Teaching and Learning the Sciences in Islamicate Societies (800-1700), by Sonja Brentjes

Abstract

First Paragraph: Studies on science in Islamic societies have been on the rise for a while. The book in question takes as its subject the learning and teaching of the sciences in Islamic (or “Islamicate,” as the author adopts Marshall Hodgson’s conceptualization) societies prior to the eighteenth century. It is penned by Sonja Brentjes, who has written extensively on various aspects of the mathematical sciences in Islamic societies. Her book is not a comprehensive account but rather “an erratic process, broken by many gaps and interrupted by too many questions I could not answer or perhaps not even ask,” but it should also be added that she skillfully engages with the large number of primary and secondary sources (p. 262).