Emilie Savage-Smith (born 20 August 1941) is an American-British

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient history, ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural science, natural, social science, social, and formal science, formal. Pr ...

known for her work on

science in the medieval Islamic world Science in the medieval Islamic world was the science developed and practised during the Islamic Golden Age under the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad, the Caliphate of Córdoba, Umayyads of Córdoba, Spain, Córdoba, the Abbadid dynasty, Abbadids ...

and

medicine in the medieval Islamic world In the history of medicine, "Islamic medicine", also known as "Arabian medicine" is the Science in the medieval Islamic world, science of medicine developed in the Middle East, and usually written in Arabic language, Arabic, the ''lingua franca ...

Education and career

Savage-Smith was born on 20 August 1941, in the US, and became a

dual citizen Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

of the UK and US in 2003. She was an undergraduate at

DePauw University DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...

, graduating in 1962, and completed her Ph.D. in 1969 at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. Her doctoral dissertation, ''Galen on Nerves, Veins and Arteries'', was a

critical edition Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range i ...

of book 16 of

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

's '' De usu partium corporis humani'', including a translation from the Arabic edition of

Hunayn ibn Ishaq Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (808–873; also Hunain or Hunein; ; ; known in Latin as Johannitius) was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked w ...

. She is retired as Professor of the History of Islamic Science at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, where she continues to be Fellow Archivist of

St Cross College, Oxford St Cross College, known colloquially as StX, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1965, St Cross is a graduate college with gothic and traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles', just sou ...

and a senior research consultant for the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

. She is the president of the Society for the History of Medieval Technology and Science. Before moving to the Oriental Institute at the University of Oxford she was a researcher at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, in the Gustave E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies and in the Medical History Division of the Department of Anatomy.

Books

Savage-Smith is the author or coauthor of: *''Lost Maps of the Caliphs: Drawing the World in Eleventh-Century Cairo'' (with Yossef Rapoport, University of Chicago Press, 2018) *''Medieval Islamic Medicine'' (with Peter E. Pormann, Edinburgh University Press, 2007) *''Medieval Views of the Cosmos'' (with

Evelyn Edson Evelyn Edson (born November 28, 1940, in Oklahoma City) is an author, medievalist, and professor emerita of history. She is known for her three books on the history of cartography. Biography She graduated in 1962 with a B.A. from Swarthmore Coll ...

, Bodleian Library, 2004) *''Islamicate Celestial Globes: Their History, Construction, and Use'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985) *''Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory Device'' (with M. B. Smith, Undena Press, 1980) Additionally, she has contributed as an editor or translator to multiple other books including critical editions of works from the medieval Islamic world,

edited volume Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

s, and catalogues of collections.

Recognition

Savage-Smith was named a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 2010. She became a corresponding fellow of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

in 2020. In 2014, DePauw University gave her an honorary doctorate. In 2016, the Scientific Instrument Society chose Savage-Smith as their Gerard Turner Memorial Lecturer and gave her the Turner Medal. A workshop in honour of her career and contributions to the history of Islamic science, ''Health, Magic and Stars: Workshop on the history of Islamic science'', was held at Oxford in 2019. Her book ''Medieval Islamic Medicine'' was one of three 2008 winners of the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize.

References

External links

Home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage-Smith, Emilie Living people 20th-century American historians American women historians British women historians American historians of science DePauw University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Academics of the University of Oxford Fellows of St Cross College, Oxford Fellows of the British Academy 1941 births 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century British historians Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom American emigrants to England Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America