Book Review: Paul Lettinck: Aristotle’s Meteorology and its Reception in the Arab World

For a desert people winds, rain, thunder, lightening, hurricanes, thunderbolts, whirlwinds, and other meteorological phenomena held tremendous fascination. This interest in meteorology is reflected in diverse forms and manners in Arabic poetry, lexicography, and grammar. In addition, there existed a theoretical aspect of meteorology which constructed a theoretical framework for a scientific inquiry of various meteorological phenomena.

When Greek texts were translated into Arabic, the science of meteorology was one of the first to evolve as a distinct discipline and was known as 'ilm al-athar al-'ulwiyya, the science of the upper phenomena. Al-Farabi (d. 950) lists it under this name in his Ihsa' al-'ulum, al-Khwarizmi (fl. 980) mentions it in his Mafatih al-ulum and it is found in the Rasa'il of Ikhwan al-Safa' (end of 10th century). A vast body of literature grew around Aristotle's Meteorology, either by way of comment or works inspired by him. Numerous philosophers wrote on one or the other aspect of meteorology. Thus, we have works by al-Kindi (d. ca. 873), Ibn Sina (d. 1037), Ibn Bajja (d. 1138) and Ibn Rushd (d. 1198). The subject also attracted numerous cosmographers, geographers, encyclopedists and writers of belle letters (adab). It also found its way into the heresiographies and works on medicine.​

Journal of Islam & Science, Vol. 2 (Summer 2004) No. 1

Muzaffar Iqbal

Muzaffar Iqbal is the President of the Center for Islamic Sciences and the General Editor of the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qurʾān.