Science and Civilization in Islam Seyyed Hossein Nasr The Islamic Texts Society (1987) ISBN 094662111X  Hardback and Paperback same price; Index/Bibliography 388 pp. 216x134 Price: $27.99

Science and Civilization in Islam has remained unsurpassed as the authoritative statement on this subject. With his characteristic breadth of learning, clarity of exposition and insight, Seyyed Hossein Nasr presents here for the first time a full picture of Islamic science, not as a chapter in the history of Western science, but as an integral aspect of Islamic civilisation and the Islamic intellectual tradition. By means of an historical presentation, an analysis of its forms, including the use of passages from the writings of many Muslim scientists and philosophers, the author is able to convey not only a sense of the operative context of Islamic science but he also demonstrates its inter-relatedness with the sapiential wisdom on which it is based. An introductory chapter provides the reader with a necessary orientation to the subject according to the principles of Islam, while subsequent chapters survey the whole spectrum of the individual sciences from cosmology, philosophy, theology to alchemy, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine concluding with a chapter on the gnostic tradition. For this edition, Dr Nasr has written a preface surveying the fields covered in the book since its first appearance in 1968, and has provided a supplement that brings the Bibliography up to date.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr was born in Teheran to a family of traditional scholars and physicians. After receiving his early education in Iran he went to America where he studied physics , and the history of science and philosophy at M.I.T. and Harvard, where he received his doctorate. Nasr was Professor at Teheran University and founder and first President of the Iranian Academy of Philosophy. He is currently Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University and author of numerous books including: Islam and the Plight of Modern Man, A Young Muslim’s Guide to the Modern World and Ideals and Realities of Islam, all published by The Islamic Texts Society.

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Excerpt: The Basis of the Teaching System and the Educational Institutions

A. The Classifications of the Sciences

The Islamic classification of the sciences is based upon a hierarchy which has over the centuries formed the matrix and background of the Muslim educational system. The unity of the sciences has throughout been the first and most central intuition, in the light of which the different sciences have been studied. Starting from this unarguable intuition of the unity of various disciplines, the sciences have come to be regarded as so many branches of a single tree, which grows and sends forth leaves and fruit in conformity with the nature of the tree itself. Just as a branch of a tree does not continue to grow indefinitely, so any discipline is not to be pursued beyond a certain limit. The medieval Muslim authors regarded the pursuit of any particular branch of knowledge beyond its limits—thereby destroying the harmony and the proportion of things—as a useless, one might even say illegitimate activity, such as would be true of a branch of a tree which, by continuing to grow indefinitely, would end by destroying the harmony of the tree as a whole. The means whereby the proportion and hierarchy of the sciences were preserved was through their classification to which Muslim scholars devoted so much attention: In this manner the scope and position of each science within the total scheme of knowledge was always kept in view.

1. AL-FARABI AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES
Among Muslim scholars, attempts to classify the sciences began as early as the third/ninth century with al-Kindi, and multiplied thereafter. At first based on the Aristotelian division of the sciences into theoretical, practical, and productive, as described in Porphyry’s Isagoge, these systems of classification became progressively more elaborate. Islamic disciplines were added to the ancient sciences, and religious and metaphysical knowledge in the sense of gnosis came to occupy the highest levels.

One of the earliest and most influential classifications was that of al-Farabi, contained in his Enumeration of the Sciences (ihsa al-ulum) known in the West as De Scientiis, from the Latin translation by Gerard of Cremona, as well as in a Hebrew translation. Although partly eclipsed by his successor Avicenna, al-Farabi left his imprint upon most of the Muslim thinkers who followed him, as can be seen from the fact that his classification of the sciences was adopted, with only minor changes, by Avicenna, al-Ghazali, and Averroes.

Curiously enough, although al-Farabi himself wrote treatises on alchemy, the interpretation of dreams, and other esoteric sciences, he did not include them in his classification. In this respect, he was followed by the more rationalistic philosophers of the later centuries.

His classification, according to the Enumeration of the Sciences, may be summarized as follows:

I. Science of language: syntax, grammar, pronunciation and speech, poetry

II. Logic: the division, definition and composition of simple ideas [corresponding to the content of the Isagoge of Porphyry, and the Categories and On Interpretation of Aristotle.] The parts of logic after the terms have been defined are five:

1. Necessary conditions for premises which would lead in a syllogism to certain knowledge [corresponding to the Posterior Analytics of Aristotle].

2. Definition of useful syllogisms and the means of discovering dialectical proofs [corresponding to the Topics of Aristotle].

3. Examination of errors in proofs, and of omissions and mistakes committed in reasoning, and the ways of escaping them [corresponding to the On Sophistic Refutations of Aristotle].

4. Definition of oratory: syllogism used to bring a discussion before the public [corresponding to Aristotle’s Rhetoric].

