E132 | Alchemy has traditionally been understood as a pseudoscience or protoscience that eventually gave way to modern chemistry. Less often have the writings of alchemists been studied on their own terms. Yet, given the endurance and prolific nature of the alchemical traditions and the involvement of important figures of "modern science" such as Isaac Newton in the field of alchemy, a teleological understanding of the transition from alchemy to chemistry seems inadequate for discussing how science was practiced in the past. This may be particularly true for the Ottoman context, where a longstanding tradition of alchemy becomes subsumed under a larger narrative of the triumph of Western science during the nineteenth century. In this podcast, Tuna Artun explores the world of alchemy and discusses its transformation during the Ottoman period. - See more at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2013/12/alchemy-ottoman-empire.html#sthash.d8GWTykK.dpuf

Alchemy in the Ottoman World | Tuna Artun

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Samsa

Sarah Baldwin talks with Elias Muhanna [https://vivo.brown.edu/display/emuhanna] about an essay he wrote for the New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-new-history-of-arabia-written-in-stone] in May 2018 in which he describes recent advances in translating pre-Islamic Arabic texts. The conversation focuses on the groundbreaking translations of Muhanna's friend and colleague Ahmad Al-Jallad and how his work has changed our understanding of life on the Arabian peninsula before Islam.

Editing by Babette Thomas '19
Theme music composed by Henry Ross Bloomfield: www.heybloomfield.com

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E68_Elias%20Final%20mp3%20Bounce_mixdown.pdf]

Alchemy in the Ottoman World | Tuna Artun

Ottoman History Podcast

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