Between doubts and certainties: on the place of history of science in Islamic societies within the field of history of science (Q1811273)

This article is a quick and sketchy attempt to understand the possible causes for the relative neglect of the ``history of science in Islamic societies'', as the author puts it. It even concludes by a report about a poll taken at Max Planck Institute in Dec. 2001--Jan. 2002, in which the participants were asked a series of some 26 questions regarding their perceptions and assessments of the ``history of science in Islamic societies'' from the relative comfort of their own disciplines. The results of the poll seems to have confounded the author as they seem to point out that her ``perception of the state of affairs differs remarkably from that shared with [her] by the participants in the poll'', thus implying that there was no real reason for the gloomy picture described in the beginning of the article. Despite the relative disagreement between the author and the her `wider public', meaning those who accepted to participate in the poll, she still reaches the conclusion that ``we need to convince politicians [good luck!], administrators, sponsors, and organizers of events in art and culture that history of science in Islamic societies was important for these societies\dots'' This reviewer shares the well-intended sympathies of the author, and appreciates her concern about the paucity of professional teaching positions in the history of Arabic/Islamic science, but does not share many of the diagnostic assessments she offered in this article. To be fair though, she readily admits in the first footnote that her intention ``was not to survey \dots the research carried out during the last three decades.''