Science and Civilisation between Islam and Christianity

A translation of a seminal work by Muhammad Abduh.

This book is a translation of Muhammad Abduh’s Al-Islam wa-l-Nasraniyya maa al-Ilm wa-l-Madaniyya (Science and Civilization between Islam and Christianity). Abduh was an Egyptian jurist, religious scholar, theologian, and reformer of Al-Azhar—Egypt’s oldest university and a renowned seat of Islamic learning—who died in 1905. His impact on modern Islam cannot be overstated. In fact, much of modern Muslim thought has, in one way or another, been a reaction to his ideas. Although he is the subject of numerous English studies, only one treatise of his has been translated into English: Risalat al-tawhid (Theology of Unity) by Ishaq Masaad and Kenneth Cragg, in 1966.

Far too little attention has been paid to the treatise translated here and its impact on the Islamic theology of Christianity. This first English translation fills a serious gap in the genre of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations.