Talk:Al-Karaji

Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Karkhi - an Arab Mathematician

A great Arab mathematician who was born in Karkh, a suburb of baghdad. The name Al-Karkhi is used in older texts, so its more likely he was called al-karkhi and not al-karaji. It is not disputed that he lived most of his life in Baghdad(Iraq)- an Arab city- and during this time he wrote his three major works, Al-Badi' fi'l-hisab ("Wonderful on calculation"), Al-Fakhri fi'l-jabr wa'l-muqabala ("Glorious on algebra"), and Al-Kafi fi'l-hisab ("Sufficient on calculation").

Because of the large numbers of Nationalist Iranians in wikipedia, this info is likely to be deleted away in the main article. Thats why, I choose to post this Info here, where its protected from deletion. For more neutral info, please read the following articles:

• Islamic Mathematics and Mathematicians - http://www.math.tamu.edu/~dallen/masters/islamic/arab.pdf

By G. Donald Allen, Professor Director of Technology Assisted Instruction, Department of Mathematics Texas A&M University

• Al-Karkhi Bigography - http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Al-Karaji.html

By J J O'Connor and E F Robertson, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland

• The History of the Binomial Coefficients in the Middle East - http://binomial.csuhayward.edu/MidEast.html

Petkovšek, Wilf, Zeilberger; A.W.F. Edwards; Graham, Knuth, Patashnik; Richard Stanley; A.W.F. Edwards; Benjamin and Quinn; Roger B. Nelsen.

Jidan 18:00, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

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Actually Jidan, the very source you posted above from McMaster uses the word Karaji, not Karkhi. And it says:

"The significance is that Karaj is a city in Iran and if the mathematician's name is al-Karaji then certainly his family were from that city. Historians seem divided as to which of these interpretations (karaji or Karkhi) is correct...but al-Karaji, the version which is most often used in texts today, was suggested as most likely by della Vida in 1933." Also supported by:

• • Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970-1990).
  • R Rashed, The development of Arabic mathematics : between arithmetic and algebra (London, 1994).

Merely living in baghdad is not a reason for being Arab. Otherwise we'd apply the same reasoning to Khwarazmi.

And besides, living in Baghdad is not synonymous to being Arab. Baghdad itself was designed by Persians anyway. The Lingua Franca was merely Arabic. Like New York today.

Not to mention that the same source says: "However, at some later point in his career, al-Karaji left Baghdad to live in what are described as the "mountain countries". And where do you think that means?--Zereshk 20:58, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

POV

We need Persian sources on him, not Greek and Arab --Kash 18:18, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

References

The standard approach is to place references at the end ("There are two basic formats for external links. The most common is to add a list of external links at the end of an article. Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article. The standard format for these is to have a level 2 header (i.e. == Header ==) named "External links" followed by a bullet list of links." Wikipedia:External links); reverting that change with the misleading edit summary "don't remove references" isn't acceptable (especially when it includes a blind revert of other edits, such as tidying of the format of other references).

The second, less common, form is to embed the links in the text. Southern Comfort has done neither, but has used the less appropriate method of references. If there's a good reason for using anything other than the usual form, could the reasons be given here? --Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 21:55, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Al-Karaji is Persian

Numerous authoritative sources have been cited that Al-Karaji is Persian. Please don't replace Persian with Islamic, if you want to be "comprehensive and accurate". --ManiF 05:12, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

If he was born near Baghdad he was probably not Persian, and I don't see any evidence refuting the claim that he was born in Karkh. Since it's not clear if he was Arab or Persian, it's better to just call him a Muslim mathematician. Aucaman^Talk 05:22, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Read the published sources provided, he was born in Karaj and was defiantly a Persian. --ManiF 05:30, 7 April 2006 (UTC)