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SUMMARY:Islamic science\, cultural difference and colonization - Harun Kü
 çük (University of Pennsylvania)
DTSTART:20210513T143000Z
DTEND:20210513T160000Z
UID:TALK159886@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Helen Curry
DESCRIPTION:Almost since its emergence as a field\, the history of Islamic
  science has played a key role in the narrative of the preservation and fl
 ourishing of Greek science\, particularly as it pertains to the emergence 
 of modern science. In many ways\, the history of Islamic science remains t
 he most Hellenophiliac\, to use David Pingree's familiar term\, among the 
 arguably non-Western histories of science. Scholars working on earlier per
 iods easily relate to Greek categories of natural inquiry and largely shar
 e the conceptual parameters that we often associate with Western science. 
 Scholars of the modern period\, by contrast\, associate more easily with o
 ther parts of the world and now join the broad effort to decolonize the hi
 story of science. Consequently\, there is a chasm between the progressive 
 narrative that dominates the earlier periods and the more pessimistic narr
 ative that dominates the modern period as Muslim polities have in fact bee
 n subject to literal and discursive types of violence. The notion of decli
 ne is almost universally rejected in favour of explanations involving colo
 nial domination and cultural difference. But do cultural difference or col
 onization sufficiently explain the career of science among modern Muslim p
 olities? Conversely\, does Islamic science explain the developments that t
 ook place in the earlier centuries? In this talk\, I wish to approach thes
 e questions from a materialist perspective by deploying the case of early 
 modern Istanbul as a methodological tool and scientific labour as an analy
 tical term.
LOCATION:Zoom
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