The "Arabick" Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England

Review "...the volume represents the most complete account of its subject currently available in English..."Scott Mandelbrote, ISIS, 1995."The book as a whole is based on profound research, well written and edited, and presents its interesting, partly overlapping themes at the best level of the present-day knowledge...the rich information and thought brought into this volume make it a valuable and stimulating exercise in the history and sociology of knowledge."Lubos Kropacek, Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1994."L'ensemble des quatorze contributions, faites dans chaque cas par un spécialiste de la question traitée, est de qualité."Claude Gilliot, Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Théologiques, 1995."...Russell has assembled a stimulating volume."François Charette, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 1995."This invaluable source-book for the history of Semitics scholarship in Protestant Europe..."JFE, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, 1996."This picture of the European Renaissance - quite different from the one that is commonly seen - is enough reason to recommend this book very strongly to anyone who has an interest in the history of oriental studies, renaissance Europe, or even general intellectual history."George Saliba, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1997. Product Description This volume deals with the remarkably widespread interest in Arabic in seventeenth-century England among Biblical scholars and theologians, natural philosophers and Fellows of the Royal Society, and others. It led to the institutionalisation of Arabic studies at Oxford and Cambridge Universities where Arabic chairs were set up, and immense manuscript collections were established and utilised. Fourteen historians examine the extent and sources of this Arabic interest in areas ranging from religion, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and alchemy to botany. Arabic is shown to have been a significant component of the rise of Protestant intellectual tradition and the evolution of secular scholarship at universities. About the Author G.A. Russell, Ph.D. (1962) in Comparative Studies and History and Philosophy of Science is Associate Professor in History of Medicine in the Health Science Center at Texas A&M University and Research Associate at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London. She has published on the early history of vision, and psychology. At present she is working on John Locke and Ibn Tufayl's h?ayy ibn Yaqz?an; and the diffusion of the translations of the Arabic text in Europe.