The Flying Man: Aristotle, And The Philosophers Of The Golden Age Of Islam: Their Relevance Today by Akbar Ahmed

In-store location: Shelf 4.18

By Akbar Ahmed, Amana Publications, Hardback, 128 pages

Akbar Ahmed introduces the "Islamic Golden Age," roughly the 9th through 13th centuries, through some key Muslim personalities, Philosophy then (not now) entailed astronomy, mathematics, medicine, Islamic theology, and several other disciplines.

He introduces Ibn Sina, Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, & Ibn Arabi, and then shows their important later influence on the West through Maimonides and St Thomas Aquinas. Ahmed shows how Islam and the advancement of society can go hand-in-hand, perhaps by learning from the methodology & teachings of these luminaries.

About the author:

Ambassador Akbar S. Ahmed is an anthropologist, Islamic scholar, poet, playwright, and filmmaker described as the ‘world’s leading authority on contemporary Islam’ by the BBC. He currently holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, DC, and previously taught at Cambridge, Princeton, and Harvard universities.

He was formerly the Pakistani High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland. His “Jinnah Quartet” included the feature film Jinnah, documentary, academic book, and a graphic novel on Mr. Jinnah. For Brookings Press, he completed four books on the relationship between the West and the Muslim world, two accompanied by films, and is working on The Mingling of the Oceans: How Civilizations Can Live Together.