Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560-1660 (review) Joanna Carraway Vitiello Journal of World History, Volume 23, Number 1, March 2012, pp. 184-187 (Article) Published by University of Hawai'i Press DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2012.0024 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/jwh/summary/v023/23.1.vitiello.html Access Provided by Tel Aviv University at 06/21/12 7:51PM GMT 184 journal of world history, march 2012 the same. They in no way detract from the importance or readability of this fine work. jeremy clarke, s.j. Boston College Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560–1660. By Avner Ben-Zaken. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. 256 pp. $60.00 (cloth). Avner Ben-Zaken’s exploration of the scientific and cultural exchange in the early modern period charts new territory, effectively remapping the flow of scientific information in the eastern Mediterranean. Ben-Zaken uses a series of case studies to fundamentally challenge a common understanding that scientific thought in this period moved in only one direction, from an increasingly sophisticated European culture to an increasingly stagnant Islamic world. Ben-Zaken’s findings demonstrate cross-cultural intellectual currents in the early modern period. The work is divided into five chapters, not including a separate introduction and conclusion. The book includes a selected bibliography divided into primary sources of the first and second level, reference works, and secondary sources. The first level of primary sources consists of sources that constitute the foci of the case studies, and the second level includes the materials consulted by the protagonists of these case studies. The book also has a thorough index. The five chapters of the study consist of five elegantly constructed case studies. Each chapter begins with a narrow example of an early modern scholar, and then gradually expands in slowly growing circles to include other texts of the author and his sources, while firmly situating the flow of scientific information in its cultural, political, and sometimes theological context. The first chapter traces a flow of information and ideas between the worlds of Taqī al-Dīn and Tycho Brahe, both of whom were constructing instruments and developing methods for the observation of the comet of 1577. The work of Tycho Brahe has been understood as a break with the past, innovative in both ideas and methods, while Taqī al-Dīn has been understood as the last scholar of the Islamic golden age. Yet here, Ben-Zaken shows that Taqī al-Dīn was aware of European natural philosophy. He uses ‘Alā’ al-Dīn al-Mansūr’s Shāhinshāhnāma to explore the cultural underpinnings of Taqī al-Dīn’s work. Ben-Zaken finds ele- Book Reviews 185 ments in this Persian chronicle that represent the presence of some European technologies, both in text and in images. He demonstrates that scientific development between the worlds of Tycho Brache and Taqī al-Dīn was not separate; rather, these projects developed “dialectically” (p. 46). Both Ottoman and European scientists shared a conceptual basis for their scientific culture, using astronomy to predict apocalyptic disaster for their opponents and scanning the skies in search of omens of their own success. The second chapter, “Exchanging Heliocentrism for Ur-Text,” connects Copernican cosmology and radical Hebraism. Ben-Zaken follows the Italian scholar Pietro della Valle on his quest for an ur-text of the Book of Job. New developments in European natural philosophy sent scholars like della Valle searching for uncorrupted texts of the Hebrew scriptures. Della Valle’s quest brought him into deep contact with the Middle East, as he traveled through Constantinople, Egypt, Persia, and finally Goa. Aware of the theological debates that astronomical models and discoveries provoked, della Valle sought to recover this text in its pre–Second Temple Chaldean form. For della Valle and others, the ur-text of scripture could validate and augment the new cosmology. As Ben-Zaken wrote, “the reconciliation of Copernicanism with Holy Scripture involved a hermeneutic leap from accomodationism to radical Hebraism” (pp. 74–75). Chapter 3, “Transcending Time in the Scribal East,” explores the work of Joseph Solomon Delmedigo and particularly his Sefer Elim. Ben-Zaken contextualizes this work inside a world of text production and print culture. His discussion is informed by both the history of science and the history of the book, and it underscores the profound connections between the new cosmology and biblical hermeneutic: God revealed true knowledge of nature to Moses, and so the earliest manuscripts of the Hebrew scriptures must contain a revelation of natural philosophy. Ben-Zaken traces the development of Delmedigo’s scientific thought, tracking his travels in the eastern Mediterranean and his intellectual connections. His journeys took him to Constantinople, Cairo, and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as Eastern Europe, searching for what Ben-Zaken terms a corpus hebreicum (p. 78), which would reveal the Jewish source of the heliocentric understanding of the universe. Delmedigo’s distress over the lack of Jewish involvement in natural philosophy prompted, to some degree, his pursuits: Delmedigo blamed Jewish printers for the lack of Jewish involvement in the new astronomy because they focused on the oral law, preferring the Talmud and liturgical works to the Jewish philosophers. In essence, this preference for the oral law in printing “constituted