Shining light upon light Figure 1: Front covers of two recently
published books on the scientific legacy of the Islamic
tradition and its impact on modern science: Aladdin's Lamp: How
Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World by John
Freely (Knopf, 2009) and Science and Islam: A History by Ehsan
Masood (Icon Books, 2009). Note of the editor This article is
based on Yasmin Khan "Shining light upon light" published in
Nature, vol. 458, 12 March 2009, pp. 149-150;
doi:10.1038/458149a. See the article online at the website of
Nature: Full Text and PDF version. The article is a review of
Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the
Islamic World by John Freely (Alfred Knopf, 2009) and Science
and Islam: A History by Ehsan Masood (Icon Books, 2009). We
publish an extract from the original article (as allowed by
Nature graciously), with slight editorial changes, and add
further materials and resources. We thank Yasmin Khan and the
editorial board of Nature for allowing partial republishi