Islamic Philosophy and Evolution

In Western biology education, it is not commonly taught that long before Darwin's others had similar ideas to not only evolution, but even natural selection. So provided here are resources for those looking to add this often overlooked part of history to their syllabi.

• Malik, A. H., Ziermann, J. M., & Diogo, R. (2018). An untold story in biology: the historical continuity of evolutionary ideas of Muslim scholars from the 8th century to Darwin’s time. Journal of Biological Education, 52(1), 3-17. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00219266.2016.1268190?journalCode=rjbe20
• The Encyclopædia Iranica - Evolution, https://iranicaonline.org/articles/evolution
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Evolutionary Thought Before Darwin, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolution-before-darwin/#SpecPermChanAnti
• What Does Islamic Philosophy Teach About Evolution? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktq96gwOn8s&ab_channel=MadeInTurkey
• Finally, a paper critical of this interpretation, instead claiming authors were writing about the Great Chain of Being: Malik, S. A. (2019). Old Texts, New Masks: A Critical Review of Misreading Evolution Onto Historical Islamic Texts. Zygon, 54(2), 501-522.

Wikimedia Commons, Islamic illustration of Aristotle teaching a student, c. 1220 - حوار الأبدان داخل الأذهان ​