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The history of Orthodoxy and science invites contrasts with other religious traditions. In contradistinction to the Latin West, for example, Eastern Orthodoxy throughout its history embraced the "pagan" scientific achievements of ancient Greece. Also unlike in the West, where ecclesiastical institutions often supported scientific activities, scholars in the East--in both the Byzantine and Ottoman periods--relied primarily on temporal sources to sustain their investigations of nature. Islam, with its strenuous resistance to any assimilation of the human to the divine, provides another contrasting example, as does the later Protestant justification for science grounded in the need to restore a fallen world through the application of experimental research. Not surprisingly, Eastern Orthodox believers seem to have paid little attention to non-Christian faiths, with the exception of Islam and Judaism, until well into the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Science and Orthodox Christianity: An Overview" is an ambitious survey that reminds scholars of science in Islamic societies that the conversation between Islam and science is really a conversation between Islam and science in different con texts and that conversations between Islam and science can be found with less renowned scientific developments such as prophetic medicine. This response points out parallels in how Greek Orthodox and Ottoman Muslim scholars mediated new developments in Western European science and in how both Greek Orthodox and some Ottoman Muslim scholars propounded a mathematical humanism. Finally, it argues that the account of post-1453 scientific exchange is more complex than "Science and Orthodox Christianity" intimates. At the least, if there was no scholarly exchange between Greek Orthodox Christians, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Muslims and Jews--who, in turn, enjoyed scholarly exchange with the West well after 1453--there are clearly two different Easts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a longstanding debate on whether Muslims can be modern. Some argue that they can only be so if they forsake their traditions and embrace rationalism. In this article I argue that the Gülen Movement, a transnational Turkish Muslim educational activist network has found a middle ground by blending religious traditions with modern day realities. Drawing on interviews from the movement's teachers and graduates of its schools, from Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I explore, through the prism of al-riḥla fī ṭalab al-ʿilm (travel in search of knowledge), their maintenance of the longstanding Islamic ritual of travel as a means of excelling both professionally and religiously. In turn, I demonstrate how the movement, on a number of levels, effectively reconciles the spiritual and the everyday through updating Islamic practices to better integrate themselves and other Muslims into a globalised world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the extent to which reliance on DNA analysis for paternity verification conflicts with the Islamic law of paternity. More particularly, it seeks to examine the extent to which DNA testing can be equated with the classical method of physiognomy (qiyāfa) as its modern equivalent. Depending on whether such a relationship can be drawn, Sharīʿa ruling on the former will be no different from its ruling on the latter. Although the majority opinion of modern Muslim jurists recognizes DNA testing as a reliable scientific method that can be used, to varying degrees, for paternity verification, such recognition is made by appeal to Islamic legal methodology and within the boundaries defined by it. The paper thus illustrates not only the extent to which DNA analysis is legitimized but also the efforts of Muslim jurists to enable the Islamic law of paternity to cope with modern scientific challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Information about several papers discussed at a conference titled "Fear and Loathing in the North: Muslims and Jews in Medieval Scandinavia and the Baltic Region," which was held June 10-11, 2013 at Stockholm University in Stockholm, Sweden, is presented. Topics include the portrayal of Jews in medieval Swedish sermons, the religious views of Peter the Venerable, and the influence of Islamic scientific works in medieval Iceland.

This article traces the early and medieval Islamic scholarship to the development of critical and scientific thinking and how they contributed to the development of an Islamic theory of epistemology and scientific thinking education. The article elucidates how the Qur'an and the Sunna of Prophet Muhammad have also contributed to the development of Islamic epistemology and the production of the scientific thinking method. In this way, the study has elaborated on exploring the relationship between Islamic piety and critical and scientific thinking as promoted in the Qur'an and the traditions of the Prophet and early Muslim scholars and medieval scholars of Islam. Following from this elaboration, the author elucidated how these scholars developed an Islamic pedagogy and curriculum theory commensurate with the spirit of Islam for promoting critical and scientific thinking. The article ends on notes of and implications for developing scientific thinking in modem Islamic education based on the past legacy of Islamic theory of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The apparent contradictory relationship between Islam and evolution is important because it has been cited as an example of contradiction between religion and science by both thinkers in the West and Muslims. Muslim scholars and scientists mainly disagree with evolution's legitimacy. Islam's Quantum Question by Nidhal Guessoum is a unique narrative providing in one of its first chapters an overview of evolution from neo-Darwinists to creationists, including the views of scholars throughout Islamic history. Guessoum then proceeds to advocate for evolution. Drawing from Nidhal Guessoum's work, I highlight the reasons why there is an apparent contradiction between Islam and science-and, in particular, Islam and evolution-which include lack of freedom of thought and misinterpretation of the Qur'an. In doing so, I suggest setting the stage for a new Einsteinian theory of evolution, which involves the dimension of time and human cognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines several fatwās by the important Muslim reformer Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā. It treats these fatwās as part of a broader Arabic debate on “materialism” at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. In this context, Riḍā's fatwās on materialism illustrate the changing nature of Islamic religious authority in this period, as new kinds of knowledge became available to new kinds of readers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on a conference on learning and scholarship in early medieval Baghdad, Iraq, which was held from September 12-14, 2011, in Göttingen, Germany. Presentations addressed such topics as translations of philosophical and historical texts from Persian to Arabic, Islamic science and theology, and Christian perceptions of Islamic culture in the Middle Ages.

The article reports that Arab physicians and scholars laid the basis for medical practice in Europe. The impact of Islamic civilization on Western science, technology and medicine between the years 800 and 1450 is often forgotten. Arabic became the most important scientific language of the world for many centuries and preserved knowledge that might otherwise have been lost forever. Arab scholars also made numerous important scientific and technological advances in mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, metallurgy, architecture, textiles, and agriculture. Arabian hospitals were centers of medical education and introduced many of the concepts and structures that are seen in modern hospitals. The article provides examples of key figures in the history of Islamic civilization as related to medicine and science.