The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance

342 Pages·2011·3.44 MB·English

by  Al-Khalili

Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Preface

Chapter 1 - A Dream of Aristotle
Chapter 2 - The Rise of Islam
Chapter 3 - Translation
Chapter 4 - The Lonely Alchemist
Chapter 5 - The House of Wisdom
Chapter 6 - Big Science
Chapter 7 - Numbers
Chapter 8 - Algebra
Chapter 9 - The Philosopher
Chapter 10 - The Medic
Chapter 11 - The Physicist
Chapter 12 - The Prince and the Pauper
Chapter 13 - Andalusia
Chapter 14 - The Marāgha Revolution
Chapter 15 - Decline and Renaissance
Chapter 16 - Science and Islam Today

Notes
Glossary of Scientists
Timeline: The Islamic World from Antiquity to the Beginning of the Modern
Period
Index

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Copyright © Jim al-Khalili, 2010
All rights reserved

Illustration credits appear on pages xi-xii.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
al-Khalili, Jim.
The house of wisdom : how Arabic science saved ancient knowledge and gave us the Renaissance / Jim al-
Khalili.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-47623-9
1. Science—Arab countries—History. 2. Science—Philosophy—History. 3. Science, Medieval. 4. Science
—Methodology—History. 5. Arab countries—Intellectual life—History. 6. Science, Renaissance. I. Title.
Q127.A5A4 2011
509.17’67—dc22 2010053136

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To Julie
He who finds a new path is a path finder, even if the trail has to be found again by others; and he
who walks far ahead of his contemporaries is a leader, even though centuries pass before he is
recognized as such.
Nathaniel Schmidt, Ibn Khaldūn