under Christianity, 94
contribution of Islam, 14, 18-20
cross-cultural/multicultural, 16-17, 54
imperialism and, 57-71
and Islamic essentialism, 83-105
legitimacy, 32
teaching in local language, 37
and technology, popularization, 23
a universal science, 71
modernism, 50, 80, 86
modernist reformers, 97-100
modernity, 14, 22, 27, 35, 36, 51, 54, 64, 131, 135, 138, 147
Mohsin-ul-Mulk, Nawab, 31
monasticism, 9
Montessori, Maria, 112, 121
Montgomery, 40
morality and ethics beyond religious faith, 96-97
mother tongue, as medium of instruction, 114-15
Mu’dlim-i-Shafiq, 36
Muhammadanism, 83, 85
Muhammedan Literary Society, 18
multiculturalism, 31-35, 60
Museums Association of India, 123
music, 97
in Islam, 124-25
as science, 98
Muslims, 4-8, 23
blind prejudice, 32
backwardness, 57
of Bengal, 19
decline, 10, 18
and Hindus, unity, 20
optimism, 92
perception and assimilation of modern science and technology, 14
religious thought, 29
revivalism, 49
rule in Spain, 63, 88
theology, 22, 29, 36
Muslim Association for the Advancement of Science (MAAS), Aligarh, 86, 90, 90-92
Mutassim, Abbasid Caliph, al-, 29
Mu’tazila (dissenters), 3, 29, 30, 85, 98
mystical fundamentalism, 96
Nadwat al-Ulema, Lucknow, 50, 58, 107
Nadwi, Sulaiman, 120-21
Nallino, C.A., 26
Napoleon, 7
narrow-mindedness, 115
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, 34, 72, 80, 81, 92-94, 101-02, 131, 134, 146
National Museum, 123
nationalism, 20, 33, 36-37, 38, 64, 116, 142
Nature, 103
Needham, Joseph, 46, 70, 147;
ecumenism, 32, 60
Nehru, Jawaharlal, 96-97, 111-12
neicheri (Urduized form of naturist), 27, 29, 36
neutrality of Science, 133
New International Order, 140
Newton, Isaac, 9, 15, 28, 52, 73, 74, 76, 77, 80
Nizamiya syllabus, 108
Numani, Shibli, 58
numerology, 97
Nurul Afaq, 27
Nurul Imdad, 27
orthodoxy, 20, 24, 29, 30, 72, 103, 116
Ottomans, 55, 145
Oxford, 120
Persians, 7, 43, 44, 45, 75, 83
philosophical sciences (hikma, or al-ulum al-hikmiyya), 3
Phoenicians, 68
Physics, 71
planetary system, 78
planning for education, 111
Plassey, battle, 1757, 19
Platonism, 74
plurality of vision, 56
political consciousness, 50
political Islam, 1, 51
pollution, 101
postcolonial non-Western societies, 14
pragmatism, 20, 42
pragmatist approach, 35-49
printing invention, 78
Prophet Muhammad, 6, 12, 22, 26, 28, 31, 34, 55, 63, 81, 83, 84-5, 99-100, 104-05, 125-6
Ptolemy, 74, 77, 79, 80
Pyrenees, 45-46, 69
quantum mechanics, 67
Quran, 6, 11-3, 15, 20, 24-27, 35, 40, 42, 50, 55, 61, 66-68, 70, 72, 79, 81, 84-87, 91, 95-96, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 118, 121, 129, 132-34, 140, 143
Patel, Vallabhbhai, 126
race, family and traditions, 109
Al-Radd ala al-Dahriyyin, 36
Raihan, Abu, 104
Ramchandra, Master, 60, 113
Rashed, Roshdi, 46
rationalism and science, 2, 3, 5, 12-14, 18, 27, 29, 35, 49
rationality, 99-100
Ray, P.C., 137
Razi, Al- 2, 95
reason (aql), 29, 49, 81-82, 84, 95, 97, 100-1, 103-4, 118, 129, 134
reconstructionist approach, 20-35
reform and modernization through British collaboration, 142
refutation, 28, 36
Rehman, Kaleemur, 94-95
relativity, 67, 134
religions, 3, 9-11, 15, 24, 28-31, 53-54, 60, 63, 76, 81, 85, 97-99, 136
European perception, 42
and faith, 35, 48, 96-97
and blind faith, 116
interpretation, 30
intolerance, 47-49
and language, 37
music and, 98, 123
and reason and knowledge, 118-19
and science, 9, 13, 22, 24, 26, 28, 31, 40-41, 56, 58, 71-72, 79, 88, 90, 103-04, 129, 146
Renaissance
Delhi, 59, 65
Islamic, 73
European, 4, 17, 74, 112, 145
Renan, Ernest, 20, 42-49
revelation, 99-100
revivalism, 49-51, 58, 137, 141
rhetoric war, 102-05
Right to Education Act, 117
rijal, 11
Romans, 8, 45, 83
Rousseau, 110
Roy, Rammohan 17, 142;
Tuhfat-ul-Muvahidin, 29
rulers and ruled, reconciliation between, 21
Rushd, Ibn, 2, 25, 73
Sabra, A.L, 3-4, 6, 7, 46, 55
Sahitya Akademi, 127
Said, Edward, 137
Salam, Abdus, 72, 84, 103-04, 146
Sangeet Natak Akademi, 127
sanitation and purification, 34
Sardar, Ziauddin, 56, 72, 91, 92, 96, 103, 131, 136, 138-40, 146
Sarhindi, Sheikh Ahmad, 23
Sarkar, Benoy, 137
Sarton, George, 4-5
Sassanid astronomy and pharmacology, 93
Satan (iblis), 99
Sayili, Aydin, 6, 8, 40, 48, 80
science
and civilization, 20, 51
in Islamic civilization, decline, 12
reconciling with Islam in the nineteenth-century, 15-51
and religion. See religion and technology, 14, 18, 20, 23, 32, 34, 101, 103, 107, 117-22
Science and Civilization in China, 147
scientific accomplishments, 5
creativity in Islamic civilization, 2
knowledge and institutions, 21
knowledge, cultural redefinition 16
observation and theory, 85
Scientific Miracles in the Quran, a Saudi project, 67, 134
Scott, 121
Seal, B.N., 137
secular
and religious learning, 80
and religious sciences, distinction, 70
