Contesting Cosmographies

CONTESTING COSMOGRAPHIES

Muslim Views of the Cosmos from Late Antiquity to Modernity

 

A public lecture by Dr. Omar Anchassi (University of Bern)

 

Monday, May 11

4:30 – 6:00 PM (lecture & Q&A)

Everson 157

Open to the public · All are welcome

 

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ABOUT THE TALK

From the Qur'anic commentaries of the second/eighth century to the

eventual triumph of Copernicanism, Muslim thinkers held — and

contested — radically different visions of the cosmos. One tradition,

drawn from late ancient Jewish sources and reworked across centuries,

found defenders in Arabic well into the modern period. Another, built

on the Greek, Syriac, and Middle Persian texts translated from the

eighth century onward, took root first among astronomers and

philosophers before reaching the wider learned class. This lecture

traces the long, entangled history of these two cosmographies — and

the eventual displacement of both by a heliocentric world.

 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Omar Anchassi is a scholar of premodern and modern Islamic

intellectual history, with interests in the history of astronomy,

Islamic law, theology, and Qur'anic studies. He has previously held

positions at Edinburgh, Exeter, and the King Faisal Center, Riyadh.

 

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Hosted by UC Davis Middle East / South Asia Studies

Supported by the Faris Saeed Endowment in Arab Studies

 

Co-sponsored by:

  · Jewish Studies

  · Medieval & Early Modern Studies

  · Classics

  · Religious Studies

  · Philosophy

  · Comparative Literature