Religion and Science in Medieval Iran

FAIN: FT-52973-04

Robert Gordon Morrison
Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA 99362-2067)

I am working on a book-length intellectual biography of the Persian scientist, Qur’an commentator, and mystic Nizam al-Din al-Nisaburi (d. c. 1330 C. E.). Nisaburi is a fascinating subject for an intellectual biography because of his situation at the apex of important movements in both medieval scientific and Islamic thought. While Nisaburi was a respected religious scholar informed by Islamic theology, he likely wrote as one more committed to scientific investigation than religious scholars who lacked his lengthy and specialized training in science.