A review by theomnivorescientist
Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science by Jim Al-Khalili

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.