Galen famously composed a work entitled, "The Best Physician is also a Philosopher." Historians of medicine in Islamic societies have long pointed out how this sentiment reigned supreme during the formative period of Islamic societies (800–1100 CE) in which we find many philosopher-physicians, including towering stalwarts like Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (lat. Rhazes, d. c. 925) and Ibn Sīnā (lat. Avicenna, d. 1037). Yet, scholarship on the postclassical period has either not reckoned with how much medicine and philosophy remained intertwined in the postclassical period, or, in some cases, argued that medicine and philosophy parted ways in the later period, becoming either lowly craftsmen or (anti-philosophical) physician-jurists. In this presentation, using manuscripts of the vast literature on commentaries on Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine and its Epitome, I shall show that medicine and philosophy remained deeply intertwined in this period in Islamic societies from Herat to Istanbul. There were at times distinct networks of philosophical scholarly traditions with which well-known physicians and medical commentators were connected, and this is visible in the detailed examination of philosophical topics found within the medical commentaries, which themselves were the main reference works for learned, practicing physicians in these societies.

Since the 9th century, with the rise of pilgrimage and long-distance trade along the Silk Road, Islamic physicians such as Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, al-Ṭabarī, and al-Rāzī developed comprehensive health guides for travelers, forming a distinct genelogy within Islamic medical knowledge. In contrast, similar systematic medical knowledge is difficult to find in China sources. However, this does not imply a lack of relevant knowledge among Chinese travelers. For example, the Yuan dynasty dietary guide Yinshan Zhengyao describes a beverage made by frying butter, milk, and tea together. This recipe originated in Tibet and later spread widely among Mongols, Han and Hui communities in Noth China, giving rise to numerous regional variations. Youcha, in particular, became an essential provision for Han transporters on the steppe Silk Road, playing a crucial role in sustaining trade activities. In the Chinese knowledge system, although systematic travel healthcare texts were absent, such practical knowledge was intricately tied to the daily diet, and tea, the major commodity of the Silk Road.

In 1628, the first Chinese monograph on European mechanics, Yuanxi Qiqi Tushuo Luzhui (A Record of Illustrations and Descriptions of the Most Extraordinary Devices from the Far West, hereafter Qiqi Tushuo), was published. This work, translated and compiled by the Jesuit scientist Johann Terrenz (1576–1630) and Wang Zheng (1571–1644), was not merely a straightforward translation of a single text but was instead compiled from over ten European sources. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the structure of Qiqi Tushuo and its European sources, contending that while the content of the Chinese text was derived from Europe, it nonetheless presented a novel and unique system of mechanics. Furthermore, it examines the reasons behind the reconstruction of this mechanical system, asserting that the reconstruction was influenced by the distinct backgrounds and intentions of the two compliers. Through this case study, the authors of this paper investigate the mode and characteristics of the trans-cultural transmission of scientific knowledge between Europe and China in the 17th century.

Climes constitute a system that divides the inhabited world into horizontal strips or bands parallel to the equator. As a geographical idea and a cartographic scheme widely and continuously spread from ancient Greece and Iran to medieval Islamic world and the Latin West, has a complex history that extends to today. During the period of the Mongol conquest across Eurasia, many Islamic geographic authors, such as Hamd Allāh Mustawfī (circa. 1281-1344), pinpointed North and South China (Khitāy and Māchīn) and their cities with reference to climes. Many of the Persian scholars who travelled to China, such as Jamāl al Dīn or Zhamaluding, must have been familiar with the climes. Historians have even speculated that the grid mapping developed in China in the eleventh to fourteenth century might have had an impact on how Islamic cartographers presented the climes. But whether the Chinese in the same period had ever employed climes in their geography and cartography have remained unknown. This paper presents evidence showing that climes were present in Chinese geographical imagination in the Mongol period, and speculates on the possible sources of the idea for the Chinese. This adds another significant episode to the history of cultural exchanges between Islamic world and China during this period and potentially complicates our assessment of the adaptation of Islamic knowledge in China.