The Emergence of Scientific Modernity in Iran: Controversies Surrounding Astrology and Modern Astronomy in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Abstract

In a sense, the history of science deals with the creation and development of scientific ideas and theories concerning scientific discoveries or even failures. Its focus is on scientific discovery and its forerunners, and it generally ignores areas where two methodologically divergent and geographically separate scientific traditions clash, especially when no new discoveries have resulted therefrom.One such area is the clash between modern European and traditional Islamic sciences. For this reason, the introduction of modern science into the Islamic world and its challenge to traditional scholars has not attracted the attention of historians of science either from within or without. Books on the history of science dealing with the Islamic world, and more particularly with Iran, rarely cover the field beyond medieval times, thus showing a tangible research deficit.