Science in the Medieval World: "Book of the Categories of Nations"

During the Middle Ages, a thriving center for learning and research was Muslim Spain, where students gathered to consult Arabic manuscripts of earlier scientific works and study with famous teachers. One of these teachers was Said al-Andalusi (Said of Andalusia), who in 1068 wrote Kitab Tabaqat al-Umam, or "Book of the Categories of Nations," which recorded the contributions to science of all known nations. Today, it is one of few surviving medieval Spanish Muslim texts and is here translated into English for the first time.
Science, as used by Said and other scholars of that period, is a broad term covering virtually all aspects of human knowledge--philosophy, religion, political science, geometry, mathematics, natural sciences, the arts, poetry, geography, climate, languages, and human behavior. After initial discussions of the categories of nations that did or did not cultivate the sciences, Said discusses the specific contributions of nine nations or peoples--India, Persia, Chaldea, Greece, Rome, Egypt, the Arab Orient, al-Andulus, and the Hebrews. He includes the names of many individual scientists and scholars and details their various contributions to knowledge, making his book a significant work of reference as well as history.
One of the earliest comprehensive essays on the history of science, "The Book of the Categories of Nations" opens a unique window on European learning during the Middle Ages.