Outstanding Skills Research Articles

Religion and Science

THIS small book displays the author's outstanding skill in the popular exposition of abstruse subjects. The earlier half of it is historical, dealing with the past relations between ecclesiastical Christianity and the natural sciences, and contains a depressing record of bigotry and cruelty; though we are warned that “the threat to intellectual freedom is greater in our day than at any time since 1660”—a threat which no longer comes from the Churches.

Arabian Medicine. Being the Fitzpatrick Lectures Delivered at the College of Physicians in November, 1919, and November, 1920.

E. G. Browne (1862–1926), who combined outstanding skills in medicine and Arabic and Persian studies, has left an indelible mark in his fields of expertise. He first learned Turkish in his teens, and went on to study all the languages of the Islamic tradition, while also qualifying as a physician. This collection of four FitzPatrick Lectures, delivered at the Royal College of Physicians in 1919–20, and first published in 1921, covers subjects such as Arabic as a scientific language, the transmission of Greek learning, and important Islamic medieval writers. Brown describes the role of Islamic physicians in transmitting Greek and Roman medical science through the Dark Ages, both preserving and building upon texts which were lost or misunderstood in the West. He further argues that the scientific elements of Islamic literature should be seen as complementing and supporting the imaginative and aesthetic works of literature, history and poetry.