Charles Burnett


AUTHOR'S ARTICLES

The Attraction of Ibn al-Haytham’s Optics

by Charles Burnett Published on: 4th September 2023

The Optics (kitāb al-Manāzir or Perspectiva/De aspectibus of Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Haytham al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan (ca. 965-1040) is one of the foundational works in the history of science. It was written between 1028 and 1038 in…

Constantine the African and the Qayrawani doctors: Contribution of the ‘Phoenicians’ of North Africa to Latin Medicine in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

by Charles Burnett Published on: 10th September 2018

When a sixteenth-century medical writer referred to Phoenicians, alongside Arabs, as exceptionally important medical sources, he was probably referring to the Muslim and Jewish doctors of Qayrawan, who were writing in Arabic in the tenth…

The Transfer of Science Between India, Europe and China via Muslim Heritage

by Charles Burnett Published on: 15th July 2010

[Proceedings of the conference 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World organised by FSTC, London, 25-26 May 2010]. The Islamic realms served as a crucible for scientific learning from the ancient Greek world in the…

Mont Saint-Michel or Toledo: Greek or Arabic Sources for Medieval European Culture?

by Charles Burnett Published on: 25th February 2009

In a recent book, Sylvain Gouguenheim has caused a furore in claiming that European culture owes nothing to Arabic culture. The following article by Professor Charles Burnett, an eminent scholar in the intellectual context of…

Tracing the Impact of Latin Translations of Arabic Texts on European Society

by Charles Burnett Published on: 1st July 2008

In this article, Professor Charles Burnett, a world expert in the history of Islamic influences in Europe at The Warburg Institute (London University), retraces the impact the Latin translations of Arabic texts of science and…

The Appreciation of Arabic Science and Technology in the Middle Ages

by Charles Burnett Published on: 16th May 2007

This article describes the appreciation of Arabic science and technology in the Middle Ages through the example of Adelard of Bath, an English scholar of the early 12th century, one of the first scholars that…

Leonard of Pisa (Fibonacci) and Arabic Arithmetic

by Charles Burnett Published on: 14th January 2005

Professor Charles Burnett shows that Fibonacci failed to give adequate recognition to other sources of learning which he took from to produce his Liber Abacci. These other sources were translations of Arabic works from Toledo…

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