Alparslan
Acikgenc, Islamic Science: Towards a Definition
One of
the aims of defining Islamic Science is to generate theoretical understanding
of and insight into the nature and meaning of the concept and enterprise of
Islamic Science, and thus to formally differentiate it, to the extent possible,
from other sciences, especially modern western science, or even from other
salient manifestations of Islamic civilization, like Islamic Art. Of course
formal definitions have their limits, but a basic working definition, if sound
and critically accepted, can provide a degree of rigor, direction and coherence
to a discourse that at times tends to be as disunified as the number of
participants engaged in it, which is significant lately, mainly because, as
Acikgenc himself realizes, "they did not first try to understand what he
[al-Attas] meant by islamization" (p. 1).
Hence,
this little book by Acikgenc (formerly of ISTAC and presently at Fatih
University, Turkey) has been of considerable interest to participants in the
ongoing discourse on Islamic Science. The book consists of an
"Introduction" and three chapters entitled respectively "The
Concept of Islamicity", "The Islamic Concept of Science" and
"The Historical Background of Islamic Science". Many would see it as
a courageous attempt at a conceptual understanding of Islamic science that may
facilitate its revival as an existential reality, and thus they would like to
see to what extent his attempt has been successful. Moreover as Acikgenc
himself puts it, "... in order for science to perform its vital role in a
society, and more specifically in a Muslim society, a clear definition of it
must be provided by the 'ulama'," a.k.a. "scholars of Islam" (p.
4).