secularism, 14, 35, 135
Sen, Amartya, 82
sharei and non-sharei sciences, 12-13
Shariah, 97, 102, 142
Shaz, Rashid, 11-13
Sina, Ibn, 2, 35, 41, 73, 95
Sircar, Mahendra Lai, 142-43
socio-cultural and material changes, 61
Spaniards, 69
stagnation, 7, 72, 107
Stenberg, Leif, 132
Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), 91
Suhrawardy, Shihab ad-Din, 41
Sunnah, 104
symbolic interpretation, lack of, 100-02
Syria/Syrians, 3, 5, 68, 114
Tagore, Rabindranath, 112
Al-Tahtawi, 145
Taliban, 92
tawheed (unity), 139
tawhid (divine unity), 80
technological, technology, 145
advancements, 14, 62
applications, 71
developments, 101
transfer, 140
Tehrawin, 28
Theism or natural religion, 79
theocracy, 14
theological delusions, 94
>
theological issues, 12, 20
translation movement, 3, 6, 7
Turks, 7, 44
Ubaidi, 144
Ubedi, Maulvi Obaidullah, 52, 56, 59, 73-79, 140
Ulema, 27, 39-40, 50
ulum-ul-awail (foreign sciences), 34
umma, the community of believers, 20
underdevelopment and backwardness, 10
United States of America: 9/11, 130
universal franchise, 116
Upanishads, 64
Al-Urdi, Muayyad al Din, 81
Urdu as a medium of instruction, 37
Usman, third Caliph, 12
Vaticanization of Islam, 12
Vedas and the Shastras, 38, 64, 67
Vedic civilization, 38
Wahabis, 19, 22, 124
wahhabiyat to nechariyat, 108
Wakil, Mohammad 53
Waliullah, Shah, 29-31
Western
Christendom, 9
civilization, 39
cultural and intellectual hegemonization, 58, 90
education, 17, 32, 88, 114, 119
experimental philosophy, 79
imperialism, 16, 35, 45
knowledge, 23-24
Western modernity, 51, 54
pedagogy, 121
science, 2, 6, 13, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 68, 86, 90, 92, 118, 122, 138
technology, 101
Westernization, 19, 120
White, Lynn (Jr.), 48
women’s education, 116
Yar Jung, Nawab Sadr, 123
Zain, S.B.M., 102
Zakaullah, Munshi, 20, 32, 53, 59-61, 62-65, 68, 81, 87, 88, 100, 140, 144
on language question, 113-14
Zia-ul-Haq, 138
zulm (tyranny), 139
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the publishers of the three previously published essays for permission to reproduce these in the present volume. Chapter two was published in the Contributions to Indian Sociology, February 2000, Vol. 34, No.1, while chapters three and four appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, June 5-11, 2004, and September 6-12, 2008. However, all three papers have been substantially expanded for this collection. I must also thank all those who commented on the various versions of these papers during seminars and conferences such as the International Congress of History of Science, Liege, Belgium, Recherches en Epistémologie et Histoire des Sciences et des Institutions Scientifiques, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris., International Congress of History of Science, Mexico, University of Urbana-Champaign, USA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Central University, Hyderabad, State University of New York, Oswego, MIT, Cambridge, Mass, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Binghamton University, Binghamton, Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA and the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin.
I have always benefitted from my friend Dhruv Raina’s incisive comments and suggestions. I must acknowledge the comments by Gregory Blue, Helen Longino, Karine Chemla, Michel Paty, Kapil Raj, Ian Inkster, Bob Anderson, Ekmelleddin Ihsanoglu, K.N. Panikkar, Atluri Murali, Dipankar Gupta, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Alok Kumar, Geraldine Forbes, Everett Mendelsohn, Ronald Numbers, Abha Sur, Bruce Mazlish, Benjamin Zachariah, Masud Mirza, Rainer Bromer, Roshdi Rashed, Deepak Kumar, Roy MacLeod and the late Omar Khalidi.
I am grateful to friends and colleagues at the Institute of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin for their comments and suggestions at the final stages of the book. I particularly thank Michael Mann, my friend and Director of the Institute, for his invitation and support and also ICCR for offering me the opportunity to occupy their rotating chair for a semester.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
S. IRFAN HABIB is a historian of science and political history. He has edited and authored several books on the history of science. His last book To Make the Deaf Hear: Ideology and Programme of Bhagat Singh and his Comrades has been translated into several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam. At present he holds the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Chair at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi.
First published in India in 2012 by
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