DAVO Study Group on Arabic-Ottoman Sciences in the Modern Period

Abstract

The development of scientific activity in the Ottoman Empire and other contemporary Muslim countries has so far attracted little if any attention from either disciplines of 'Oriental' or Science Studies, despite the long established fact that in the 'classical' age, Islamic civilization actively contributed to the elaboration of scientific traditions, which originated in different surrounding cultures (Hellenistic, Sassanid, Indian, etc.). At the Sixth Annual Congress of the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) in December 1999 in Hamburg, the study group on 'Arabic-Ottoman Sciences in the Modern Period' organized a panel in which five research projects covering the 17th through 19th centuries were presented.