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Science, Technology, and Learning in the Ottoman Empire. By Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Aldershot, Hants., and Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2004. Pp. xiv+338. $111.95.
In the twelve essays collected in this volume, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu addresses some large questions regarding the encounter between the Islamic tradition of science and modern science and technology in Europe from the sixteenth century onward. Why did the Ottomans lag behind Europe in scientific and technological development despite their close economic, diplomatic, and cultural contacts with European societies? What role did Islamic culture play in this situation?
These essays challenge the view that stresses the role of medieval Islamic culture in stifling both scientific progress and technology transfer from Europe. They also provide rich material for building an alternative account of Muslim encounters with modern Western science and technology. The culturalist approach that blames "Oriental dogmatism" and "Islamic mentality" for the Ottoman neglect of the scientific and technological revolutions of Europe has predominated in earlier scholarship-in the works, for example, of Adnan Adivar, Aydin Sayili, and Bernard Lewis. Ihsanoglu offers a sociological agenda that rejects the argument that the Islamic faith was the...