ABSTRACTWhat is a university? In the nineteenth century John Henry Newman famously spoke of “the idea of a university.” This phrase has dominated all discussions of the nature of the university sin...

In the last years of the eighteenth century, Egypt famously witnessed the practice of European sciences as embodied in the members of Bonaparte's Commission des sciences et des arts and the newly founded Institut d'Egypte. Less well known are the activities of local eighteenth-century Cairene religious scholars and military elites who were both patrons and practitioners of scientific expertise and producers of hundreds upon hundreds of manuscripts. Through the writings of the French naturalist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844) and those of (...) the Cairene scholar and chronicler ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jabartī (1753–1825), I explore Egypt as a site for the practice of the sciences in the late eighteenth century, the palatial urban houses which the French made home to the Institut d'Egypte and their role before the French invasion, and the conception of the relationship between the sciences and social politics that each man sought. Ultimately, I argue that Geoffroy's struggle to create scientific neutrality in the midst of intensely tumultuous political realities came to a surprising head with his fixation on Paris asthesite for the practice of natural history, while al-Jabartī’s embrace of this entanglement of knowledge and power led to a vision of scientific expertise that was specifically located in his Cairene society, but which – as Geoffroy himself demonstrated – could be readily adapted almost anywhere. (shrink)

La finalidad de este artículo es analizar desde un punto de vista historiográfico el capítulo que sobre los omeyas de al-Andalus incluyen dos de las obras más representativas del periodo mameluco, la Nihāyat al-arab de al-Nuwayrī y los Masālik al-abṣār Al-ʿUmarī, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al-amṣār: qabāʾil al-ʿarab fī l-qarnayn al-sābiʿ wa-l-ṯāmin al-hiǧriyayn, Dorothea Krawulski (ed.), Beirut, al-Markaz al-Islāmī li-l-Buḥūṯ, 1985 de al-ʿUmarī; ambas enmarcadas en lo que se ha denominado «enciclopedismo mameluco». En primer lugar, se realiza (...) una aproximación a la producción escrita de este periodo, señalándose las principales características de esta producción, así como las circunstancias que las moldearon. Posteriormente, se ofrecen algunas consideraciones generales sobre estos autores y sus respectivas obras. Todo esto con el fin de ofrecer una visión general del contexto cultural en el que se enmarcan las obras objeto de estudio de este artículo. Finalmente, se procede al análisis historiográfico crítico de la información que las dos obras nos proporcionan sobre los omeyas de al-Andalus, con especial atención a las fuentes que estos autores manejaron para su composición. Este análisis nos proporciona nuevos datos sobre el proceso de transmisión textual en la historiografía árabe, además de ampliar nuestro conocimiento sobre algunas fuentes andalusíes relevantes, algunas de las cuales permanecen total o parcialmente perdidas, como es el caso del Muqtabis de Ibn Ḥayyān. (shrink)

Medieval Arabic algebra is a good example of an artificial language.Yet despite its abstract, formal structure, its utility was restricted to problem solving. Geometry was the branch of mathematics used for expressing theories. While algebra was an art concerned with finding specific unknown numbers, geometry dealtwith generalmagnitudes.Algebra did possess the generosity needed to raise it to a more theoretical level—in the ninth century Abū Kāmil reinterpreted the algebraic unknown “thing” to prove a general result. But mathematicians had no motive to (...) rework their theories in algebraic form. Because it offered no advantage over geometry, algebra remained a practical art in both the Islamic world and in Europe until the scientific uphevals of the 17th–18th centuries. (shrink)

The changes that have taken place during the modern era have threatened the overall authority of the ‘ulamā’ as transmitters of knowledge. The ‘ulamā’ nevertheless retained their status by adapting their past discursive forms. Based upon interviews and content analysis, this study found that the ‘ulamā’ in Egypt continue to use the medium of preaching as a means of instructing the public. They still interpret the Qur’ān and ḥadīth to bring forth new responses, ones attuned to their particular environment. Additionally, (...) ‘ulamā’ communications to the believing public have become the texts of suitability, which represent continuation and adaptation, or textual traditions melded with the present concerns of adherents. One Egyptian ‘ālim preacher, Muhammad Mitwallī Sha‘rāwī, relied on his authority as a man of knowledge engaged with the past Islamic interpretive understanding to demonstrate the necessity of the religious specialist in his sermons to the people. He needed to reiterate the necessity of his expertise because many social and political forces were threatening his authority during his lifetime. (shrink)