chapter in the Cambridge History of Science volumes: Elaheh Kheirandish, “The Mixed Mathematical Sciences: Optics and Mechanics in the Islamic Middle Ages”, The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 2: The Middle Ages (Cambridge, forthcoming).

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