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Emilie Savage-Smith: A Short Biography
Short biography [1] Emilie Savage-Smith is Professor at The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, where she is Professor of the History of Islamic Science. As one of the leading historians of medieval Islamic medicine, she has written extensively about the history of anatomy, surgery, dissection, pharmacy and ophthalmology. She has also published books and articles on Islamic cartography, technology, astronomical instruments, divinatory equipment, and magical techniques. At the present time she is preparing a descriptive historical catalogue of the numerous Islamic medical manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as well as a catalogue of the Oriental manuscripts, mostly astronomical, in St. John's College, Oxford. Her work has focussed particularly upon the manuscript evidence for medieval scientific knowledge, and her most recent publication is Medieval Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh University Press, 2007). She is also behind an important achievement that allied knowledge of Muslim Heritage in our times and the modern technology information through the electronic publication of Kitab Ghara'ib al-funun wa-mulah al-uyun, known as the Book of Curiosities. There is a marvellous website devoted to this amazing document, where the readers can browse through the individual pages and read notes, commentaries and English explanations. Read also a good coverage on this electronic edition: FSTC The Book of Curiosities or A Medieval Islamic View of the Cosmos (published 28 October, 2008). Professor Emilie Savage-Smith is a close associate of the Foundation for Science, Technology, and Civilisation (FSTC) in Manchester and member of its Advisory Board: Muslim Heritage Awarness Group. She is also member of the editorial board Medizinhistorische Journal, President of the Society for the History of Medieval Science and Technology, member of the Council of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, and member of the advisory board of the Journal for the History of Arabic Science (published by the Institute for the the History of Arabic Science at the University of Aleppo) and of the Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine (Qatar). Current Projects - A New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Volume 1: Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Related Topics. Oxford: Clarendon Press (planned date of publication 2008).
- Senior Project Researcher in the team of scholars translating and studying the newly-discovered Arabic cosmography Ghara'ib al-funun wa-mulah al-'uyun (‘The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences and Marvels for the Eyes'); project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund and AHRC.
- A study of the treatment of cataracts in the medieval Islamic world.
Publications To see the full list of publications click here. Recent publications - Seeking Seamless Scientific Wonders: Review of Emilie Savage-Smith's Work (2007).
- Medieval Islamic Medicine (with co-author P. Pormann). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. To read a review of the book with extracts on www.MuslimHeritage.com, click here.
- http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/bookofcuriosities (with co-author Y. Rapoport).
- Medieval Views of the Cosmos (with co-author E. Edson). Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2004.
- The Oriental Manuscripts of St John's College, Oxford. Oxford: Oxford University Press, (2005).
- (ed.) Magic and Divination in Early Islam [The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, 42]. London: Ashgate, 2004.
- ‘Medieval Islamic View of the Cosmos':The newly discovered Book of Curiosities (with co-author Y. Rapoport), The Cartographic Journal 41 (2004 ), 253-9.
- Arabic Treasures of the British Library: From Alexandria to Baghdad and Beyond. London: The British Library/ Friends of the Alexandrian Library, 2003.
- ‘The Book of Curiosities: A newly-discovered series of Islamic maps' (with co-author J. Johns), Imago Mundi, 55 (2003), 7–24 and Plates 1–7.
- ‘Safavid Magic Bowls'. In: Hunt for Paradise: Court Arts of Safavid Iran, 1505–1576, ed. by Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby. Milan: Skira, 2003, pp. 240–247.
- ‘Islam'. In: The Cambridge History of Science. Vol. 4: Eighteenth-Century Science, ed. Roy Porter, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2003, pp. 649–668.
- ‘Memory and Maps'. In: Culture and Memory in Early and Medieval Islam: A Festschrift in honour of Wilferd Madelung, ed. F. Daftary and J. Meri. London: I.B. Taurus, 2003, pp. 109–27 and Figures 1–4.
- ‘Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory Device: Another Look' (with co-author M.B. Smith). In: Magic and Divination in Early Islam, ed. by E. Savage-Smith [The Formation of the Classical Islamic World, vol. 42]. London/Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.
- ‘Galen's Lost Ophthalmology and the Summaria Alexandrinorum'. In: The unknown Galen, ed. Vivian Nutton [Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Suppl. 77], 121–138. London: Institute of Classical Studies, University of London, 2002.
- ‘The Practice of Surgery in Islamic Lands: Myth and Reality'. In: The Year 1000: Medical Practice at the End of the First Millennium, ed. P. Horden and E. Savage-Smith [Social History of Medicine, vol. 13.2], 308-321. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- With E. Edson: ‘An Astrologer's Map: A Relic of Late Antiquity', Imago Mundi, 52 (2000) 7–29.
- Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine.
- Science, Tools and Magic. Part I: Body and Spirit, Mapping the Universe (with F. Maddison), Part II: Mundane Worlds [The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, XII], London/Oxford: Azimuth Editions/Oxford University Press, 1997. 2 vols.
Footnote [1] This short biography was reworked and augmented from different sources, including
http://faculty.orinst.ox.ac.uk/index2.php?member=savagesmith and https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/about.html; it was revised and approved by Professor Savage-Smith.
by: FSTC Limited, Tue 26 May, 2009
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