5. Study of poetry; how it should be adapted to each subject; its faults and imperfections [corresponding to Aristotle’s Poetics]

III. The propaedeutic sciences:

1. Arithmetic (practical, theoretical).

2. Geometry (practical, theoretical).

3. Optics.

4. Science of the heavens (astrology, motions and figures of the heavenly bodies).

5. Music (practical, theoretical).

6. Science of weights.

7. Science of tool-making (the making of simple ma chines and instruments for use in various arts sciences, such as astronomy and and music).

IV. Physics (sciences of nature)

Metaphysics (science concerned with the Divine and the principles of things)

Physics:

1. Knowledge of the principles which underlie natural bodies.

2. Knowledge of the nature and character of the elements, and of the principle by which they combine to form bodies.

3. Science of the generation and corruption of bodies.

4. Science of the reactions which the elements undergo in order to form compounds.

5. Science of compound bodies formed of the four elements and their properties.

6. Science of minerals.

7. Science of plants.

8. Science of animals.

Metaphysics:

1. Knowledge of the essence of beings.

2. Knowledge of the principles of the particular and observational sciences (the “first philosophy” of Aristotle).

3. Knowledge of non-corporeal beings, their qualities and characteristics, leading finally to the knowledge of the Truth, that is, of God, one of whose names is the Truth.

V. Science of Society:

1. Jurisprudence.

2. Rhetoric.

2. IBN KHALDUN AND THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES

Early attempts to classify the sciences were followed with some modification and elaboration during the next century by Avicenna in The Book of Healing and his Treatise on the Classification of the Intellectual Sciences, as well as by the Brethren of Purity in their well-known Epistles. Moreover, the tradition of composing works on the classification of the sciences and the description of each science gradually became further enhanced, as the various sciences became more developed. This can be seen in The Book of Sixty Sciences by the sixth/twelfth-century theologian, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi in which, as the name indicates, sixty sciences are mentioned and described. The most complete and detailed study of the sciences and their classification, however, appears in the writings of the authors of the eighth/ fourteenth to the eleventh/ seventeenth century, such as the Happiness of Tashkubrazadah; the neglected Persian encyclopedia of Shams al-Din al-Amuli, called Precious Elements of the Sciences; he Clarification of Doubts of Hajji Khalifah, and the well-known Introduction to History (Muqaddimah) of Ibn Khaldun, which contains one of the best descriptions and classifications of the Muslim sciences.

Coming at the end of the most active period of Islamic history, Ibn Khaldun’s analysis of the sciences represents the results of the reflection upon and acute observation of, a whole epoch of history by a profound Muslim scholar and historian who, in a sense, stood outside it.

In his Introduction to History, Ibn Khaldun also surveys the arts and sciences of the Islamic world, defining the aim and scope of each discipline. Although his Introduction was not itself universally read during the later periods, his classification contains in summary in summary fashion the plan according to which the arts and sciences have, in fact, been studied in most religious Islamic schools during the past several centuries. Even if many of these schools, especially in the Sunni world, have not studied all the subjects enumerated by Ibn Khaldun, they have usually accepted the principles of his classification, which can be considered the final version of the Islamic division of the sciences. Ibn Khaldun’s division may be summarized as follows:

Sciences studied in the Islamic world: philosophical and intellectual (such as can be learned by man naturally through the use of his innate reason and intelligence); transmitted (such as can be learned only by transmission, going back ultimately to the founder of the science and in the case of religious sciences to the origin of the Revelation).

Philosophical or Intellectual Sciences:

1. Logic.

2. Natural sciences or Physics: Medicine, Agriculture.

3. Sciences of beings beyond Nature, or Metaphysics: Science of the occult properties of letters of the alphabet; alchemy.

4. Sciences dealing with quantity: Geometry (plain and spherical optics); Arithmetics (property of numbers, art of calculation, algebra, commercial transactions, calculations of inheritance); Music; Astronomy (the making of astronomical tables, motion of heavenly bodies, astrology).

transmitted sciences:

1. Quran, its interpretation and recitation.

2. Hadith, the sayings of the Prophets and their chain of transmission.

3. Jurisprudence, sacred law.

4. Theology.

5. Sufism (al-tasawwuf).

6. Linguistic sciences, such as Grammar, Lexicography, and Literature.

Not all of the sciences enumerated above have always been taught in all of the institutions of learning which have constituted the most formal and official educational organizations in the Islamic world. But they have been transmitted from one generation to another through either formal instruction or private teaching, and they must therefore be regarded as a part of the intellectual life of Islam. It is, needless to say, impossible to give examples of all of these sciences in this book even if we were to confine ourselves to those sciences which deal with the realm of Nature. We can do no more than describing briefly learning which the institutions of learning which have been for the most part responsible for keeping alive the tradition of learning over the centuries, and to present a sample from the writing’s of some of the more important scientific and philosophical schools, so as to form from the bits thus assembled a mosaic which may give some indication of the rich and varied intellectual life of the Islamic world.

Science & Civilization in Islam

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