Brigham Young University

Faculty Member, History

Assistant Professor

Thesis Title: Galen’s “Critical Days”: Greek Medicine in Arabic. Edition, translation, and historical commentary of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Arabic version of Galen’s De diebus decretoriis (Soon to appear in Book form)

About

RESEARCH and TEACHING INTERESTS

Middle Eastern, Byzantine, and History of Science

Ph.D. Columbia University, History of Islamic Science

Current work: Galen's "Critical Days" (De diebus decretoriis) in the Arabic and Greek traditions (Ashgate, forthcoming, 2 vols.)

History of Medical Astrology

Transmission of Science from Greek to Arabic to Latin

The Science of the "Alexiad"

Professor Cooper studies the legacy and spread of Hellenism, especially in and through Islam and Byzantium, to Medieval Europe the Renaissance West. His speciality in graduate school was the history of science and medicine in the Hellenistic and Early Medieval Mediterranean and Middle East. Since then he has acquired expertise in the history of medical prognosis, astrology, and divination in the Greek and Greek-inspired traditions. He is currently completing a two-volume edition and study of Galen's (d.216 AD) treatise on medical astrology in the Greek and Arabic traditions, the De diebus decretoriis (“Critical Days”). He is gearing up for another book, which will cover either medieval Latin medical astrology in the Galenic tradition, or the concept of natural harmony in Hellenistic and Arabic science.

Professor Cooper's education has included reading philosophy at Oxford as a visiting scholar and studying Persian at Dushambe University, Tajikistan. He was awarded a B.A. in mathematical physics from BYU, and an M.A., M.Phil. and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he was a National Science Foundation graduate fellow. At BYU he was a consultant to the Museum of Art Empire of the Sultans exhibit. He was Directing Editor of the Graeco-Arabic Sciences and Philosophy series at BYU, 1999-2003.

Contact Information