Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

xiv • The Making of Islamic Sciencetop of the letter to distinguish two similar sounding letters (e.g., “š” todistinguish “šâd” from “sîn”).The names of many Muslim scientists and scholars of premoderntimes have been corrupted for various reasons, a tradition stemmingfrom medieval translations. Al-Ghazali, for instance, became Algazel;Abu Ma’shar became Albumasar; Ibn Tufayl became Abubacer;al-Bitruji became Alpetragius; Al-Farghani became Alfraganus;Razi became Rhazes; Abu’l-Qasim al-Zahrani became Albucasis;and Ibn Sina became Avicenna. Unfortunately, this practice, whichfirst emerged at a time when Arabic names were either carelesslyLatinized or were simply distorted because of a lack of properlinguistic skills, continues in many works that do not use accuratetransliteration schemes. For reasons of expediency, this book alsodoes not use a transliteration system for Arabic words, but it doespreserve original names.Arabic names can be confusing for readers unfamiliar with thissystem. Many names cited in this book are not really the personalnames (such as Muhammad, Husayn, or Ali) of the scientist or scholarbecause in most cases they are known through family associations(as in “ibn Sina,” the son of Sina) or simply by alluding to theirtribe, place, or region of birth (as in “al-Khwarizmi,” meaning “ofor from Khwarzam”). Sometimes a person is known by his paternalname, kunya (Abu Hamid, “the father of Hamid”). A nickname, anoccupational name, or a title can also become the most well knownname of a person (al-Jahiz, “the goggle-eyed”; al-Khayyam, “the tentmaker”). In this book, the full name is given at first use and the mostwell known name is used thereafter.Another point of import is the pronoun used for the writer. InIslamic tradition, the plural first-person “we” rather than “I” ispreferred, for a variety of reasons. “I” is considered impolite becauseof the emphasis this pronoun has on the individual, whereas “we”takes the emphasis away from the single person—the additionalpersona is left ambiguous, but it is assumed that the writer is notalone in the process of writing; that he or she is being aided by others;that the Divine presence is there in the very act of transmission ofknowledge and ideas; that a whole host of scholars are in company.