Pathfinders
  • Published: 7 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141038360
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

Pathfinders

The Golden Age of Arabic Science

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One of Britain's best-loved scientists on the incredible story of Islamic science

For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In Pathfinders, Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten, inspiring pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world during the golden age of Arabic science, including Iraqi physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who practised the modern scientific method over half a century before Bacon; al-Khwarizmi, the greatest mathematician of the medieval world; and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a Persian polymath to rival Leonardo da Vinci.
  • Published: 7 March 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141038360
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

About the author

Jim Al-Khalili

Jim Al-Khalili OBE FRS is a quantum physicist, author and broadcaster based at the University of Surrey where he holds a joint chair in physics and the public engagement in science. He has written ten books, translated into over twenty languages. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries and also presents the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific. A recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the inaugural Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, he is also the current president of the British Science Association. He received an OBE in 2007 for ‘services to science’ and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2018. Sunfall is his first novel. Jim Al-Khalili lives in Hampshire.

portrait photo of Jim Al-Khalili

Also by Jim Al-Khalili

Sunfall
Life on the Edge
Paradox
Quantum Mechanics (A Ladybird Expert Book)
Gravity
Pathfinders
See all

Praise for Pathfinders

Brings alive the bubbling invention and delighted curiosity of the Islamic world ... his command of Arabic mathematical physics invests his story with sympathy as well as authority

Tim Radford, Guardian

A fascinating and user-friendly guide to this whole scientific movement

Noel Malcolm, Seven, Sunday Telegraph

Jim Al-Khalili has a passion for bringing to a wider audience not just the facts of science but its history ... Just as the legacy of Copernicus and Darwin belongs to all of us, so does that of Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham. To think otherwise, as this book so powerfully reveals, is to do disservice to the tradition to which they belong

Kenan Malik, Independent

Spry, informative and timely ... Al-Khalili takes the reader through a brisk survey of the highlights of the period

Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

A fascinating introduction to a neglected area. His approachable style and ability to distil extensive knowledge into simple narrative makes Pathfinders an absorbing read

Siobhan Murphy, Metro

Enjoyable and informative ... provides ample evidence for the compatibility of Islam and science

Sameer Rahim, Daily Telegraph

He has brought a great story out of the shadows

Literary Review

This captivating book is a timely reminder of the debt owed by the West to the intellectual achievements of Arab, Persian and Muslim scholars

The Times