A. I. Sabra

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Abdelhamid I. Sabra is a retired professor of the history of science specializing in the history of science in the Islamic World and the history of optics.

Sabra received his undergraduate degree at the University of Alexandria, then studied philosophy of science with Karl Popper at the University of London, where he received a Ph.D. in 1955 for a thesis on optics in the 17th century. He taught at the University of Alexandria 1955-62, at the Warburg Institute 1962-72, and at Harvard University from 1972 until he retired in 1996.

In his article on "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam," he argued, against the theories of Pierre Duhem, that Islamic cultures did not passively receive and preserve ancient Greek science, but actively "appropriated" and modified it. His theory of appropriation in the transmission of science between cultures is sometimes known informally as the "Sabra thesis."

In 2005 he was awarded the Sarton Medal for lifetime achievement in the history of science by the History of Science Society.

[edit] Select publications

1954. "A Note on a Suggested Modification of Newton's Corpuscular Theory of Light to Reconcile it with Foucault's Experiment of 1850." British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 5, pp. 149-51.
1967, 1981. Theories of Light from Descartes to Newton.
1984. "The Andalusian Revolt Against Ptolemaic Astronomy: Averroes and al-Bitrûjî." Pp. 233-53 in Everett Mendelsohn, ed. Transformation and Tradition in the Sciences: Essays in honor of I. Bernard Cohen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
1987. "The Appropriation and Subsequent Naturalization of Greek Science in Medieval Islam." History of Science 25, pp. 223-43.
1996. "Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence," Isis, 87, pp. 654-670.