?Stephen Black drew our attention to: >A new exhibit opens at the Science Museum, London. Its >description:
>"1001 Inventions is a global educational initiative that promotes >awareness of a thousand years of scientific and cultural >achievements from Muslim civilisation from the 7th century >onwards, and how those contributions helped build the >foundations of our modern world." >See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-islamic-inventors-changed-the-world-469452.html >http://tinyurl.com/1001-inventions >for a news report on it. […] Re the first linked article, by Paul Vallely in The Independent, skimming through the list I was (very) slightly bothered by the word "probably" in this sentence: "The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic…" I don't believe there is any serious doubt that the modern system of numbering is Indian in origin. This is of course a rather trivial point but then we get Vallely writing the following as an Islamic achievement: "By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere." But Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. recorded Greek scholars having knowledge that the earth was a sphere. After checking on this in *The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology*, I thought it might be interesting to read the online comments to the article, and found a link to a Wikipedia critique of Vallely's contentions: http://www.wikiislam.com/wiki/20_Islamic_Inventions No one disputes that Islamic scientific (and other) achievements have been omitted from traditional European history, but that doesn't mean that every claim for Islamic scientific originality should not be open to scholarly discussion. I expect this will be taken up by other TIPSters, but may I humbly request any discussion be on the historical facts (as far as they can be ascertained) without recourse to epithets like "imperialist", "Eurocentric" (we can take it as a given that Western scientific history *has* been Eurocentric), etc, etc. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [email protected] http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------------ From: [email protected] Subject: Muslim science: One for the Sylvester Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:17:50 -0400 A new exhibit opens at the Science Museum, London. Its description: "1001 Inventions is a global educational initiative that promotes awareness of a thousand years of scientific and cultural achievements from Muslim civilisation from the 7th century onwards, and how those contributions helped build the foundations of our modern world." See http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-islamic- inventors-changed-the-world-469452.html or http://tinyurl.com/1001-inventions for a news report on it. See http://www.1001inventions.com/ for the exhibit itself. Looks pretty stunning (and free, except for airfare, of course). You might also check out a Harry Potter-ish short film intended for schoolchildren starring the great Sir Ben Kingsley (you loved him in "Gandhi") at http://www.1001inventions.com/media/video/library (Note that it starts slowly, and is distorted on the computer monitor). No listing at the website of the 1001 inventions promised, as far as I can discover (I suppose you have to attend the exhibit to get that), but there's an impressive bibilography at: http://www.1001inventions.com/academicreferences Stephen -------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sblack at ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2085 or send a blank email to leave-2085-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
