'Daniel A. Stolz's study on the history of astronomy in nineteenth-century Egypt is a piece of superb scholarship. It sheds new light on the questions of science and religion, history of science in a non-European context, and of how science changed during a period that saw the rise of new forms of scientific training, politics, techniques and readership.' Khaled Fahmy, Sultan Qaboos Chair of Modern Arabic Studies, University of Cambridge

'Pace the hallowed historiography of 'invented traditions', Daniel A. Stolz's fine-grained analysis shows how modernities contrapuntally were digested by traditions of knowing. In the 'scholarly astronomy' of the nineteenth-century Egyptian 'ulama' he discovers a living tradition of scientific practices that dynamically engaged with modern Western sciences. Firmly grounded in the archive and analyzed with aplomb, the book inaugurates an entirely new chapter in the historiography of science beyond the West.' Projit Bihari Mukharji, University of Pennsylvania

'This eloquent and deeply researched book shows how the technical apparatus and knowledge of modern sciences were drafted into projects of Islamic reform in late Ottoman Egypt around 1900. Science helped redefine communities of knowledge according to diverse and often conflicting geographies of empire and belief, while framing new horizons for historical understanding: practices of worship were modernized even as astronomy was recast within a centuries-old Islamic tradition. Engagingly written, sophisticated and fascinating, Stolz's book is an eye-opening read for historians of science, empire, and religion.' John Tresch, University of Pennsylvania