Master's Thesis

It's been drafted, revised, and resubmitted! Now I am waiting to defend it later in the week. I am so ready for this semester to be finished, lol!!!

Virginia Review of Asian Studies 2010

I am officially published! Please click here to go to the latest volume of VRAS (an annual publication). Once there, click on "Scholarly Notes" and look for the article by Julie Hayes (that's me).

Thesis: Chapter 3 (old 4)

What a day! I spent many hours today doing some final readings, answering some questions from my prof within my Chapter, and making sure all of my footnotes were also listed in the Works Cited page! I am not sure how I feel about this chapter yet as I feel it needs at least a gazillion more pages, LOL. What can I say? I am my own harshest critic. Now I will turn my attention to the Introduction chapter and the Concluding chapter while I await a response/feedback on Chapter 3.

I have also made some preliminary changes to the blog, but I won't put them in place for at least a month as it is not as important as finishing my thesis on time. Stay tuned...

Two months remain…

Well, it’s nearing an end. There are only two months left in this semester and I am clearly a bit unfocused. I am almost finished writing Chapter 4 (which is now Chapter 3) and then I need to finish the Intro and the Concluding chapters. Whew! This sure has been an experience. There have been good days and bad. I have new ideas for further/future research endeavors. Now, if only I can make myself sit still and finish the task at hand, lol!

Seriously though. I have a few questions to answer within my document that were recently posed to me by my prof. He really makes me think…that there is much more research to be done, lol! ;D







Once my Thesis is turned in, I plan to update this blog space a bit with more sources, both book and electronic. Stay tuned for changes!

Almost there...

I am almost finished writing the draft of my MA Thesis. I have a couple more pages in Chapter 3 (old 4), the concluding chapter, and finishing up the Intro. Then I will put it all in the proper format and submit! I am sure there will be some rewriting/revising to come, but I am so excited to be almost there!!!

Andalusian Scientists

I am stuck on Chapter 4 of my thesis. The motivation is slowly building, so I am forcing myself to devote this weekend to it as much as possible. I have classical on in the background (Music Choice Channel 440 via Bright House Cable). It’s a relaxing way to research and write for me personally. A good friend of mine prefers jazz. I tried. It’s just a little too upbeat for what I am doing. But I do love me some great jazz otherwise!

Anyway, I am currently gathering notes on Andalusian scientists. In my preliminary research for this chapter, I found some scientists/scholars that looked promising, although not necessarily from Andalusia. BTW, did you know that Andalus is Arabic for “land of the vandals”? I didn’t until beginning the chapter. Very cool! I digress…

There are several scholars of varying importance to Andalusia during the Middle Ages. The few that I have come across so far are:

Abu Ishaq Ibrahim an-Naqqash, aka al-Zarqali or Azarquiel. His name is derived from the Arabic term for “blue” or “the blue-eyed one” – zarqa. I wonder if that means he had blue eyes? I guess my research will guide me to his vitals.

Ibn Mu-adh al-Jayyani (spherical trigonometry)

Maslama ibn Ahmad al-Majriti (mercuric oxide or HgO)

As I discover more, I will add to this post.

I also found that Alfonse X "The Wise" founded a school for translators called The Translators School of Toledo. I am planning to incorporate this into Chapter 4 as it pertains to the translation movement in the West. 

Gerard of Cremona

My final semester has officially begun although I have been doing a little reading and article search for a couple of weeks now. I am still working my way through the Scott L. Montgomery book, Science in Translation. I am only reading one chapter for the purposes of this study, but it is a long chapter and full of information! It's almost a little overwhelming, but I will get through it. As always, I am making notes on what I am reading and highlighting certain passages that I need to research a bit more or plan to quote in my thesis. Don't get me wrong though. I think this is a great book so far! It was actually one that I checked out from the USF Library last semester and decided to purchase a copy for myself. :D


I am also going to be re-reading/skimming through Jonathan Lyons' The House of Wisdom as it is pertinent to Chapter 4 of my Thesis more than any of the other chapters. 

I am in the process of narrowing down my list a bit of the scientists/translators I will focus on for this chapter. Gerard of Cremona is definitely on my "Yes" list! He was probably one of the more important translators and has been compared to Hunayn in method of translation. According to Scott L. Montgomery, "the tremendous contribution [Gerard] made to the Western intellectual tradition...was based on bringing into medieval Latin a large portion of the Arabic-Indian-Persian-Greek synthesis in science..." (p155). I think this is an important point in moving from the Eastern translation movement into the Western as we have to think in terms of what the Arabs brought to the Middle East and it's spread westward from there.

As I have on previous posts, I want to include a picture of Gerard of Cremona, but I am unable to find one. I will keep looking as time permits...