Islamic Science and Engineering

by Donald Routledge Hill

This introduction to the physical sciences and engineering of the Islamic world is the first to trace the full extent of the Muslim scientific achievement in the period 750-1500. It describes how Muslim scientists and engineers contributed enormously to the technology of medieval Europe.

Genres: Islam, History, Science

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

he was an engineer and historian of science and technology.

Alongside more general works on the history of technology, he wrote works on the history of medieval Arabic science and technology, and translated The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya) of the Arab engineer Al-Jazari.

Reviews

[Itsbecka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting overview of the contribution of Muslim scientists/engineers in the Middle Ages.

[Bernard English · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hill covers almost every aspect of Islamic science and engineering and is thus forced to give limited coverage to each topic. It's just my impression, but I thought his explanations of astronomical terms were sufficient to follow the text. On the other hand, perhaps because I'm not as familiar with technology, I had real trouble following his explanations of certain sophisticated machinery, even after looking up the terms. He does provide diagrams, but not enough for my limited ability. The section on surveying was far more detailed than I needed though I suppose basic high school geometry and trig should be enough to understand it. I just wasn't so inspired to follow it carefully. And I sorely wished he'd spent more time explaining some of the major innovations. For example, on p. 123 he mentions the Banu Musa brothers' preoccupation with "inline automatic controls" and writes that in many ways they were ahead of their time. I'm happy to believe Hill's judgment, but sadly I just couldn't really understand the exact innovation--I'm just vaguely impressed with the term "inline automatic control." Another example is the four paragraphs he dedicates to the Baku oilfields and that even Marco Polo "reported that hundreds of shiploads might be taken from it at one time"; keep in mind this is the 9th century. Surely this topic deserves more than four paragraphs! Nevertheless I recommend the book simply due to this broad coverage--bridges, trebuchets, damns, alchemy, and pretty much whatever else you want is covered at least to some extent. Don't miss the diagram of al-Khazini's beautiful Balance of Wisdom on page 67. He managed to calculate specific gravities with greater precision than Robert Boyle did in the late 17th century.