a certain pragmatic 186 journal of world history, march 2012 censorship, which in turn created a break from ancient Jewish natural knowledge” (p. 86). Delmedigo’s promotion of Copernican astronomy led to his quest for understanding of the revelation of truth about the natural world that was given to Moses. Chapter 4, “Converting Measurements and Invoking the ‘Linguistic Leviathan,’” examines the career of Oxford professor John Greaves. Greaves’s professional career centered on debunking “radical” astronomy, particularly Copernican theories. Believing these new astronomies had arisen from the corruption and loss of ancient texts, Greaves sought to recover the nomenclature of the ancient scientists, and also to precisely translate ancient units of measure, hence to discover what Ben-Zaken terms the “Linguistic Leviathan,” a “primordial, divine language of words and units of measure that could be applied to descriptions of nature” (p. 105). This inspired his travels in the Near East to acquire manuscripts, during which Greaves entered into scholarly dialogue with Muslim astronomers. Ben-Zaken situates Greaves’s work within the intellectual world of James I’s court, connecting it to James’s reforms inside the English church. As James worked toward his goal of unification, promoting the Anglican Church as a return to primitive Christianity, his devotion to unification echoed in the scientific world (to Johannes Kepler, it seemed to mirror astronomical ideas of harmony in planetary motion: Kepler dedicated to James his Harmonices mundi). Greaves and other intellectuals of James’s court labored in an intellectual universe that was charged both politically and theologically. Patrons of astronomical works were motivated by political controversies. Greaves himself was supported inside a circle of Oxford scholars with the goal of aiding James’s goal for reform and unification through a return to ancient sources. The conflict between scholars of Greaves’s circle and those who took a Copernican view represented a conflict between royalist and parliamentarian sympathies, and this struggle had implications for scientific methodology. As Ben-Zaken summarizes, “The shift at Oxford from royalist to parliamentarian sympathies was also a shift in intellectual culture from a textually inclined deductive methodology to an experimental-inductive exploration of nature” (p. 133). The former, based on the works of the ancient world, required intense concentration on text and linguistics with an obvious home in the Near East, while the latter effectively removed natural philosophy from history. Chapter 5, “Exchanging Heavens and Hearts,” follows the Nouvelle théorie des planètes of Nöel Duret and its translation by the Ottoman scholar Ibrāhīm Efendi al-Zigetvari Tezkireci. This little-known work traveled from Richelieu’s court to Constantinople as it was exchanged Book Reviews 187 for Persian and Arabic manuscripts. In Constantinople, the work was translated by al-Zigetvari, who wrote a commentary upon it that was inspired by Sufism, and incorporated the understanding of astronomy into a mystical worldview. This chapter, yet again, serves to demonstrate the complexity of scientific exchange, fundamentally questioning a historiographical picture that contrasts a scientifically progressive Europe with a stagnating Islamic world. While this widely accepted narrative blames Islamic mysticism, which decried rationalistic explanations of God, for the decline in natural philosophy, Ben-Zaken shows that in fact, Sufism served as a “driving force for further exploration” (p. 161). Ben-Zaken’s concluding chapter, “From ‘Incommensurability of Cultures’ to Mutually Embraced Zones,” demonstrates that historiography, focused as it has been on European travel and European scientific development, has not paid enough attention to cross-cultural scientific exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean. These exchanges occurred through all sorts of means: the capture and sale, by pirates, of scholars; the European quest for ur-texts; traveling Sephardic Jews; academic travelers; and diplomatic networks. Acknowledging the extent and significance of cross-cultural scientific exchanges forces us to reevaluate commonly accepted historiographical narratives, including those about print culture, travel, and scribal culture, as well as the history of science and natural philosophy. Ben-Zaken’s work is fundamentally important for the history of early modern science. His well-argued case studies eloquently demonstrate the significance of cross-cultural exchange in early modern natural philosophy. The breadth of this study, geographically and in terms of methodology, constitutes an impressive achievement, infinitely expanding a traditional view of early modern science. Ben-Zaken shows that deep cultural studies of specific moments or developments in science have led to an insular view of European scientific superiority. The breadth of Ben-Zaken’s approach allows him to bring a new kind of depth to the subject: The author explores the intellectual universe of the scholars he presents here and contextualizes them not in a narrow sphere, but in the context of scientific, theological, and political thought in the eastern Mediterranean. By exploring their works, their influences, their projects, and their motivations, Ben-Zaken puts into question many commonly accepted narratives about scientific exchange and emerges instead with a rich tapestry of knowledge, exchange, and cross-cultural interaction. joanna carraway vitiello Rockhurst University