41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Timely but Unscholarly Book on Fascinating History, August 21, 2008
This book is an exploration into the "Islamic Golden Age," which is when the Middle East was a wellspring of intellectual flourishing. The second half of the 8th century to the 12th century in the Near East is a keystone of the intellectual history of human civilization. Many great thinkers of this time period, such as Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Kindi are responsible for translating, preserving and adding to the wealth of knowledge created by the many great intellectuals of Classical Greece and the Roman Republic. During the Islamic Golden Age, there were countless advancements in medicine, astronomy, mathematics, optics, engineering and surgery while the Western world intellectually wallowed in the Dark Ages. Because many Muslim scholars kept the Aristotelian tradition of recognizing that the universe can be known through reason, it was possible for the Western world to eventually rediscover these values (by gaining access to the Islamic works) and to ignite the Renaissance.
Unlike many other books that touch upon this subject, this book recognizes the *individuals* who made specific intellectual achievements. Most other books typically credit the accomplishments of this era to the Muslim world in general. Needless to say, such a false attribution is as misleading as stating that 19th and 20th century Americans invented the light bulb, the telephone and the transistor.
In this book, amongst many other things, you will learn about:
* al-Haytham and his seminal work on optics
* Omar Khayyam, and his written eloquent and insightful attacks on religious mysticism that were ahead of his time
* Ibn Firnas and his designing and testing of a flying contraption
* Ibn Sina's impressive list of accomplishments in medicine, including his extensive study of human anatomy, of various infectious diseases, of bone fractures, of cancers, his introduction of over 700 drugs and a rudimentary understanding of a scientific approach to clinical trials.
* Al-Zahrawi's advancements in suture, antiseptics, and obstetrics
* And many more, including the great mathematician al-Khwarzimi, the chemist Jabir ibn Haiyan, the physician Maimonides, the staunch Aristotelian Ibn Rushd and the prolific translator of the classical works Al-Kindi.
Unfortunately, this book has a number of salient flaws. First, the style of presentation is very unpleasant for those who read history to accumulate facts. Each chapter begins with several pages of a contemporary fictional account as a lead in. In my opinion, these pieces are uninteresting and they break the flow of the book. More importantly, the author provides no citations. This blurs the divide between fact and speculation, which is very troublesome, since the author warns the reader that he dressed up the factual content with "imaginary recreations."
Second, the author intentionally does not attempt to answer the most important questions: "What caused the deluge of intellectual achievement in the Muslim world of the Middle Ages?" and "What brought this brilliant era to a halt?". In fact, the author indicats he does not wish to "settle any academic debates" but instead seeks to incorporate elements from each of many competing and contradictory viewpoints. Unfortunately, this leaves the reader with a sense of incompleteness and suggests that while the author sought to present the truth when it came to individuals and their accomplishments, he is not interested in identifying the causal, intellectual forces that drive history.
This book gets four stars because an accessible book on the Golden Age of the Near East is such a rare commodity and is so essential to fully understanding intellectual history. I think a much better book (one that lacks the meek, non-judgmental multiculturalist tone) can be written. If other such books existed, then I surely would rate this book much lower.
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45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"The first Muslim golden ages are gone ... new ones are being created", August 8, 2007
This review is from: Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists (Hardcover)
The West and the world owe the Islamic world much: in medicine, ethics, metaphysics, mathematics, astronomy, poetry, architecture, literature and music Islam has had a profound influence. Just how deep the connections are, and how great the debt owed is the basis for Morgan's book.
After presenting a brief history of the first centuries of Islam, the richness, depth, breadth and variety of Islamic thought is presented, convincingly arguing that Muslim philosophers and scientists are inheiritors of the Greco-Roman world as much (if not more than) Europe, and that these thinkers pushed intellectual boundaries to the benefit of everyone. These details make the book, as the connections between 9th and 10th century Islam and the present are profound.
However, Morgan has a tendency to dramatize and personify history, which I though detracted from the effectiveness of his point. To write about the internal thoughts of ibn Sina would be fine for fiction, but have no place in a historical text. Similarly, in an effort to make the connections between past and present clearer, each chapter begins with a character in the present reflecting on or wrestling with the legacy of the Islamic past. Because of this, I almost gave it three stars - but the importance and impact of the Islamic past is so important and relevant that I forgave him a star.
With this historical caveat, it is a remarkable read, and one that I highly recommend.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Freshening perceptions --, September 15, 2007
This review is from: Lost History: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists (Hardcover)
This book has an articulated, worthy purpose: to bring to the general reader some understanding of the richness of Islamic civilization. The details of the work of Moslem writers, scientists and artists have been lost to general perception in Western history, yet the accomplishments of Islamic society, from the seventh century on, have flowed into and enriched the Judeo-Christian world. In fact, the three traditions -- Christian, Jewish, and Islamic -- are inextricably braided. The Islamic world gave rise to some of the earliest libraries, universities and hospitals and, at its best, has encouraged an idea of civic tolerance that permits the development of the talents of all, whatever the religious orientation.
In Lost History, Michael Morgan presents a dense and richly detailed overview of the flowering of Islamic culture. While he gives some attention to religious controversies and some to war and conquest, Morgan's primary purpose is to illuminate the achievements of the artists and intellectuals -- not all of them Moslem -- who were nurtured by Islamic society. The book is a call to become more aware of how their work still echoes around us; it is a spur to further reading and study.
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