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11 - Scientific Exchange

from Volume I Part 2 - Thematic Histories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

By
Morris Rossabi  and
Robert G. Morrison
Edited by
Michal Biran  and
Hodong Kim
Michal Biran
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hodong Kim
Affiliation:
Seoul National University
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Summary

The Mongols facilitated a great deal of Sino-Islamic scientific exchange. Though scholars patronized by the Mongols learned a great deal about developments on the other side of the Mongol realms, science from China did not affect the theoretical foundations of science in Iran, nor vice versa. Rather, materia medica and co-operation in observational astronomy endured. The western Mongol realms also greeted scholars from Europe and from the Islamic west. The Mongols were principally interested in specific benefits accruing to them from scientific exchanges. Thus they welcomed information about medicine, mapmaking, astronomy, and astrology, and supported exchanges in these fields.

Keywords

astronomymedicineIlkhanidsYuanmapsQubilaiRashīd al-Dīnpharmacyscientific exchange under the Mongols
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Chapter
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The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire , pp. 550 - 574
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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