Promotional Information

A fascinating work of multi-cultural scholarship tracing the fortunes of a 12th century Arabic text in four eras of Western history. -- Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: The Pursuit of the Natural Self
1. Taming the Mystic: Marrakesh, 1160s
2. Climbing the Ladder of Philosophy: Barcelona, 1348
3. Defying Authority, Denying Predestination, and Conquering Nature: Florence, 1493
4. Employing the Self and Experimenting with Nature: Oxford, 1671
Conclusion: Sampling the History of Autodidacticism
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

About the Author

Avner Ben-Zaken is the chair of the humanities program at Ono College, Israel. He specializes in the cross-cultural history of science and is the author of Cross-Cultural Scientific Exchanges in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560-1660, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Reviews

This highly interesting volume can be described in three ways. First it is a historical analysis of the concept of autodidacticism. Second, it is the history of a particular book. Finally, the book is self-described as an exercise in interdisciplinarity... The method of this historiographic proposal is described as 'historical sampling,' whereby the appropriation of a text in various cultural contexts is displayed and compared. In all three of the abovementioned ways, the present reviewer judges the book to be a success. Moreover, it is written in such a lively style with rich detail that it is engrossing from start to finish. -- M. V. Dougherty Renaissance Quarterly Ben-Zaken sketches this backdrop to Hayy beautifully. -- Lydia Wilson Times Literary Supplement This engaging book is slight in size yet ambitious in scope and innovative in methodology... overall, this is a splendid and daring book! -- Peter Heath International Journal of Middle East Studies This book will inspire future scholars along three different paths. First,it encourages fuller development of the reception-history of Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan; second, it opens up new directions in the study of the wider themes of autodidacticism and experimental learning in the early modern world; and, finally, it illustrates a new, increasingly popular methodology in the practice of intellectual history that moves beyond the constraints of period, national literature, religious orientation, and even scholarly discipline to produce a thick description of the movement of ideas across time. This is an extraordinary accomplishment for a relatively slim monograph. -- Suzanne Conklin Akbari American Historical Review This is an impressive interdisciplinary achievement. -- Nicolai Sinai Journal of Islamic Studies A fascinating and deftly told story of the development of autodidacticism... This study opens an illuminating window to cross-cultural exchanges. -- Su Fang Ng Sixteenth Century Journal Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan is a mesmerizing study that will enchant anyone interested in interdisciplinary cross-cultural explorations that transform the way we look at the past and the present. -- Justin Grosslight The Arts Fuse This whirlwind tour through five centuries does an immense amount of work in presenting of both the text itself and four contexts of reception. Ben-Zaken's patient 'de-layering' of each generation's use of the text uncovers new readings of all-contexts - the original work and of its repeated translations. -- Lydia Wilson British Journal for the History of Science