VCUarts Qatar professor’s book focuses on science fiction in Islam
The merits of working and studying in Qatar Foundation’s (QF) Education City (EC) is being driven home by the publication of a book written by a Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) faculty member in collaboration with student research assistants from five universities.
Dr Jörg Matthias Determann, an associate professor of history at VCUarts Qatar, worked with students from other universities within EC, such as Georgetown University in Qatar (GUQ), Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), UCL Qatar, VCUarts Qatar and Hamad Bin
Khalifa University (HBKU).
The book titled ‘Islam, Science and Extraterrestrial Life: The Culture of Astrobiology in the Muslim World’, was published by I B Tauris, an imprint of Bloomsbury, this week.
The research assistants – Linda binti Ridzuan Chun (GU-Q), Anusheh Zaman (UCL-Qatar), Irfan Batur (HBKU), Mosammat Samiha Sadeka (CMU-Q), and Shima Aeinehdar and Maphuza Akter (VCUarts Qatar) – were hired through VCUarts Qatar’s Student Employment Programme. Additionally, Dr Determann was supported in his research by Walli Ullah from GU-Q, who volunteered his services and expertise towards the project.
Dr Determann’s book focuses on a topic that has often been overlooked – science fiction in Islam and the Muslim world.
“If you compare genres of literature across the globe, you will notice that writings on science fiction are sparse,” says the VCUarts Qatar faculty member. “And even when a literary study is published, more often than not, it is on Western science fiction.”
The historian says that though Arabic science fiction has always been, and is, flourishing, misconceptions exist.
“Western commentators and media tend to assume that the Arabic speaking world is too traditional and conservative to create science fiction,” he says. “But the truth is to the contrary; the same zeal, creativity, literary prowess and spirit of inquiry that drove Arabs to put forward numerous inventions, discoveries and concepts, in the past, continue to produce science fiction that appeal to different audiences, in the present”.
The academician notes how, despite the enormous scientific contributions made by Arab civilization to mankind, the prevalence – and popularity – of science fiction in the Arab world hasn’t been recognised.
In fact, not many sci-fi fans know that Islamic civilization contributed one of the earliest science fiction novels, Awaj bin Anfaq, by the 13th-century Baghdad-based writer and physician, Zakariya al-Qazwini.
Dr Determan explains how exploring the sheer breadth of science fiction in the Muslim world necessitated a research team drawn from various nationalities – and that’s where the advantage of working in a multi-university campus, became apparent.
“While this is not the first time that I’ve written a book, it certainly is a first for me in terms of such an extensive cross-campus collaboration,” he says. “To have students from five different universities – and countries – research and collaborate on a topic that has cultural, scientific and literary implications is something that was made possible only because of the uniqueness of Qatar Foundation’s Education City model.”
“These student researchers from Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey provided valuable input; they were able to detect social, political, cultural or psychological subtleties that lie hidden in the science fiction of their respective countries – something that I would not have been able to pick up,” he added.