Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures : A Historical and Bibliographical Survey, by Hans Daiber

Year 2014, Volume: 5 Issue: 2, 269 - 271, 08.07.2015

Philip Dorroll

https://doi.org/10.12730/13091719.2014.52.115

Abstract

First paragraph: Hans Daiber’s Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures is aptly named. This work is both timely and necessary in that it seriously addresses one topic within Islamic Studies that is all too often neglected or merely cited as a footnote to Islamic history: the very real historical relationship between scientific and intellectual disciplines in the Western European Christian world and the Muslim world. This collection of Daiber’s detailed and insightful essays painstakingly reveals the depth and breadth of intellectual dialogue between Muslim and Christian intellectuals in the Middle Ages. While these contacts may not always have been in person, the extent to which Islamic sources have added to the development of science and philosophy in the global history of the advancement of knowledge has been sorely underappreciated, or at best has been noted in passing as a kind of historical curiosity. Daiber’s volume is so rich with detail and historical nuance that it makes a major contribution in fleshing out the actual meaning and significance of the Islamic contribution to philosophy and science, instead of merely paying tribute to it in passing. This volume collects the most outstanding examples of Daiber’s scholarship in this area. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of science and philosophy in general, or in the history of the major Islamic contributions to topics of universal scientific and philosophical interest.

Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures : A Historical and Bibliographical Survey, by Hans Daiber

Abstract

First paragraph:
Hans Daiber’s Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures is aptly named. This work is both timely and necessary in that it seriously addresses one topic within Islamic Studies that is all too often neglected or merely cited as a footnote to Islamic history: the very real historical relationship between scientific and intellectual disciplines in the Western European Christian world and the Muslim world. This collection of Daiber’s detailed and insightful essays painstakingly reveals the depth and breadth of intellectual dialogue between Muslim and Christian intellectuals in the Middle Ages. While these contacts may not always have been in person, the extent to which Islamic sources have added to the development of science and philosophy in the global history of the advancement of knowledge has been sorely underappreciated, or at best has been noted in passing as a kind of historical curiosity. Daiber’s volume is so rich with detail and historical nuance that it makes a major contribution in fleshing out the actual meaning and significance of the Islamic contribution to philosophy and science, instead of merely paying tribute to it in passing. This volume collects the most outstanding examples of Daiber’s scholarship in this area. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of science and philosophy in general, or in the history of the major Islamic contributions to topics of universal scientific and philosophical interest.

Keywords

Islamic Thought, Historical and Bibliographical Survey, the Dialogue of Cultures, Muslim