Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco

Justin K. Stearns

doi:10.1017/9781107588523

Demonstrating the vibrancy of an Early Modern Muslim society through a study of the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Morocco, Revealed Sciences examines how the natural sciences flourished during this period, without developing in a similar way to the natural sciences in Europe. Offering an innovative analysis of the relationship between religious thought and the natural sciences, Justin K. Stearns shows how nineteenth and twentieth-century European and Middle Eastern scholars jointly developed a narrative of the decline of post-formative Islamic thought, including the fate of the natural sciences in the Muslim world. Challenging these depictions of the natural sciences in the Muslim world, Stearns uses numerous close readings of works in the natural sciences to a detailed overview of the place of the natural sciences in scholarly and educational landscapes of the Early Modern Magreb, and considers non-teleological possibilities for understanding a persistent engagement with the natural sciences in Early Modern Morocco.

‘Stearns exhibits a scholarly mastery over the subject of natural sciences in seventeenth-century Morocco with each section illuminating a dark spot in the history of science.’

Usman Butt Source: The New Arab

'This work represents a great advance in historical as well as sociological and anthropological approaches of natural sciences in Islamicate societies and opens up large perspectives for work by historians, naturalists and philologists.'

Meyssa Ben Saad Source: Metascience

‘[This book] provides a window onto the ‘long Moroccan seventeenth century’, a vanished Islamic intellectual world of integrated natural sciences, religion, and magic. … The book is quietly Herculean in labor. Stearns successfully navigates between the Scylla of Salafism and the Charybdis of modernist scientific thinking to bring us a new ocean of discovery, one true to the original Moroccan sources.’

Ellen Amster Source: Isis

- Aa Reduce text
- Aa Enlarge text

View selected items
Save to my bookmarks
Export citations
Download PDF (zip)
Save to Kindle
Save to Dropbox
Save to Google Drive
Save content to
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to .

To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Please be advised that item(s) you selected are not available.
You are about to save
Your Kindle email address

Please provide your Kindle email.

@free.kindle.com @kindle.com (service fees apply)

By using this service, you agree that you will only keep content for personal use, and will not openly distribute them via Dropbox, Google Drive or other file sharing services

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Total number of HTML views: 0

Total number of PDF views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

Total views: 0 *

Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Revealed Sciences

The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco

This Book has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by Crossref.

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Contents

Excursus: Sufism and the Spiritual Life or Balancing the Exoteric and Esoteric Sciences
pp 231-235

Conclusion - The Significance of a Landscape of Sciences in Seventeenth-Century Morocco
pp 236-241

Conclusion: The Significance of a Landscape of Sciences in Seventeenth-Century Morocco
pp 236-241

Appendices
pp 242-263

Appendix 1 - List of the Sciences Given in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fāsī’s Kitāb al-Uqnūm
pp 242-245

Appendix 2 - Extant Manuscripts in the Natural Sciences from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries in Moroccan Libraries
pp 246-263

Appendix 1: List of the Sciences Given in ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Fāsī’s Kitāb al-Uqnūm
pp 242-245

Bibliography
pp 264-289

Appendix 2: Extant Manuscripts in the Natural Sciences from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries in Moroccan Libraries
pp 246-263

Index
pp 290-303

Other Titles in the Series - Series page
pp 304-306

Bibliography
pp 264-289

Index
pp 290-303

Other Titles in the Series
pp 304-306

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information

Revealed Sciences

The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco

Book description

Reviews

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

Contents

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Book summary page views

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

Accessibility Information