Science & Islam: A History By Ehsan Masood [PDF, ePub, Mobi]

History's least-known yet most fertile period in science was the extraordinary Islamic scientific revolution between 700 and 1400. The story of the scientists and inventors is woven into a journey through the Islamic empires of the middle ages that enabled this revolution, and its contribution to science in Western culture.

"The fruits of the golden age of Islamic science are summarised briskly and engagingly in Ehsan Masood's Science & Islam, which was written to accompany a recent BBC television series... Keen to dismantle the myth that Islam is fundamentally opposed to science, and [shows] that the words of Muhammad can be read as obliging rational inquiry."
--Sunday Times

"Why did science and learning decline so rapidly [in the Islamic World]? Ehsan Masood gives a viable answer to this question. Masood's eminently readable survey of science in Islam fills many gaps in [Jonathan Lyons'> The House of Wisdom by providing the social and political context in which discoveries took place."
--The Times

"A delightful and approachable work, packed with surprises and treats, and offered by a writer whose passion for the subject does not daunt his objectivity"
--Wharf

Ehsan Masood is Acting Chief Commissioning Editor at Nature and teaches international science policy at Imperial College London. He also writes for Prospect and OpenDemocracy .Net and is a regular panelist on BBC radio 4's Home Planet.