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robinwalter's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
I read this book because I have long been fascinated by the fact that the Islamic world kept science and learning alive while Europe wallowed and grovelled in the Dark Ages. Professor Al-Khalili's meticulously researched and well-presented work really showed just how BIG the debt we owe to Arabic/Islamic scientists-scholars really is. It was also fascinating to see how many of these scientists saw no intrinsic, inevitable conflict between Science and Faith. In today's world, where fundamentalists of many faiths give Faith a bad name becasuse of the contempt for Science, it was reassuring to see that "it ain't necessarily so".
theomnivorescientist's review
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
Jim Al-Khalili is a British theoretical physicist best known for his science programmes on BBC. One of them is Science and Islam. If you are more of a visual person watch the series. But Pathfinders is the book every science lover needs to read. The premise: the scientific revolution in Europe had its roots in the Golden Age of Islamic science in the 16-17th centuries. Modern science was not possible if not for all the Arabic, Christian, Jew scholars in cities like Baghdad and Cordoba who translated Greek texts, thousands of them before they even begin to improvise upon them. Anyone who knows where we got the words for algebra and alchemy, well Islamic figures like Ibn Sina, Al-Khwarizmi, Al-Biruni, Al-Kindi, and many more developed ideas in mathematics, medicine, chemistry, optics, philosophy, etc. Some of these polymaths rekindled the importance of Aristotle and improvised Ptolemaic science which would be crucial when the flames of scientific enquiry reached Europe for its next leg. The book is extremely detailed with illustrations from ancient texts. There has been a recent surge of books which tackle the influence of Arabic science and history but this one is a nice place to start.
willande123's review
5.0
What an apt title! Prior to my reading this book, I did know a little about the Golden Age of Arabic science thanks to a wonderful world cultures unit in high school. However, I never knew the overall impact of Arab science on the Renaissance and the works of Copernicus and Newton. These Arab scientists really were the pathfinders for all of modern science, the inheritors of eh great tradition of empirical science. Polymath is a wonderful word, and the men detailed here are the best examples of this word, geniuses from al-Razi, medical genius and famous skeptic, to al-Biruni, father of Indology and measurement expert, to al-Khwarizmi, the father of algebra. The final chapter on the problem of and solutions for the lack of science in the modern Arab world is a highlight of the book, giving the reader a sense of hope for the future of Arab science. This is the book for anyone interested in the history of science or the Arab golden age from the 9th century to 15th century.
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