EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH is Emeritus Professor of the History of Islamic Science at the University of Oxford. SIMON SWAIN is Professor of Classics and Greco-Arabic at the University of Warwick.
Pleasing all people is an impossible goal, but do not worry about the anger of those who are pleased with tyranny. -- Aristotle There is much to know, but life is short. Take the knowledge that you can achieve, from little to more. -- Hippocrates